Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Found book to be somewhat interesting to certain degree but lacking critical info. and basically ignoring the entire world of traditional Native American and Appalachian folk medicine. Native Americans often used live plants as-is with very little preparation beyond a little cutting, grinding and squeezing. Most of the herbs discussed in this book have to be purposely grown or purchased -- something that may not be a viable option in a prepper / survival situation where mobility is a factor. You gotta use whatever is in your immediate environment. Likewise, most of the remedies covered in the book require days, if not weeks, to prepare -- also not an option for someone on the move. Major pet peeve: the book fails to mention widely-available North American wild plants like Yellow Mustard, Garlic Mustard, Alfalfa, American Mistletoe, Antelope Sage, Aspen, Hops, Mint and Bloodroot, just to name a few. I pulled these from a list of traditional Native American medicinal plants; the kinds of plants a survivalist / prepper can easily find growing along country dirt roads, fallow fields and forested areas throughout most of North America. Yeah, space is limited and, as a writer, you have to draw the line somewhere -- you can't cover them all -- but a lot of this stuff grows wild all over the place and just wasn't mentioned in the book. Your typical old fallow field or open natural grassland can literally be a drug store if you know what to look for and how to use it. The author did a fairly good job of showing how to prepare the various medicines and remedies mentioned but I felt the focused too much on complex preparations as opposed to plants and herbs that can be used as is or with minor preparation work. If you're into doing this kind of stuff at home, then I suppose the book could be a passable how-to reference guide. Big disappointment: this isn't a "prepper" book per se. When the "Big One" hits there won't be ANY functioning stores. The traditional market economy will have fallen completely apart; no Walgreens, no Walmart, no internet, no Amazon, no Home Depot, no health food stores and no place to buy herbs or anything else. If you live in an urban area, you're going to have to move to the country. We're going back to basic pioneering days my friends, it's going to be Woods-Craft 101! You're going to be focused on living day-to-day, there'll be no time to grow herbs or make your own alcohol and apple vinegar. If I'm traveling through the countryside, what essential plants should I grab along the way to put into my medicine bundle? With that mindset, I had all kinds of questions while reading, for example: in a pinch could one use plain old common red clay in place of Bentonite? Would that work? The author did a decent job covering the preparation for each remedy; that's fine, but what if I'm out in a simple cabin in the woods and don't have access to apple vinegar, grain alcohol and a fully-functional kitchen? I don't have time to mix up a batch of XYZ and let it cure / ferment for two weeks, I need something NOW! What could I find in a couple of hours of tromping around a typical field, wet land or woods in North America? How would I extract oil from Birch bark to make mosquito repellant?. How would I use skunk Cabbage to heal some nasty briar cuts?. That's the kind of stuff I was expecting, but the book came up short. Some color illustrations of the various herbal plants would have been helpful for those of us new to the hobby. Maybe a short section on how to create & maintain a herb garden? This book seems oriented more towards your typical home-gardening DYI herbalist as opposed to a prepper / survivalist forced to live in the wild. If you come across a copy at your local library (as I did), I'd say it'd be worthwhile to bring home for a quick peruse but can't recommend buying it. Most of this info. is available at various internet sites, the book doesn't really add anything radically different unless you want to add another cookbook to your kitchen library. Here're a couple of interesting sites dedicated to traditional Native American medicine: www.legendsofamerica.com/na-herbs.html nativeamericanherbalism.com/