The Boreal Herbal
Wild Food and Medicine Plants of the North
A Guide to Harvesting, Preserving and Preparing
The Boreal Herbal: Wild Food and Medicine Plants of the North is an indispensable guide to identifying and using northern plants for food and medicine.
Whether you're hiking in remote areas or gardening in your backyard, this easy-to-use handbook will help you recognize and use fifty-five common wild plants that have extraordinary healing properties.
With The Boreal Herbal you will learn how to soothe pain with willow, staunch bleeding with yarrow, treat a urinary-tract infection with bearberry, and create a delicate and uplifting skin cream from sweetgrass.
Author Beverley Gray has also included dozens of healthy and delicious recipes, including Wild-Weed Spanakopita, Dandelion Wine, and Cranberry-Mint Muffins.
"This is not a book. It is a prayer. It is a psalm. It is a window into the past. It is a glimpse of the future. It is awesome beauty. It is roots digging deep and flowers flying free. It is fact and fancy, medicine and myth. If you open it, you will have to buy it, for this is a feast you will want to eat slowly, to savor, to relish, to return to again and again. A great guide to green blessings in green ways written by a true wise woman."
—Susun S Weed, herbalist, author: Wise Woman Herbal Series
"The Boreal Herbal is an inspired distillation of herbalist Bev Gray's years of experience amongst the plants, berries and trees of the boreal forest. Generous, learned, passionate and packed with scientific and medicinal information, The Boreal Herbal is the essential reference book, field guide, how-to manual and cookbook for every Canadian interested in foraging for edible plants, making their own salves and ointments, or simply learning more about the flora of the boreal forest. Bev's love for plant life and her spiritual connection to her material shine on every page; she is the best possible companion on this journey into the wild."
—Miche Genest, author of the Boreal Gourmet: Adventures in Northern Coooking
"...a treasure chest of information about the world's largest ecosystem. When you open it, you are dazzled by its beauty, which seems to be inspired by the northern lights. On closer examination you see jewels of information on edible and medicinal plants that is valuable to all... The Boreal Herbal goes way beyond a list of uses for herbal enthusiasts, to an art form that just might redefine herbals into the future."
—Terry Willard, CIH, PhD, Clinical Herbalist, author of Edible and Medicinal Plants of the Rocky Mountain
"...both a practical guidebook and wonderful celebration of the flora of our northern forests. Let it heal your wounds, fill your stomach and inspire in all of us an ever greater appreciation of the extraordinary place we call home."
—Wade Davis, Ph.D, ethnobotanist, author of The Wayfinders: Why Ancient Wisdom Matters in the Modern World
Paperback, 440 pages
ISBN 978-0-9868271-0-5
$44.95 + shipping
Peek inside the book
Table of Contents
Introduction
- Profiles of dozens of herbs, berries and trees found in the northern boreal forest; including information on their habitat, harvest times, medicinal applications, as well as food uses, cosmetic uses and spiritual uses
- Full-colour photographs & botanical illustrations of each plant profiled in the book for easy identification
- Instructions on how to gather and preserve wild plants
- More than 200 recipes: teas, tinctures, powders, flower essences, topical treatments, beverages, jams and jellies, baked goods, soups, entrees and much more
- Safety tips for harvesting and using edible and medicinal wild plants, including information on calculating dosage and plant-specific cautions
- A resource section for people interested in starting up a non-timber forest-products business
- Botanical and medicinal glossaries, an index and handy reference charts
About the author
Beverley Gray is a boreal herbalist, aromatherapist, natural-health practitioner, journalist, and an award-winning natural health-product formulator. She owns the Aroma Borealis Herb Shop in Whitehorse, Yukon.