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Wayside Medicine

Wayside Medicine Book Cover

Published by Merlin Unwin Books, 2017, hardcover, 224pages, 25 x 19.5cm (10 x 8 in), £20. Reprinted 2021.

Forgotten plants and how to use them

A companion volume to Hedgerow Medicine, this book focuses on wild plants of the wayside, most of whose medicinal uses have been forgotten. It has the same layout, with its strong visual emphasis, and the same sequence of information in each chapter, with added emphasis on modern clinical work on the plant and simple medicinal recipes using it.

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The contents of Wayside Medicine are: alexanders, ash, avens, bistort, black horehound, blackthorn, bugle, butcher’s broom, chicory, cranesbill, creeping jenny and yellow loosestrife, daisy, fleabane, forget-me-not, fumitory, goldenrod, greater celandine, ground elder, ground ivy, gypsywort, heather and bell heather, herb Robert, hogweed, lesser celandine, mouse-ear hawkweed, navelwort, ox-eye daisy, pine, primrose and cowslip, purple loosestrife, rowan, sanicle, scabious, sea buckthorn, silverweed tormentil and cinquefoil, sowthistle, speedwell, sphagnum moss, sweet chestnut, thistle, valerian, violet, walnut, wild carrot, wild strawberry and woundwort.

The recipes include: alexanders black butter sauce, chicory skin toner, ground elder frittata, herb Robert tea, mouse-ear hawkweed syrup, purple loosestrife ointment, speedwell foot bath, distilled strawberry water, walnut muhammara and woundwort fresh poultice.

Featured Plants

Blackthorn Blackthorn Fumitory Fumitory Speedwell Speedwell Walnut Walnut

Comments on Amazon

As soon as I saw that Julie and Matthew Seal had written another book I really just had to have it! Just like their Hedgerow Medicine book, this teaches you how to make your own herbal treatments with common native plants. It explains what you need to do simply and clearly, so is great for the nervous beginner. The plants starring in this book have often long-forgotten, but still totally relevant, medicinal virtues. It is wonderful that these are being made known to a wider audience once again, so people can help themselves with nature's medicines just like our forebears did.

***

This book, along with the first two books in this series (Hedgerow Medicine and Kitchen Medicine), are the most beautiful books on my shelves, as well as being useful. The photos are stunning, and clear enough to make identification of plants easy. The book is full of fascinating and useful information. If you have any interest in herbs or in looking after your own and your family's health naturally, this set of books are a must.

***

An outstanding follow-up to Hedgerow Medicine. The book is laid out in a very user-friendly way and although they are both experts in their field the authors communicate the information beautifully. If you are at all interested in medical, historical, social and mythological matters this is the book for you. I say book but I highly recommend the Hedgerow and Kitchen Medicine books to complete the series. First class.

***

They've done it again! I was slightly worried that this book wouldn't be as good as Hedgerow Medicine – a book I wouldn't be without. But it is ... full of plants that are not known as well these days medicinally (whereas Hedgerow Medicine is) but fascinating – full of facts from the past as well as up to date scientific research, recipes and great photos. Julie and Matthew complement each other fabulously in this book – highly recommended to the lay person and professional alike.

***

A very interesting book that helps to keep old knowledge alive but backs it up with references to modern clinical studies. So many books on herbs are just regurgitated folklore, this is not. Julie is a very highly regarded, practising herbalist so the information is bona fide and well-researched. Excellent book.

Book Reviews

These are the herbs that are very commonly found on our waysides and verges, but in most cases very uncommonly used. As ever, Julie’s photography is beautiful. The recipes are enormously varied – lots of imagination and obviously tried and tested by the authors … This exciting and important book challenges us to look again at the wondrous array of native plants around us that we have forgotten how to use.
– Christine Herbert, The Herbalist

This book offers a practical insight into the medicinal uses of local plants, showing clearly that we have our own medicine chest right on our doorstep – all we have to do is step outside!
– Diana Lee, Greenspirit magazine

Wonderfully colourful and well-presented volume. A worthy sequel to Hedgerow Medicine.
– This England