by Dr. Jan Timbrook with illustrations by Chris Chapman, 2024. Paperback, 288 pages. Revised second edition.
From islands off the shore of Santa Barbara to the chaparral-covered mountains of what is now the Los Padres National Forest, the land of Chumash is an area of great biological richness and variety. Living intimately within this land for more than nine thousand years, the Chumash developed an intense and sophisticated relationship with the plants around them, collecting and processing nuts, seeds, berries, roots, leaves, twigs, shoots, and wood. Covering both historical and contemporary uses of plants, this book celebrates the variety of plants and the resourcefulness and ingenuity of the people who have always known them best.
About the Author
Jan Timbrook, an anthropologist and ethnobiologist who specializes in the indigenous Chumash people of the Santa Barbara region—particularly their uses of plants in food, medicine, and basketry—recently retired from 45 years in the anthropology department at the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History.
