This lovely book arrived yesterday, from the people at Just Botanics whose blog I mentioned last time. I won it in their facebook competition, and I am very glad to have it. It is beautifully illustrated, which makes the plants it mentions easy to identify, and it’s full of interesting information about the folklore and traditions around some common wild plants, including many whose uses I had never heard of.And it includes the surprising fact that Goji berries – the little red ‘new superfood’ that magazines were going on about a year or two back – have been growing wild in this country for almost three hundred years. A plant was imported by the third Duke of Argyll, in the 1730’s, and was known, apparently, as the Duke of Argyll’s tea.

But it is also thorough, exact and meticulous in its instructions if you would like to make or use any of the remedies. This last is not as common as I might have thought, at the start of my herbs project, so it’s a book to treasure. Thank you, all the kind people at Just Botanics – you made my day!

Please note – the review of the Just Botanics blog was drafted before the competition, though it didn’t appear until afterwards!