I am using this quiet Monday evening to do a quick lit search at my local library for books on herbs. The results for just my local branch alone yielded a whopping 494 results! At least I won't have to worry about a shortage of reading and research material for my project. Hopefully I won't get distracted and decide to write a thesis comparing and contrasting different cultures' histories of herbal healing. The breadth of topics represented in my search results was very wide, and the format in which the information was conveyed was equally varied, including the ilk of how-to manuals, herb encyclopedias, medicinal guides, and cookbooks. I have roughly categorized the types of books and their content into 2 families: Guidebooks and General Knowledge. The Guidebooks family includes more hands-on topics such has growing herbs, cooking with herbs, crafting with herbs, and healing with herbs. The General Knowledge family includes more cerebral content like basic facts about herbs, herbs in history, herbs in different cultures, and herbs in science and medicine. There were also some children's books with an herb theme (I especially liked the looks and sound of this one: The Gift). Other topics included herbal remedies for pets (I kid you not), herbal magic (Score!), and herb-inspired memoirs.
I am itching to dive into some of the books on herb history, cultural variants in the use of herbs, and the psychoactive properties of herbs, but once again, for the sake of manageability, I am going to limit myself to Guidebooks on growing herbs and two non-fiction works. I already have the non-fiction works picked out: Culpeper's Complete Herbal and Eve's Herbs. Nicholas Culpeper was instrumental in transforming the once arcane knowledge of herbs and herbal healing into common knowledge in the West; his work will give me a solid historical foundation. A scion (I couldn't resist the botany reference) of a previous work that traced the use of herbs in ancient times up to the 15th century by women as contraception and abortion-inducing substances to regulate fertility, Eve's Herbs postulates that the esoteric nature of this specific knowledge of herb usage actually acted as its savior, allowing the knowledge to be passed on throughout the centuries, despite persecution of its retainers and attempts to extinguish it beyond remembrance.
Earlier today I also began reaching out to the Urban Gardener, and another urban agriculture organization, Grow Pittsburgh. I failed to mention them in my previous post, but a good friend kindly reminded me of them (Thanks, Meg!). Grow Pittsburgh got back to me right away, and they suggested I attend a gardening seminar that they host in February and March. An interesting proposition, but sadly, there is a price to attend, and it isn't right. I'm holding out for Urban Gardener and hoping that their consultation services are offered gratis. Another resource I failed to mention is my chiropractor: she is also a gardener, and a mighty fine one at that. During the summer, I get tastyfresh cucumbers, zucchini, and squash in addition to an adjustment! I plan on asking her when I see her later this week if she has any tips and resources for herb-growing newbies.
So far, I think the information-gathering is going quite well. Tomorrow I will head to the library and check out my selected items. I am also going to work more on selecting the herbs I want to grow. I am getting close, so stay tuned for the Chosen Four (Five)!
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