The Cultivators Handbook of Natural Tobacco: Second Edition Review

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(More customer reviews)Bill Drake's book combines a wonderfully relaxed and friendly writing style with a beautiful layout that invites casual reading as well as serious study. He moves smoothly through four major areas: the history of Native American tobacco and its use, the growing of that tobacco and more modern varieties, an attack upon the commercial growing and production of tobacco products using chemicals and additives, and historical notes both extolling and condemning tobacco and its use.
Throughout "Tobacco Culture" Drake supplements his own writing with extensive and fascinating quotes and stories stretching from early Native American history into the 1800s and 1900s of European and modern American history. He shows an awareness of and respect for the health aspects of tobacco use, but clearly appreciates the fact that many tobacco users derive enough good in their life from such use that it may balance those health effects.
He spends one considerable section excoriating modern tobacco companies for what they have done to his beloved traditional tobacco plant and raises the question of how much of the supposed "smoking-related" health effect shown by various studies may actually be an effect of the chemically-intense cultivation and the use of non-tobacco additives to modern commercial products. Very little research has been done on the health effects of smoking pure tobacco since there are relatively few people out there who've spent their smoking lifetime enjoying such a product, but it is indeed quite possible that non-commercial tobacco could prove far safer than its much maligned cousins decorating store racks with all their bright colors and logos.
For those unfamiliar with him, Bill Drake is a cultural hero of old-line 1970s hippies for his Cultivator's Handbook of Marijuana published back in the late 60s (recently followed up with The International Cultivators Handbook: Coca, Opium & Hashish. ) He began experimenting with early Native American tobacco species in the late 70s and went on to found the beloved "American Spirit" brand of cigarettes produced by the Santa Fe Natural Tobacco Company. Sadly, as he outlines briefly in this book, his early vision for American Spirit and Santa Fe ran into some rocky roads after a few years and was basically swallowed by commercial interests.
I wish I had written this review a month ago as I'd have strongly recommended Tobacco Culture as a Christmas gift for anyone who loves their tobacco or has started to move toward growing their own crop. I'm about a week too late for that particular recommendation, but it would certainly make a great "After Christmas" gift for some folks and I'm sure it would be appreciated. I noticed just now that there is a Kindle edition of "Tobacco Culture" but I think a pure print version such as I believe Kindle offers would lose a lot of the flavor imbued through the author's careful page layouts and illustrations: "Culture" is definitely a beautiful coffee-table and gift book as much as it is a simple cultivator's guide. A definite five stars!
Michael J. McFadden
Author of Dissecting Antismokers' Brains

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Native Americans believe that Tobacco is one of the most sacred gifts of the Great Spirit to his People, along with corn, beans and squash.I also believe that tobacco is a great gift of the great spirit of the natural world, and I want people who enjoy tobacco to be able to liberate themselves from the thrall of the multinational so-called "Tobacco companies," whose products really have nothing to do with the sacred herb and are nothing more than industrialized poison.Now I'm sharing my years of experience raising natural Tobacco in what I hope is a useful, interesting and thoughtful book - The Cultivators Handbook of Natural Tobacco.As I hope you'll come to see, the ultimate aim of this book is to make it possible for smokers to no longer be enslaved to criminal corporations for their personal supply of pure, natural tobaccos.In addition to sharing my own growing experience, I've reached far into the past to find tobacco growing books written by masters of the subject, from Cuba to the Philippines, from America to Brazil. In an all-new Section Two I've gathered together the best advice from these old-time masters regarding every aspect of Tobacco cultivation, from which varieties grow best in which soils and environments, to the carefully guarded secrets of curing and flavoring the primo leaves of this unusual plant. Also, I'll give you an internet address where you can download all of these original, invaluable tobacco resources for free in PDF format for easy reading on your computer or any reading device.

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Mrs. Meyer's Clean Home: No-Nonsense Advice that Will Inspire You to CLEAN like the DICKENS Review

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(More customer reviews)Having used many of Mrs. Meyer's cleaning products over the years and having found all of them both effective and pleasant to use, I looked forward to this book. In fact, I bought a copy for myself and one to give as a gift. And the online excerpts looked promising.
But, on receiving and reading the book itself --- what a keen disappointment! The book appears to have been self-published because the absence of professional editing is striking. The text is ponderously heavy on family lore and reminiscences, used in a way that frequently crowds out useful advice. The formatting uses sketches and enlarged graphics in place of substantive text. And the substance of the text itself is problematic.
There are some helpful lists given. But beyond those, there are concerns. Some of the advice is painfully obvious ("flush toilets after every use") and some just plain bad. We're told, for instance, to clean a refrigerator when it begins to smell (!) and then to "unplug it and take everything out." This is poor household management. A better, less time-consuming practice is to clean a shelf a week: move everything to one side and clean the empty side with a cloth wrung out of a solution of two tablespoons baking soda to one gallon of hot water. Dry the cleaned side, move things to the clean surface and clean the other side, sorting outdated items as you go. This piecemeal cleaning, done at least once a week, completely avoids the crisis mode of Mrs. Meyer's choice.
More troubling are the lapses in taste that even cross the boundary into vulgarity. Beyond the admonition about flushing every time there is, for one example, her four-year-old's graphic description of a stray cat giving birth (repeated twice in case you weren't sufficiently grossed out the first time). This kind of story does not improve anyone's housekeeping skills.
Women in the twenty-first century don't want to choose between having a home and pursuing a career. They want both. But there is a disconnect between this generation of new homemakers and their mothers and even their grandmothers, neither of whom may have been homemakers themselves. Therefore the popularity of the many books on home management now available. Martha Stewart's book Martha Stewart's Homekeeping Handbook: the Essential Guide to Caring for Everything in Your Home is wonderful, full of useful, detailed information, helpfully indexed. Cheryl Mendelsohn's Home Comforts is encyclopedic and good reading besides. And neither of these writers peppers her prose with "Geez," as Meyer frequently does.
A personal favorite of mine is Karen Logan's Clean House, Clean Planet, in which Logan includes many family stories and references without once lapsing into Meyer's poor taste. Logan's book also contains her personal recipes for safe, natural cleaning solutions, several of which I have used successfully for years.
In addition to these three, an interested reader can find literally dozens of other choices. I only wish Mrs. Meyer had created a truly valuable addition to the list!


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When Thelma Meyer tells it to you, she tells it straight: Clean the kitchen daily! Don't waste anything (not even the water leftover from those potatoes you just boiled)! Always work hard! This philosophy meant that when Thelma's daughter Monica founded Mrs. Meyer's Clean Day products (named after her mom), the products were designed to work hard for you.

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Healthy Child Healthy World: Creating a Cleaner, Greener, Safer Home Review

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(More customer reviews)I read this book and liked quite a bit, but felt it wasn't really geared towards the every day person. I have a decent income, yet it overwhelmed me on it's push to buy, buy, buy to keep my family safe. It wasn't until I was almost finished that I realized his Hollywood connection, but it had seemed incredulous up to that point how he'd attracted so many celebrities as just a non-profit green guy.
All that namedropping made it harder to see the book as aimed at everyday people (I wanted to see regular people talking about their changes and making it work, not people with millions to work with). Several of the shops mentioned in the resources section for places to buy from "just happened" to be owned by celebrities. A lot of the items mentioned as critical were really advertorial for specific brands and of course very expensive. There were a few homemade recipes & ideas, but just as many pushes for things that are a financial stretch for many people. A lot of cheap greener living items were barely touched on. Cloth diapers were a tiny paragraph and not given much kudos yet that is a huge item that is feasible for any income level. Only 1 of the 4 diaper brands listed in the resources was cloth.
The intention was there, but IMO there are other books by regular people that are more inspiring, more realistic in what you're able to do time-wise and financially and still be as green and safe as you can.

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Learn how to Create a Cleaner, Greener, Safer Home - from Christopher Gavigan and the trusted experts at Healthy Child Healthy World. Healthy Child Healthy World is the essential guide for parents! All parents want a happy and healthy child in a safe home, but where do they start?It starts with the small steps to creating a healthier, less toxic, and more environmentally sound home - and this is the definitive book to get you there. Unfortunately, tens of millions of Americans, overwhelmingly children, now face chronic disease and illnesses including cancer, autism, asthma, allergies, birth defects, ADD/ADHD, obesity/diabetes, and learning and developmental disabilities. The number gets higher each year and more parents ask WHY? Scientific evidence increasingly finds chemicals in everyday products like cleaning supplies, beauty care and cosmetics, home furnishings, plastics, food, and even toys that are contributors to these ailments. The good news is that you can something to protect your children with a few simple changes! Inside, you'll find practical, inexpensive, and easy lifestyle advice for every stage of parenting including: *Advice on preparing a nontoxic nursery for a new baby *What every expectant mom needs to do to have a safer pregnancy *Clarifying which plastics and baby products to avoid and the healthier solutions *Tips to take to the grocery store, including the most and least pesticide-laden fruits and vegetables and the best healthy kid-approved snacks *Which beauty care / cosmetic products pose the biggest risk to health *The best recipes for healthy snacks, low-cost and safe homemade cleaners, and non-toxic art supplies *How to easily minimize allergens, dust, and lead *A greener garden, yard, and outdoor spaces *Tips to keep your pets healthy, and the unwanted pests out naturally *Renovation ideas, naturally fresher indoor air, and safer sleeping options, *An 27 page extensive shopper's guide to most trusted and best products every home needs Inside is also packed with over 40 featured contributions from renowned doctors, environmental scientists, and public-health experts like Dr. Harvey Karp, Dr Philip Landrigan, and William McDonough, as well as many celebrity parents like Gwyneth Paltrow, Tobey Maguire, Sheryl Crow, Erin Brockovich and Tom Hanks.A special featured contribution from First Lady Michelle Obama on her best ways of coping with her daughter's asthma.

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The Herbal Body Book: A Natural Approach to Healthier Hair, Skin, and Nails Review

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(More customer reviews)This book has a lot of great info and recipes, but if you are not an experinced soapmaker, you probably will not have the ingredients you need. First there are a lot of things you have to get at the grocery/drug store: distilled water, glycerine, corn meal, oatmeal, olive oil, baking soda, cornstarch, honey, vegetable oil, vodka, witch hazel, epsom salts, castor oil, etc. Then you have to get a lot of things from mail order or specialty stores, like essentail oils, jojoba oil, coconut oil, herbs, sea salts, sweet almond oil, apricot kernel oil, benzoin, beeswax, cosmetic clays. Another point you have to take into consideration is that about 1/2 of these recipes have to be made each time you use them; you can't store them. There are some recipes you can make and store, but not a lot. However, if you do have a lot of these ingredients, and want to make homemade products for yourself, this is a great book to buy. It is definitely worth the money. And if you are even remotely interested in getting this book, then you must be interested in herbs and natural body products, so you probably wouldn't mind purchasing the ingredients.

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This is the book that began Storey's best-selling series! Readers will discover how to transform common herbs, fruits, and grains into safe, economical, and natural personal care items. Includes more than 100 recipes for facial scrubs, shampoos, lip balms, moisturizers, and more!

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Natural Beauty From The Garden: More Than 200 Do-It-Yourself Beauty Recipes & Garden Ideas Review

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(More customer reviews)I loved the other two books a lot. When I bought this book, I was hesitant that there could possibly be much more that Janice could show me... Was I wrong? YES! Filled with loads of information and wonderful recipes and how-tos this book doesn't even reach the bookshelf, I keep it so handy! Great job Janice Cox!

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The third book in the very successful Natural Beauty series with sales over 70,000.If Natural Beauty at Home was inspired by the kitchen, and Natural Beauty for All Seasons was inspired by gift-giving, this book is inspired by the garden. Here, author Janice Cox presents over two hundred brand-new recipes for home beauty treatments that make use of common flowers, plants, herbs, grasses, and trees to create useful and lovely products for all aspects of skin, hair care, and bathing enjoyment. Readers will have her trademark step-by-step recipes for such items as Sunflower Seed Scrub, Aloe and Calula Cream, Rose Geranium Splash, Apricot Baby Oil, Scented Bath Pillow, and many, many more. In addition, over one hundred garden notes are sprinkled throughout the book, containing information on soil type, tools, containers, growing tips, and simple, whimsical garden designs. But, although gardeners will be drawn to this aspect of the book, you don't have to have a garden, or even a window box, to make the recipes here, since all ingredients can be found in natural food stores or farmers' markets. Natural Beauty from the Garden simply captures the spirit of the outdoors while promoting a fun, economical, natural beauty regime. This is a charming collection of beauty and garden freshness that anyone who loves to pamper herself or grow a garden full of flowers will want to have.

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The Truth About Children's Health: The Comprehensive Guide to Understanding, Preventing, and Reversing Disease Review

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(More customer reviews)Review by Janice M. Curtin of Wise Traditions Journal of the Weston A. Price Foundation
I have been looking for an all-inclusive book about children's health and finally have found it. Robert Bernardini covers every topic that relates to raising a healthy child, from how to make your own baby formula to why we have violence in schools... Bernardini addresses mental and emotional health and the growth of violence... Furthermore, people are getting sicker younger and younger - physically, mentally and emotionally. And it's not by chance - it's because our bodies are not being treated and cared for the way nature intened. Our children are exposed to environmental toxins which their small bodies cannot handle and they are stressed out and poorly fed.
Bernardini stresses that the diet of pregnant mother and infants during the first few years of life is critical to their health and happiness later on. He provides extensive information on the foods and nutrients your baby needs, what these nutrients do and how to get them. Bernardini's dietary advice is in line with that of Dr. Price. Characteristic of the entire book, Bernardini is not afraid to tell us that it is important fo your growing child to get enough fat in the diet. "Newborns must derive 50 percent of the calories they consume from dietary fat. Fat is essential for normal growth from infancy on, since fats provide fatty acids, the building blocks chilren need for critical metabolic programming of brain growth and development." Bernardini gives specific advice on how to feed your child. He includes our recipes from homemade baby formula and recommends cod liver oil, egg yolks, raw whole mild and liver. Bernardini fearlessly addresses an array of controversial topics including birth defects, infertility, baby food and formula, soy, vaccines, and SIDS. He gives extensive advice on what to avoid but also has plenty of support and resources on ways to deal with any problems your child may be experiencing already. He dares to tell you the politics behind many of our government policies and how they are harmful to children. He gives his opinion oh how policy should be changed to be safer. Bernardini does a good job of empowering us to be proactive. He is particularly concerned that we take back responsibility for our own and our children's health. He gives good advice when he says: "You must scrutinize closely the information your receive from the government and the mass media. Policy decisions, guidelines and laws are oftentimes made not so much for the preservation of our health, but for the preservation of profits. Big money can do big things, including influencing our governement. A 1980 study showed that almost half of the leading officials at the FDA had at one time worked for organizations the agency is mandatedd to regulate... Do some reaearch and ask some questions. Don't necessarily believe somebody just because he or she is on the nightly news, in the papers or is a so-called 'expert.' Make yourself the expert. Learn to seek answers, not just acccept what is foisted upon you - for the truth is often quiet and the truth is often hidden. Truth is not in it for the money, itjust is. Truth doesn't advertise."
While The Truth About Chidren's health is incredibly informative, some may be frightened by the book's emphasis on toxins and the dangers in our children's world today. Bernardini is very knowledgeable in that area... the book also empowers its readers and gives wonderful advice about how to bring optimum health to our children. Because this information could make an incredible difference in our children's lives, Bernardini's book is the book I would recommend to any new parent.
Janice M. Curtin


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Natural Beauty Basics : Create Your Own Cosmetics and Body Care Products Review

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(More customer reviews)I like the explanations for different oils, additives etc and what type of skin is best for them. I also like that the book included cautions for different EO's (i.e. for pregnant women and sun exposure) as beginners would not know about needing to be careful of these things.
One thing that I WAS NOT impressed with was that she has you buy an organic base for different things (soaps, shampoos, etc) and just add the EO's rather than tell you how to make it completely from scratch yourself.
One word of caution - DO NOT USE THE SHAMPOO RECIPES for everyday use. The author is an RN and herbalist not a cosmetologist. She has you buy a baby shampoo for your base and just add the rest. I am a licensed cosmetologist and can tell you that baby shampoo is the worst shampoo you can use on your hair for everyday use. It is a clarifying shampoo used to strip your hair completely of everything and you will end up with dry, brittle, split end prone hair. It is ok for babies as babies have different kind of hair that is coated and needs the harsh shampoo in order to get it cleaned. It doesnt bother babies hair for one because you should only wash their hair at the most 3 times a week and for two their hair produces more oils to protect it. Bottom line - if you are going to use this shampoo, limit your usage to no more than once every two weeks to remove product buildup (use less than that if you dont use a lot of product). Consult another book for better hair care recipes - I highly recommend the book "Organic Body Care Recipes" by Stephanie Tourles (a licensed esthetician.

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Taking care of yourself means making healthy choices.We are inundated with ads that tell us we cannot have naturally beautiful skin and hair without buying and using expensive brand name products. The fact is, we can attain a radiant, healthy appearance by making our own skin and hair care products out of all-natural ingredients. Dorie Byers, a registered nurse, master gardener and herb enthusiast, describes the properties and characteristics of dozens of herbs, essential oils, and other natural ingredients, and provides a wealth of recipes for every skin type. These alternatives to commercial preparations will save you money and put you in control of the healthy ingredients you apply to your body.

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Glazes from Natural Sources Review

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(More customer reviews)I am a self taught potter who is still very much a student when it comes to the craft. I have read a great many books on the subject and this one is very well done. It is packed with solid and useful information. It is a great technical book on any form of glaze testing, it only focuses on natural sources.
I gave it 4 of 5 stars for a few reasons.
It was a little difficult to understand in places and I wanted more examples. It does a good job of spelling things out for the reader, but it could have gone further I think.
Also, I wish the examples were in metric units, (ml instead of pints) because I find those easier to understand, but that could just be me.
I wanted many more photos of line blend tests! I'd have loved to see what kinds of things to expect and what the outcome is likely to be. Some rocks and common blends are bound to be fairly typical. I wanted to see pictures of those. Some more insight on what to blend with what when testing would have been good as well. Do I mix my rock with clay or whiting? I know I can try it and see, but some expert suggestions are always nice.
Some of the more complex blending patterns seemed to be a bit silly, like the author was showing off somewhat and I found them difficult to understand.
I have always mixed my glazes dry, but the author suggests it is better do mix them wet, having each material suspended in water to start with. I had many questions about this method that were not addressed in the book, but many that were. It was informative enough to prompt me to try it.
Over all, this is a great book on the subject and a great book for anyone interested in glaze development. It doesn't have much needless text, which is nice. Short and too the point.

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Any real education in ceramics must involve, from the outset, an appreciation of the source materials—the rocks around us. While good, throwable clay may be a regional commodity, there is no part of the world that will not yield potential glaze materials in abundance. Potters therefore need to know how to exploit the special properties of local rocks quickly, reliably, and methodically. This new revised and updated version of Brian Sutherland's classic book on making glazes from natural sources explains how to locate glaze material and construct, test, and use the glazes created.Glazes from Natural Sources discusses rock types and other likely sources of supply, the making of test pieces, and the use of blend systems and constructions. The author also clarifies the Seger system of glaze presentation for those who, like himself, have found it difficult to grasp and apply. He covers, and supplies, formulae for glazes for all temperatures—from raku to stoneware and porcelain—and includes sample recipes. The book emphasizes careful planning and control to ensure results that are repeatable. This makes the science behind making glazes from natural sources both understandable and feasible.Glazes from Natural Sources is fully illustrated, with diagrams of techniques demonstrated as well as images of the finished works of potters to show the results of these natural glazes. First published in 1987, this book is considered a classic by ceramicists. This edition includes a new chapter by glaze expert Nigel Wood.

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Raising Baby Green: The Earth-Friendly Guide to Pregnancy, Childbirth, and Baby Care Review

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(More customer reviews)Raising Baby Green was easy and quick to read and is a book I will keep around simply for the fact that Dr. Greene has put together an impressive resource guide of websites where one can find lots of information on greening one's life and home. I'm sure this book will be a great reference in the future when I'm looking to buy something, that being said, I had two problems with this book.
First, after about the second chapter this book starts to read like an advertisement to buy buy buy! For example, there is repeated references to bringing you own organic cotton sheets to wherever you give birth and using them to replace the sheets at the hospital/birthing center. Now call me pragmatic, but 300 count organic cotton sheets cost between $125-$175 for my bed, thus, these are not the ideal sheets TO GIVE BIRTH ON. They will be ruined and I know when I'm expecting a baby I don't generally have $175 dollars to throw away. Nor does he address the impracticality of packing home sheets covered in birth mess for washing.
While Dr. Green does repeatedly say you can do as little or as much greening as you like in your home, he really does seem to push for more. There comes a point when ripping up your current hardwoods floors which are perfectly good to put down new floors made from cork which is a renewable resource stops being green. If you gut your entire house to "remodel green" the question becomes, are you really being green? Or are you just buying into the latest fad and wasting valuable, usable resources?
This green baby guide seems to have bought into our consumer culture hook, line and sinker, which is the reason I was going to give it 4 stars, but I dropped that down to 3 stars when I ran into my second problem with this book: Mis-information.
On page 248 there is a section titled "How to Drive Green." Two of the suggestions given are changing your air filter (which he says will save you $130 in fuel economy) and filling your tank at night. Now if you google "10 gas saving myths" you will find several articles about, well, gas saving myths and both of these are on there. Neither filling up at night nor changing your air filter really increase you fuel economy.
Green goes on further to say that filling up at night, "decreases evaporation during pumping, so anything that escapes won't be cooked in to the ozone." So, those fumes I see/smell when I pump gas at night don't go into the ozone? Because it's night? So . . .where do they go? To the pub for a beer?
If Greene has mis-information about fuel economy in his book that can be disputed by a simple google search, it makes me wonder what else he got wrong.

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In this illustrated and easy-to-use guide, noted pediatrician Dr. Alan Greene, a leading voice of the green baby movement, advises parents how to make healthy green choices for pregnancy, childbirth, and baby care—from feeding your baby the best food available to using medicines wisely. Consumer advocate Jeanette Pavini includes information for making smart choices and applying green principles to a whole new universe of products from zero-VOC paints for the nursery, to pure and gentle lotions for baby's delicate skin, to the eco-friendly diapers now in the marketplace, as well as specific recommendations for hundreds of other products.

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The Soapmaker's Companion: A Comprehensive Guide with Recipes, Techniques & Know-How (Natural Body Series - The Natural Way to Enhance Your Life) Review

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(More customer reviews)This is one of my favorite books I've found on the wonderful, newly found hobby of mine - Soapmaking!
The author does a brilliant job of combining the must-have step-by-step detailed instructions on soapmaking basics for beginners, with the best list and descriptions of all soapmaking ingredients!
Beginners and experts alike will enjoy the many tried and true recipes, even specialty soaps! It also covers the "Chemistry of soapmaking", including tables for making your own recipes! She even has a section on starting up your own business to sell your handmade soap creations! And it is all put together in an easy to understand and follow format, for us beginners, or "dummys" in soapmaking!
The only reason that I rated this book at "4 stars", instead of "5 stars" is because it does not include any pictures (and I LOVE pictures!)- only the hand-drawn illustrations in green ink, as is the print, featured throughout the book. She does use alot of fragrances & different oils in her soap recipes, but includes a list of buying resources in the back.
This, along with my other favorite book on soapmaking, "The Complete Soapmaker", by Norma Coney, (full of beautiful pictures!)which features mostly "hand-milled" or rebatched soaps, are the ones I find myself going to time and time again for reference and inspiration!

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Basic soapmaking instruction and specialty techniques like marbling, layering, and making transparent and liquid soaps.

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