Free Kindle Book! – “Culinary Herbs: Their Cultivation, Harvesting, Curing and Uses”

Image – Amazon.com

Hey everyone, here’s a 140-page book on culinary herbs that is absolutely free!

“Culinary Herbs: Their Cultivation Harvesting Curing and Uses” by M. G. (Maurice Grenville) Kains was originally published in 1912 and so is in the public domain.

This book is a fascinating storehouse of useful ancient herbal knowledge! It contains information on varieties, uses, curing, storing, propagation, transplanting, soil… together with information about many of the most popular herbs. Click the book cover image above to download it free (via Amazon Kindle).

It is written in a “quaint” old style but don’t let that deter you – much of the knowledge about growing and caring for herbs is absolutely valid. In fact, some would argue that before the invention of “modern” methods, the old traditions handed down a huge wealth of wisdom that may in some ways be superior to some of what is practised today.

One of the ideas – for example – that immediately jumped out at me was the whole notion of “seed saving”. In the old days, a gardener or farmer would select the strongest, healthiest, best plants from the crop to save as next year’s seed. Thus, over time, he or she would gradually “develop” an improved variety that was ideally suited to the locality – doing best in the particular soil and against the pests of that area.

This method has been used the world over by indigenous peoples and until modern times was the standard manner in which preparations were made for the next year’s crops. The system worked very well – and the modern breeding of vast numbers of seeds of the exact same variety decreases biodiversity as well as making the farmer completely dependent on the seed company for next years’ seeds.