Natural Solutions: Natural Recipes for Health, Body, Home and Garden by Jackie French

I give this book 9 out of 10 acorns

I'm not much into lotions and potions, but I'm even less into the toxic gick that seems to find its way into any such products for sale in the supermarkets. So for the times I do actually need some hand cream or kitchen cleaner or furniture polish, this is the book I reach for to give me tips and recipes for everything I need.

Jackie is a renowned Australian author and a great favourite of mine. This book is part of the Australian Women's Weekly Home Library, which many of you will be familiar with. As such it is soft-backed, highly glossy, full of sumptuous colour photos, very well researched, thoroughly tested, and very easy to read and dip into. Not only is it an exceedingly useful book to have on the shelf ready for when you suddenly need a recipe for getting rid of your kids' warts or a tonic for treating dandruff, it's also a beautiful book to handle with recipes indulgent enough to make anyone, no matter how much or how little they are into 'natural' stuff, want to try their hands at making their own natural household solutions.

There is a brief introduction where Jackie explains that although she no longer has to be self-sufficient in everything, she still loves to make things for herself and that this book is '...full of stuff that's fun to make, or that's incredibly simple or wonderfully cheap to make - or that's good to know how to make just in case you ever need to.' This is followed by chapters on beauty basics, health and wellbeing, herbal health for common ailments, just for kids, products for pets, the green laundry, green cleaning the house, household pests and an organic garden. There are 120 pages of recipes that have become my go-to for pretty well everything, from massage oils (including a two page spread on how to give a foot massage) and make travel sickness lollies to natural treatments for wood and how to make a scouring paste and clean drains.

In short, this book is a pleasure to own, incredibly useful, and wouldn't be out of place on any bookshelf, though mine tends to get pulled off the bookshelf rather frequently to help me with whatever life has thrown at me recently.

Jackie has written many books including The Wilderness Garden, Household Self Sufficiency, The Chook Book, Plants that Never Say Die, How to Guzzle your Garden, and numerous childrens books. She is very well known in Australia and in my opinion deserves a much wider audience.

Just bought this one and this is really amazing book. loved it. Thanks for recommending.