Matthew Alfs is the author of the highly acclaimed reference book 300 Herbs: Their Indications & Contraindications (2003) as well as the beautifully illustrated Edible & Medicinal Wild Plants of the Midwest (2013). Since the year 2000, he has delivered over 300 lectures to a wide variety of institutions and associations throughout North America, has taught herbal medicine at two different universities and two different colleges, has founded his own distance-education program in herbal studies (www.midwestherbalstudies.com) based upon a 1500-page curriculum that he wrote, has been featured on both television and radio, and has been published in over a dozen different journals and magazines. In his spare time, he enjoys nature exploration, wild-plant-food foraging, nature photography, and reading books from his 4,000-volume home library.