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Stalking the Healthful Herbs
Describes the characteristics and uses of wild herbs, and recounts the author's experiences exploring nature.
Stalking the Healthful Herbs
Gibbons, Euell/ Rose, Raymond W. (ILT)
Alan C Hood & Co
Publication 1966/01/01
Number of 301
Binding PAPERBACK
Library of 89007617
Stalking the Healthful Herbs
Gibbons, Euell/ Rose, Raymond W. (ILT)
Alan C Hood & Co
Publication 1966/01/01
Number of 301
Binding PAPERBACK
Library of 89007617
301 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1966
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661 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
March 31, 2019
I bought this book randomly at an antique book fair at The Old Stone House in December 2018, and I didn’t have any particular expectations. I simply hoped to learn something about herbs.
Little did I know, I had found the book I would read before bed - with delight - for the next four months.
Amidst an overly busy world and life, Euell Gibbons’ voice and persona dripped out steadily like a comforting tonic. A sort of avuncular, honest, folksy tone comes through with humor - but also a childlike sense of wonder and a deep, genuine curiosity mixed with a healthy dose of imagination. And just enough scientific and critical thought gets woven jn to balance things out. In a few places, it’s clear he’s seeing the world through the lens of a 1960s perch. But overall, it was like having your great uncle tell intriguing stories around the kitchen table.
And that’s not even touching on the subject matter itself. It’s interesting stuff. Crucially, the book touches on herbal remedies (like jewelweed to fight poison ivy!) but really dives in with gusto when it comes to foraging for wild foods that are simply delicious to eat (nettles, violets, etc.). It was truly fun to find out that everyday weed and ditch plants have edible preparations. And often hilarious to read of Gibbon’s persistent attempts to wring something edible and tasty out of a plant he just doesn’t want to give up on (aging the root of jack-in-the-pulpit for more than five months to make it palatable).
The book also surveys and draws on a strangely wide range of sources to try to arrive at a general assessment of a given plants medicinal and culinary uses. Ancient texts, herbals, Native American uses from the author’s own childhood in the West (smoking mullein for respiratory complaints), Pennsylvania Dutch customs of the author’s neighbors in the 1960s (like catnip tea), and a boatload of hard-earned experience accumulated directly by the author himself.
Taking it all together, this book racked up 5 stars in my book (it certainly may not be everyone’s cup of dock root tea). I learned a great deal, I laughed out loud, I began to think of ways to change my own food habits, and I felt somehow as if I had made a friend.
Little did I know, I had found the book I would read before bed - with delight - for the next four months.
Amidst an overly busy world and life, Euell Gibbons’ voice and persona dripped out steadily like a comforting tonic. A sort of avuncular, honest, folksy tone comes through with humor - but also a childlike sense of wonder and a deep, genuine curiosity mixed with a healthy dose of imagination. And just enough scientific and critical thought gets woven jn to balance things out. In a few places, it’s clear he’s seeing the world through the lens of a 1960s perch. But overall, it was like having your great uncle tell intriguing stories around the kitchen table.
And that’s not even touching on the subject matter itself. It’s interesting stuff. Crucially, the book touches on herbal remedies (like jewelweed to fight poison ivy!) but really dives in with gusto when it comes to foraging for wild foods that are simply delicious to eat (nettles, violets, etc.). It was truly fun to find out that everyday weed and ditch plants have edible preparations. And often hilarious to read of Gibbon’s persistent attempts to wring something edible and tasty out of a plant he just doesn’t want to give up on (aging the root of jack-in-the-pulpit for more than five months to make it palatable).
The book also surveys and draws on a strangely wide range of sources to try to arrive at a general assessment of a given plants medicinal and culinary uses. Ancient texts, herbals, Native American uses from the author’s own childhood in the West (smoking mullein for respiratory complaints), Pennsylvania Dutch customs of the author’s neighbors in the 1960s (like catnip tea), and a boatload of hard-earned experience accumulated directly by the author himself.
Taking it all together, this book racked up 5 stars in my book (it certainly may not be everyone’s cup of dock root tea). I learned a great deal, I laughed out loud, I began to think of ways to change my own food habits, and I felt somehow as if I had made a friend.
May 7, 2018
This is an older book without ID sketches or other features that could be really helpful and it's not an end-all guide to medicinal wild plants at all. Indeed, Gibbons got a lot of his information simply from reading through many old books (often going back many centuries) and compiling what those authors said.
That said, he also went to unbelievable lengths to try to learn as much as he could about these plants and the book is full of his endless experiments. He also hired a lab to actually test the vitamins and minerals of many wild plants that had been previously unknown, showing the amazingly high nutrients in many of the "weeds" we eradicate when we grow and eat lesser herbs and greens.
What really makes this book a treasure is Gibbon's delightful voice, though. He truly loved eating and learning about wild plants, throwing his "wild parties" for friends and educating the world about wild plants at a time when most people had abandoned them and were eating things from boxes. He is such fun to read, and his books inspire that sort of delight and curiosity in me every time I read them. I'm so glad to have finally taken the time to read this one, and I can't wait to start my own studies on the herbs he wrote about.
That said, he also went to unbelievable lengths to try to learn as much as he could about these plants and the book is full of his endless experiments. He also hired a lab to actually test the vitamins and minerals of many wild plants that had been previously unknown, showing the amazingly high nutrients in many of the "weeds" we eradicate when we grow and eat lesser herbs and greens.
What really makes this book a treasure is Gibbon's delightful voice, though. He truly loved eating and learning about wild plants, throwing his "wild parties" for friends and educating the world about wild plants at a time when most people had abandoned them and were eating things from boxes. He is such fun to read, and his books inspire that sort of delight and curiosity in me every time I read them. I'm so glad to have finally taken the time to read this one, and I can't wait to start my own studies on the herbs he wrote about.
January 16, 2022
What a wonderful book! I have the "field guide edition," which I believe is identical to the regular edition except for its tough waterproof cover. Many of the plants Euell describes are found in the American Midwest, South, and East coast areas, so I was a little disappointed as a Northwest coast resident that perhaps half of the species he uses are inaccessible to me. Still, it's very entertaining to read Euell's anecdotes and experiments with making wild food and medicine, whether you intend to follow in his footsteps or not. (I especially appreciate that he documents his failures, letting you know which wild food products are simply not worth the effort or taste terrible to a modern palate!) Some of my favorite chapters (these plants grow near Seattle): Borage, Blue Violet, Wild Mints, Catnip, the Stinging Nettle, How to Eat a Rose, Chickweed, Marvelous Mallows, Curled Dock, and Skunk-cabbage (note that this last wild food requires lengthy preparation to make it edible!)
July 13, 2022
Gibbons's casual & conversational tone reads like talking with a sweet friend who wants the best for you. Anybody interested in alternative cooking or incorporating more herbal medicine into their diet/lifestyle would benefit from giving Stalking the Healthful Herbs a chance to teach them something new. Dense with unique ideas, knowledge, and funny stories sandwiched in between.
February 14, 2024
Bad 👎. Really hokey writing and bad outdated info.
March 22, 2023
Stalking the Wild Asparagus, Stalking the Healthful Herbs, and Stalking the Blue-Eyed Scallop. Part inspiration, part identification, part cookbook. Full of wit and wisdom. Essential reference works.
May 22, 2010
my bible
January 14, 2011
This DOES NOT read like an encyclopedia, but rather, like prose. I'm going to try making the pine cough syrup from the trees in my backyard.
May 30, 2011
A wonderful book. Humorous. A holistic/green outlook way before it was cool. He tested his recipes and talks about his successes and his failures. Nutrition charts, histories and more.
July 30, 2018
A popular book when I was a young person living in the bush. This and ..The Wild Asparagus were handbooks and guides for foraging folks, although mostly we just picked berries.
February 19, 2008
Lots of fun if you like to walk around in the woods!
March 22, 2013
Good read. Provides plant description and recipes.
February 4, 2016
Great resource for a new forager
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews