Euell Gibbons: Author of Stalking the Wild Asparagus

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PLOWBOY: And what about the mushrooms you can't identify for certain? Is there any simple test that will insure they're safe?

GIBBONS: None whatever. This business of trying to peel a mushroom or of putting a silver spoon into a pot of cooking fungi . . . well, hell, the Amanitas mascaria will peel! And while that one might not kill you in small quantities—it's used as an intoxicant in Siberia—it undoubtedly does a lot of damage to the liver and kidneys.

Here in Pennsylvania—but not in other places—it would almost work to say that if a green plant tastes good, it is good. But even that rule won't work with mushrooms. It's been reported by people—just before they died—that the Amanitas vera tastes very good. Come to think of it, the rule wouldn't work anyway . . . you might find a plant you think tastes good but I think tastes like hell.

PLOWBOY: You've writtent that herb gatherers originated the modern fields of botany and medicine. If herbal medicine was once the center of the healing arts, why has it come to such disrepute?

GIBBONS: There are several reasons. One is that there was such a god-awful number of quacks in the field. Another was the separation of the herbalist from the doctor.

It's amazing how many diseases listed in the old herbals were really vitamin deficiencies. As long as the doctor was also the herbalist, a patient treated with freshly-gathered natural medicines got the benefit of the plants' vitamin content as well as their drug content. As soon as the doctor stopped gathering for himself, his medicinal herbs had to be dried or distilled so they could be kept. This destroyed some or all of the vitamins in the plants and the herbs were no longer as efficacious as they once were.

We should stress, though, that medicine is descended from botany and a great many herbal remedies are still in the doctor's kit. The drugs have been extracted or synthesized, but many owe their origins to the herbalist.

PLOWBOY: You argue that herbal medicine isn't nearly so steeped in superstition as some skeptics believe. For example, the folk remedy of applying bread mold to wounds to prevent infection dates back to long before scientific medicine and the discovery of penicillin. Just how much can homesteaders rely on folk cures today?

GIBBONS: Herbal remedies can help cure most of the simple illnesses. Nature, for instance, can regulate your bowels in either direction. Cascara bark is still used in a great many commercial laxatives, such as Ex-Lax. Most of the medicines for diarrhea are based on tannin . . . though the natural ones don't have opiates added to relieve pain or quiet muscles. Blackberry juice, blackberry cordial, the berries themselves or a tea made from the leaves is as good as anything the doctor can give for diarrhea.

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