Boreal Herbal Book Reveiws

American Herb Association Quarterly 33:4

Winter 2018-2019

review by Kathi Keville, American Herb Association Quarterly Director

The BOREAL HERBAL: Wild Food and Medicine Plants of the North. By Beverly Gray. Aroma Borealis. 2011. 380 color photos, 440 pp. $44.95. Kindle $27.50.
Artfully designed, this hefty book devotes 2-6 full pages to profile each of 53
herbs. Except for four, these are common North American herbs, such as rhodiola (Rhodiola rosea). In fact, most are found in the California Sierras where I live. Each herb is illustrated with a least three photos. Their descriptions give medicinal, edible, and other uses, such as aromatherapy and flower essences. And, finally, a recipe for pine (Pinus spp.) bark bread. There are nutritional profiles and 36 pages of won- derful charts covering nutritional values and medicinal uses, plus nice reference sections on economics, botany, and medicinal actions, and a bibliography. Half of the book provides herbal recipes and formulas using Boreal herbs, all with clear instruction and nicely illustrated. Grey owns Aroma Borealis Herb Shop in Whitehorse, Yukon and wrote A Field Guide to Medicinal Wild Plants of Canada.