The New American Herbal by Stephen Orr, 2014. Clarkson Potter Books. 384 pages, illustrations in color, resources, index.
Stephen Orr’s The New American Herbal presents over 120 herbs in a way that could be called sharing a knowledge of herbs. Orr’s book encourages you to explore and intimately get to know herbs, through your cooking or in teas and other herbal preparations, and in your garden, whether outside or indoors.
The New American Herbal offers historical accounts—why people used the herb originally plus what personal connections, in gardening and cuisine arts, the author might have to offer. Color photographs enhance each selection. The New American Herbal provides an handbook of advice for using the herbs, herbal profiles in Herbs A-Z, and resources such as annotated book lists. The New American Herbal also includes significant chemical constituents in herbs, terms that are currently seen in the media and that catch our attention in an otherwise blur of factual information.
Because an “herbal path you find enticing…” really sounds unrestricted, even fluid in its potential, I wanted to define the book for my own library. And because lately I’ve been fascinated by herbals written by herbalists who are not practitioners, the title of this book really captivated me. I could see that Orr does provide many views into the herbal paths available to enthusiasts, but at first, I was skeptical. Could such a complex of subjects presented in the “Herbal Handbook” section be satisfactorily covered in its single-page essays? Truthfully, if you are looking for in-depth details and information, you should refer to his Resources section for titles of other books, sources of education, etc.—Orr says so himself. But because of the quality and writing style in the herbal commentaries that are so replete with personal anecdote, I’m convinced that The New American Herbal could motivate readers, myself included! to discover yet more on their own. Let me provide an example…
Each of the 124 herb commentaries or profiles in The New American Herbal is matched with at least one photograph in color and wherever most needed, up to 4 images to better characterize the herb. Notably true for thistle, sage, and borage, some herbs have varieties, forms, or leaf and flower components that are interesting clues to their identities. Photographs are all made by the author, who’s been (and is currently) editor for a number of national magazines including Martha Stewart’s Living.
For each herbal profile, you’ll see how an herb has attained status in the kitchen, as well as its herbal lore and other fascinating facts. Orr considers the herb’s qualities in a broad brush-stroke or characterization which goes easy on the reader’s band-width. For Dill, botanically known as Anethum graveolens, you’ll read about its identity in a family of similar-looking plants, what it smells like and which chemical constituents are featured.
The herb profile includes how to grow it, best season for flowering, and safety notes, all tucked neatly into an insert. Under “Other names and varieties”, Orr discusses a specific name that one might not otherwise know about. In Dill’s case, the variety named “sowa” (Anethum graveolens var. sowa) is valued in Indian, Malaysian and Japanese cooking and has milder flavor (not what you’d expect for Asian cuisines!) than European varieties.
Orr’s personal reaction to the herb expresses much about its flavor: how dill tastes like caraway but has the substance carvone also found in spearmint, and that it has limonene, like in citrus, and clove flavors, how it looks in the garden and in flower arrangements. Dill’s also got “flavonoids and coumarins similar to those in celery” and other carrot family herbs. Not only those tidbits, but also that in the ancient Egyptian medicinal system dill is recorded as being helpful for ailments of the stomach and elimination, “ulcers, abdominal pains, and eye afflictions, according to Ayurveda”.
And even if these facts alone do not draw you closer to the herb, Orr’s own response to it might warrant a second look. Who knew from the glass bottle of dillweed or dill seeds you’ve purchased, but dill in a pot or in the garden impresses with its form and color—light green, minutely frothy, and fragrant (p. 167). Orr says its cut stems are stunning in a vase with roses! Can’t you just visualize how dill—gifted and dazzling, from the garden to kitchen to decorating or your medicine chest—the herb outshines itself.
A recipe for Stuffed Peppers with Dill follows its herbal profile. It’s not a vegetarian recipe, but substitutions are allowed (right?) and thus you could make it vegetarian or vegan. Herbs, being plants, complement other plant foods with taste. And a number of the recipes following commentaries are vegetarian.
“Herbs A-Z” is the 300-page, main part, of the book. But it’s supported by Orr’s “Herbal Handbook” that showcases the many facets of herbs, if you look deeply at them. This part states properties of herbs (what actions they have in the body if taken medicinally) and identifies their distinctive flavors, besides essential information for cooking with them, making herbal oils, vinegars, tinctures, teas, or even providing your herbs with a proper pot, hanging mechanism, or trimming to topiary. Even aromatherapy, Native American, Chinese medicinal, herbs from trees, herbs whose value is debated and which are banned, and herbs from the tropics—all appear so that you can see how vast a subject the subject of herbs actually is.
The New American Herbal has a bold, assertive and convincing title. Though herbals by their very nature usually emphasize the medicinal properties of herbs, The New American Herbal doesn’t pretend to be an encyclopedia of medicinal use. Neither does its title actually promise such. Instead, it combines a wide range of topics and information as a single-volume resource on the plants “people use”(p. 12)—not simply admire from afar. And being a collection of herb biographies makes it a book to place where it will be noticed and shared, as herbs have been since ancient times.
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