Paul Huson - Mastering Herbalism: A Practical Guide

Praise for Mastering Herbalism

Presents rational advice on growing herbs, levelheaded chapters on herbs for longevity and herbs for love potions. One of the strongest points is the consumer-oriented listing of where to buy or order herbs in the U.S. and the United Kingdom.... Paul Huson is able to draw on the best of all possible worlds, what the Druids and the ancient cults of the Middle East knew and what the Anglo-Saxons called wortcunning, or herbal magic, plus the bare bones measurements of modern science. Boston Globe

This must book for witches includes a list of suppliers and a helpful bibliography. Detroit Free Press

A provocative account that will drive you to experiment and explore. Offers something to every reader. Baton Rouge Advocate

So with the aid of just one book, you can be healthy, quiet, or hilarious; make friends and influence people; grow your own perfumes; gain a reputation as a garden planner; and smell clean, without TV commercials. Nashville Banner

Tells you everything you always wanted to know regarding the secret power of herbs. El Paso Times

The author traces herbs in history and lists easily available herbs, which, he believes, can prolong life, cure diseases, improve cooking, make perfumes and incense, and possibly even make the heart grow fonder! Los Angeles Herald Examiner

Extremely well organized with the essential information on using herbs medicinally, to cook with, to make perfumes, lotions, etc. Chattanooga Times

THE AGRICULTURAL YEAR

JANUARY: With this fyre I warm my hand

FEBRUARY: With this spade I digge my land

MARCH: Here I cut my Vine spring

APRIL: Here I hear the birds sing

MAY: I am as fresh as bird on bough

JUNE: Corn is weeded well enough

JULY: With this sithe my grasse I mowe

AUGUST: Here I cut my corne full lowe

SEPTEMBER: With this flaile I earne my bread

OCTOBER: Here I sowe my wheats so red

NOVEMBER: With this axe I kill my swine

DECEMBER: And here I brew both ale and wine.

from Rams Little Dodoen,
herbal of 1606

PAUL HUSON Illustrated by the Author

This Madison Books paperback edition of Mastering Herbalism is an unabridged republication of the edition first published in Briarcliff Manor, New York in 1974, with the exception of a new chapter nine (Where to Buy Your Herbs) to replace the original one. It is reprinted by arrangement with the author.

Copyright 1974, 2001 by Paul Huson
First Madison Books edition 2001

Designed by David Miller

All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote passages in a review.

Published by Madison Books
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Lanham, Maryland 20706

12 Hids Copse Road
Cumnor Hill, Oxford OX2 9JJ, England

Distributed by National Book Network

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Huson, Paul.

Mastering herbalism : a practical guide / Paul Huson.1st Madison Books ed.

p. cm.

Originally published: New York: Stein and Day, 1974.

This Madison Books paperback edition of Mastering herbalism is an unabridged republication of the edition first published... in 1974, with the exception of an updated chapter nine (Where to buy your herbs).

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN: 978-1-56833-181-2

1. Herbs. 2. Herbs Folklore. 3. Cookery (Herbs) I. Title.

GT5164.H87 2001
635'.7dc21

2001018324

The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information SciencesPermanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.481992.
Manufactured in the United States of America.

For Griselda

IF YOU ARE IN THE HABIT of browsing through plant stores, as I am, you may on occasion find yourself confronted by an intriguing array of pots containing mysterious little herbs. The name tags they display, if there are any, are usually bluntly noncommittal and uncommunicative. Wormwoodmedicinal is a typical one. Your interest may flare for an instant, but then die just as swiftly. How on earth would you use it anyway, just supposing it did actually grow in your planter or backyard?

What is the herb mystique? Just what can you do with those enigmatic little plants? Well, you can eat them and brew them into health-giving teas, or bathe in them and smoke them, or pound them up and plaster them all over your face and body; or you can grow them and dry them and perfume yourself and your friends with them; or you can wash your hair in them. More than that, you can follow age-old traditions and if you are talented in that direction, even cast spells with them. And last, but by no means least, you can live to a ripe old age by means of them.

And that, in a nutshell, is what this book is all about. My aim throughout is practicality. It is all very well to read an old herbal which says (if indeed it says anything about dosages), Take ten minims of this and one fluid drachm of that, but where does that leave you with your pot of basil in the kitchen window? Basically all you will need for my kind of herbalism will be a couple of covered enamel or Pyrex pans, a cup, a small pestle and mortar (obtainable from any kitchen-supply store), a wineglass, a tablespoon, a teaspoon, and, if youre feeling adventurous, a teapotregular kitchen lists a fairly extensive selection of these.

MASTERING
HERBALISM

Of all the trees that grow so fair
Old England to adorn
Greater are none beneath the Sun
Than Oak and Ash, and Thorn.

WHEN YOU EAT AN HERB, YOU partake of history. Plants were here before we were, and if they survive the current ecological crisis they will probably still be here after we have gone. They are patient and enduring, and remarkably persistent, and the lifetimes of the greatest among themthe Oak and Ash, and Thornare numbered in multiples of our own. The lesser speciesmere wayside herbsanything green that grew out of the mould, as the same poet humorously refers to them, have for centuries been valued by the wise more highly than jewels or precious metals. And for good reason.

In their blossoms, seeds, leaves, and roots are locked the secrets of life and death, powers healing or harmful depending on how they are used. Herbs have been used from time immemorial as medicines, tonics, body beautifiers, mind stimulants; as aphrodisiacs, perfumes, and smoke-makers. They can impart rare and special flavor to food, yield alcoholic beverages, and, of course, produce altered states of consciousness, for many are psychoactive agents. Many of these, unlike marijuana and peyote, are still quite legally obtainable. Even immortality can be attained by the use of herbsor so people once said. Stranger still, some are beginning to say so again, if by immortality you mean cell regeneration.