Resources on herbs

I think there is a lot of concern for all of us right now about the high fuel prices and for some of us, about prepping for the zombie apocalyse. My dear friend asked me the other day about a book on herbs she was thinking of tracking down.

So, my friend made me think. Where are the best places to look for straight-forward effective info on herbs? What remedies are actually simple? Where can I get info on herbs that grow in my area?

Online resources:
🌶️Koanga Institute have a good resource available when you have a monthly membership subscription. This relates to herbs we can find and grow in NZ. You can find it here https://koanga.org.nz/subscriptions/
🫚The Public Herbarium has monographs on herbs and ideas of what to use for ailments and is NZ focused. https://thepublicherbarium.org/
🌱Herb Federation of New Zealand https://herbs.org.nz/ has info on a lot of common NZ herbs.

The issue I have with only online info is what happens in a natural disaster or an extended power cut? If you don't have specific pages printed out, then you may be in a pickle.

Printed resources:
🧅Check out your local library first and foremost to get some ideas on which books may be useful to own. Second hand stores and book sales often have gems.
🌼Rosemary Gladstar writes for regular people and has easy to follow recipes on herbs and when to use them. I have a couple of her books. Rosemary Gladstar's Medicinal Herbs is a small but very useful one.
🌻Neal's Yard Healing Herbs is also a great book for simple home herbalism.
🌿Foraging New Zealand by Peter Langlands would be a companion book I would recommend to help you correctly ID the herbs you are foraging for. Peter Langlands book is available from lots of stores around NZ and online too.

Three of the books I own that I would highly recommend if you are looking to add to your library on herbs and how to safelt ID them