Recipe Weekend: Louisiana Healing Garden: Medicinal Plants for a Sustainable Future by Corinne Martin

     Disclosure / Disclaimer: I received this ebook, free of charge, from Level Best Books, via #edelweissplus, for review purposes on this blog. No other compensation, monetary or in kind, has been received or implied for this post. Nor was I told how to post about it. All opinions are my own

Louisiana Healing Garden offers a guide to the medicinal properties of everyday plants such as crape myrtle, gardenia, and sweet olive, encouraging readers to learn about these plants and their uses while maintaining a healthy ecological balance in their home spaces.

Synopsis:

In this follow-up to Louisiana Herb Journal, herbalist Corinne Martin continues her exploration of Louisiana’s plants and their capacity to provide healing in a time of unprecedented change and uncertainty. Louisiana Healing Garden is an herb book, a garden guide, and an introduction to the web of wild lives that make up our home state. Featuring fifty medicinal herbs, the book invites readers to participate in what Catholic priest and ecologist Thomas Berry called “the Great Work” of finding ways to live that benefit both humans and the places we inhabit.

As the state struggles with increasingly severe storms, land subsidence, rising waters, saltwater intrusion, and the loss of iconic trees, Martin suggests that the recognition and careful use of medicinal plants may help to stabilize at-risk species and areas, reduce the use of toxic applications on aggressive weeds, and support everyday health. Throughout the book, she offers personal reflections on her experiences of finding the herbs and poignant commentaries on some of the gifts and challenges of living in Louisiana.

Each herb listing includes plant identification features, habitat, distribution, medicinal properties, risks, and preparation methods. Martin also shares cultivation tips to aid home gardeners who are introducing healing plants into their landscapes. As she notes, this is not just an herb book. It’s an invitation into a place that is complex, wide, shifting, old, and ever new. With Louisiana Healing Garden as a guide, we can awaken to the many small gifts that surround us, shore up our health, and help to support positive changes in the places we call home.

Review:

From the Native Americans, to the Creoles, to the Cajuns, each of the cultures that made Louisiana home, found use for its native flora and fauna. With 50 herbs (Wild Onion), flowers (Cardinal Flower), trees (Bald Cypress), to fruit (Hackberries)- the full spectrum of Louisiana's native plants are presented in this book. Corrine gives the reader a picture, then story about how the plant has been in her life, then a brief telling of the plant's uses. She then gets into specifics, with info about the plants habitat and cultivation, uses and risks, and more. Some plants have recipes included for tinctures, salads, etc. She also gives you really good info about the different native varieties of each plant and how they differ. She also includes a handy guide to harvesting and making items with the herbs, before getting into them individually. A handy glossary at the end will help for words you may not be familiar with in the book! Overall it's a great guide to give to the gardener in your life, or for anyone looking to get into using various plants, besides herbs, for homeopathic uses.

About the Author:

Corinne Martin is a clinical herbalist and amateur naturalist who has worked with medicinal plants for more than forty years. A retired instructor of holistic and integrative health, she has a passionate love for nature and for the lush and threatened environment of her home ground of Louisiana. She is the author of Louisiana Herb Journal