You can grow your own fruit and veg, and keep chickens in the garden to make great strides towards self-sufficiency. But it’s not nearly so easy to cater for yourself when you want to treat an illness.
It wasn’t always that way. Mass-produced drugs are a relatively recent phenomenon, as for centuries anyone with an ailment would look to nature for a fix. It’s those fixes, handed down from generation to generation, that Grandma’s Remedies
The range of problems it tackles is impressive: from diarrhoea to dog bites, earache to flatulence, and asthma to leg ulcers. And the fixes aren’t always as simple as ‘stew up some nettles and drink the liquid’, often requiring several ingredients from a store cupboard or gathered from the hedgerow.
Each remedy has been collected from someone who was given it by an older family member, or who remembers them from their childhood, and the most impressive thing is how many times several treatments for any one particular problem use similar ingredients, despite coming from all around the country.
Most of these remedies were handed down from grandmother to mother to daughter, hence the name, and over time the measures in use have changed. Chappell has updated these measures, retaining the original inscriptions and accompanying them with the modern-day metric equivalent.
An excellent how-to section at the back gives instruction on making a tincture, poultice and so on to dispense your home-made drugs, and there’s an interesting biographical section highlighting women who made a big contribution to the development of traditional medicine through the ages. There’s also a directory of places to visit to further your understanding, with an impressive British focus.
Even if you don’t use any of the suggested remedies, this book is a fascinating read, and for anyone who wants to be truly self-sufficient it’s a must-have addition to your bookshelf.
Price £14.99 (£9.69 from Amazon
Pros Truly comprehensive, a great piece of research, and genuinely interesting.
Cons None.
Verdict A fascination addition to any bookshelf, and doubly so for anyone who wants to be truly self-sufficient.
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