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Nicholas Culpeper's The English Physitian: or an Astrologo-Physical Discourse of the Vulgar Herbs of This Nation is more commonly known as "Culpeper's Complete Herbal." It was first printed in September 1653 (Culpeper died in January 1654) and immediately became a classic reference that is as fascinating today as it was more than 350 years ago. Breverton's Complete Herbal is a reworking of that classic text for a modern-day audience. The book identifies each of Culpeper's herbs and spices, with a description of their appearance and Latin name/family, plus descriptions of the herbs' uses in medicine, dyeing and/or cuisine from the Greeks to the present day. Informative and entertaining, this book is packed with interesting facts associated with herbs. For example, most herbs have their uses attached to their old names: Lungwort cured lung illnesses, Fleabane was strewn to get rid of fleas, Wolfbane poisoned wolves, and Henbane killed chickens. Arranged alphabetically, Breverton's Complete Herbal describes 250 herbs and spices while containing feature sidebars and spreads on scented herb/medicinal gardens, the great herbalists, and New World herbs.

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Mushrooms are an excellent source of natural food: They have few calories and are abundant, free for the taking, and fun to forage. This handy guide clearly explains not only how to identify them but also how to prepare them for your next meal. Whether you are an experienced mushroom hunter or an amateur naturalist, Wild Edible Mushrooms will help you find, harvest, prepare and enjoy North American wild mushrooms.

Inside are detailed descriptions and color photos of 40 edible mushrooms (plus dangerous look-alikes to avoid), including scientific and common names, habitat, odor, taste, fruiting time, and more. Following them are more than 100 recipes, ranging from delicious appetizers to soups, and from fresh salads to and hearty entrees.

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Practical Jewelry-Making Techniques: Problem Solving departs from tradition by offering serious instruction to jewelry makers without assuming an advanced degree of prior knowledge. It presents a comprehensive survey of the core jewelry-making techniques while providing easier alternative solutions that get the same results as traditional methods. Each chapter is packed with unique ideas on how the jewelry artist can make tasks simpler, quicker or less expensive and still produce beautiful pieces. There are instructions for adapting and making problem-solving tools and jigs from everyday items, and tips on identifying potential pitfalls in a project and avoiding costly mistakes.

Step-by-step lessons in jewelry technique accompany more than 50 projects designed to put the skills into practice while creating beautiful pieces. Thorough explanations and hundreds of close-up photographs with detailed captions ensure the book will become a well-used reference for the jewelry maker. "You Will Need" boxes keep track of tools and materials, and "Tip" inserts offer sound advice born of experience. Where needed, there are design sketches with measurements.

The chapters are:

• Tools for jewelry-making
• Basic techniques
• The making of simple specialized tools
• Punch and die
• Alternative methods of soldering
• Wire scrollwork
• The coming block
• Applications of the screw
• The removable spindle tool
• Findings
• Ring-sizing and wire-sizing tables

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First published in 1937, this woodworking classic reveals a fascinating look into the social structure of a 19th-century English town and a carpenter's place in it. Encapsulating a time before power tools and mass production, when woodworkers made virtually everything, Walter Rose writes eloquently on a number of topics, including running a country business; the carpenter's shop; working on a farm, new home and windmill; undertaking; and furniture repairs. Manifesting the importance of skill and the attitudes of the craftsman to his tools and work, this book will be of great interest to any carpenter or woodworker with an appreciation for the history of their craft.

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In Little Heathens, Mildred Kalish shares her story of growing up on her grandparents' Iowa farm during the depths of the Great Depression. With her father banished from the household for mysterious transgressions, 5-year-old Mildred and her family could easily have been overwhelmed by the challenge of simply trying to survive. This, however, is not a tale of suffering.

Kalish counts herself among the lucky of that era. She had caring grandparents who possessed-and valiantly tried to impose-all the pioneer virtues of their forebears, teachers who inspired and befriended her, and a barnyard full of animals ready to be tamed and loved. She and her siblings and their cousins from the farm across the way played as hard as they worked, running barefoot through the fields, as free and wild as they dared.

Filled with recipes and how-tos for everything from catching and skinning a rabbit to preparing homemade skin and hair beautifiers, apple cream pie, and the world's best head cheese (start by scrubbing the head of the pig until it is pink and clean), Little Heathens portrays a world of hardship and hard work tempered by simple rewards. There was the unsurpassed flavor of tender new dandelion greens harvested as soon as the snow melted; the taste of crystal-clear, marble-sized balls of honey robbed from a bumblebee nest; the sweet smell from the body of a lamb sleeping on sun-warmed grass; and the magical quality of oat shocking under the light of a full harvest moon.

Little Heathens offers a loving but realistic portrait of a "hearty-handshake Methodist" family that gave its members a remarkable legacy of kinship, kindness and remembered pleasures. Recounted in a luminous narrative filled with tenderness and humor, Kalish's memoir of her childhood shows how the right stuff can make even the bleakest of times seem like "quite a romp."

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A lighthearted A-to-Z encyclopedia of farm lore, Barnyard Confidential covers everything you need to know about living in the country, from courting to dealing with manure, root picking to rat catching, winter chores to tractor restoration, hay mows to outhouses … anything and everything related to farm life. Entries from well-known country authors like E. B. White, Gwen Petersen, Roger Welsch and Patricia Penton Leimbach range from funny definitions to full stories and are illustrated throughout with a charming mix of fun, nostalgic, black-and-white photos and illustrations. These stories are both humorous and practical and will remind you why you often have a love-hate relationship with rural living. Before you move to the country (or even if you already live there), learn all the secrets to success from Barnyard Confidential.

Featured authors include: Eric Sloane, Roger Welsch, Gwen Petersen, Ben Logan, Jim Heynen, Bob Artley, Marjorie Myers Douglas, Hamlin Garland, E. B. White, Jerry Stelmok, Louis Bromfield, Bob Becker, William Hazlett Upson, Patricia Penton Leimbach, Jerry L. Twedt, Michael Perry, Willa Cather, Jerry Apps, Josh Billings, Michael Dregni, Jared Van Wagenen Jr., Hugh Orchard, Dorothy Canfield, Virginia Bell Dabney, Tom Anderson, Ronald Jager, Margret Aldrich, Bill Vossler, and Gordon Green.

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Making Babies is a fun, informational, artistic and colorful pregnancy book. Follow author Shoshanna Easling through her pregnancy and the birth of her daughter, as she stays healthy and builds a baby. Packed with 480 beautiful pages of research about fertility, conception, morning sickness, pregnancy, birth, nursing, postpartum issues, losing weight, and more, Making Babies is a fresh, organic look at the simple beauty of pregnancy and birth. You will also find delectable recipes, superb remedies, must-have tips, birthing exercises, resources, and relaxing techniques to aid in having a healthy and natural pregnancy and birth.

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Heartfelt + handmade = the perfect gift. In Simple Gifts, Jennifer Worick offers step-by-step instructions for creating easy and inspired handmade gifts that won’t break the bank. Learn how to stitch a wine bag for your favorite foodie, sew pajama pants for a tried-and-true friend, roast coffee beans for an office pal, or felt a ring for your sweetheart. Also included is Jennifer’s helpful, witty advice on choosing the right gift for anyone–man, woman or child–and how to wrap up your present with style.

From a sweet knitted apron to a hand-embroidered handkerchief, personalized note cards to soothing natural lip balm, a quilted baby blanket to a manly wooden toolbox, these heartfelt, handmade gifts are certain to wow and touch your loved ones.

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Long a classic within the beekeeping community, this book is one of the greatest works on the ancient art and science of beekeeping. Accompanied by 111 illustrations, it offers advice, observations and information gleaned from a half-century of beekeeping. It’s a practical, yet endlessly charming handbook on all aspects of this romantic, arcane pursuit.