From tinctures to ease tummy aches to elixirs to enhance energy, making your own remedies from easy-to-find herbs can be a satisfying and pleasurable way to connect with nature and your family's health. While entering the “herb world” can be intimidating—many of today's herb books are filled with cultivation tables, harvest techniques, dye charts, and aromatherapy guidelines— The Essential Herbal for Natural Health provides a welcome entry point for those wishing to experience the beauty and simplicity of natural herbal remedies safely. By focusing on just thirteen foundation herbs, you can easily jump into the world of herbs while still creating a wide range of remedies and recipes. With something for everyone in the family—men, women, and children—these simple recipes can be made to cure coughs, calm anxiety, moisturize skin, and more. “A balanced, basic introduction to creating herbal medicines; recommended.”— Library Journal “Inspirational. This book is an excellent start for someone who is just beginning to use herbs.  Beautifully produced on cream paper with soft green illustrations, it makes herbs and their remedies both accessible and appealing and encourages you to respect the lore of generations by passing on what you learn.”— Juno magazine (UK) “Written in the warm open style of the best of the herb classics, The Essential Herbal for Natural Health embraces the art of kitchen and backyard medicine and anchors it firmly to hearth and home. An eminently practical guidebook filled with Holly’s favorite herbal recipes, healthful hints, and practical suggestions, The Essential Herbal is also an inspiring and powerful treatise on this ancient healing tradition.”—Rosemary Gladstar, author of Rosemary Gladstar’s Family Herbal “A treasure trove of simple recipes and ideas for healthy living for the whole family. Holly’s love of the natural world and of the healing power of the plants around her is contagious! It will undoubtedly inspire readers in their own backyard herbalism adventures.”—Amanda Blake Soule, author of The Rhythm of Family “A fascinating compendium of herbal formulas for every common problem, from cradle cap to athlete’s foot. Something for everyone here.”—Susun Weed, author of the Wise Woman Herbal series Part of being an herbalist is getting your hands dirty in the garden and then getting to play with all the jars in the kitchen. It's fun to plant little tendrils in the spring and watch them grow, it's fun to harvest baskets-ful of leaves in the summer, and it's great fun to chop and steep and combine in the kitchen. The aromas of rosemary, lavender and sage are enough to keep you energized for hours, and the end-product is often fragrant, creamy or delicious. Herbalism is part art, part science, and this book explores the art--how to make a wide variety of herbal remedies at home. It brings together bits of science that make it educational and helpful, with a warm and welcoming style that makes you want to read it just for the comfort when you go to bed at night. Ideal for mothers of young children, women on the go, and anyone who loves to make things with their hands, The Essential Herbal for Natural Health is a go-to resource for being healthy, naturally. My wish is that you find many, many recipes in this book that speak to your desire to play in the garden and the kitchen....that you find many pages of insights into the human condition that help you address health needs....that you discover a connection with the plants around you and realize you can heal yourself and even enjoy the process! Award-winning traditional and certified herbalist Holly Bellebuono, MPA, CH, CPC, directs the online certificate-granting herb school The Heritage & Healing Herbal Studies Program and the retail apothecary Vineyard Herbs Teas & Apothecary LLC. Her original products include award-winning salves, tinctures, teas, syrups, salts, powders, lotions, and natural medicines. Holly also trains apprentices and interns, teaches workshops, and leads retreats at Vineyard Herbs. In a welcoming and inspiring style, Holly lectures nationally at conferences, yoga centers and schools about the vibrant heritage of natural healing, women's empowerment, and herbal medicine. She began her training in the mountains of Appalachia, and since has written widely for magazines, journals, and educational programs about both the folk methods and the science of herbal medicine. Holly traveled widely to interview healers from around the world for her slide documentary Our Healing Heritage, a celebration of the colorful history and heritage of medicine and women's role in discoveries and health care. She can often be found in her herb gardens or wildcrafting on the island of Martha's Vineyard, where she lives with her husband and two children.