Edible Weeds

2011-04-10T16:57:00.000-07:00

VIOLETS

Viola odorata

In north Idaho where I live, these bright purple flowers are one of the first spring colors that appear amongst the grass. These low growing perennial plants have heart shaped green leaves and are found in moist meadows.

To gather violet flowers simply reach under the blossom and pinch off near the stem near the base where the stem and blossom meet. Dry on a paper plate or basket with a tight weave for later use. Be sure to harvest these tender flowers in places that have not been sprayed with fertilizers or pesticides.

The dried flowers and leaves increase circulation and have heart healing powers. A tea preparation soothes irritated throats and makes an antiseptic mouth rinse. Due to the natural salicylic acid it contains mild pain reliving abilities. To make a tea simply steep 1 teaspoon of dried flowers in 1 cup of water for 10 minutes. I like the delicate scent and gently sweet taste of the tea that encourages me to slow down and smell the violets.

Violets provided food for colonial Americans and have been gathered for food, medicine, and perfume for generations in Europe. Violet flower water was a popular perfume in the 1400-1600’s with the scent noted to bring comfort and strengthen the heart. In the British Herbal Pharmacopoeia violet flowers are suggested as a topical treatment for eczema.

These vibrant purple sweet fragrant fresh flowers provide festive color when added to springtime salads, as a finish for your favorite dessert, or a garnish on top of quinoa pilaf. Float a few violets in your favorite white wine or white grape juice for your springtime guests.

The fresh heart shaped leaves can be gathered and added to a vegetable stir-fry or steamed greens.

For more springtime herbs check out my dandelion and burdock posts

Foraging Plantain

2010-09-29T19:56:00.000-07:00

Broad Leaf Plantain Plantago major

Plantain (not to be confused with the cooking banana Plantain) is one of those perennial "weeds" that grows near dandelions in many untreated lawns and meadows. There are 2 easy to identify species, one with longer narrow leaves and the other with broad leaves. These deeply ribbed leaves can be snipped at the base and steamed for a chard-like green. The leaves can be used fresh in soups or dried for use during the winter.

Narrow Leaf Plantain Plantago lanceolata

To make a urinary tract or sore throat tea blend, combine dried plantain leaves with wild mallow leaves, nettles, and rosehips. Plantain leaves are high in silica and have a diuretic effect as well as expectorant and emollient properties to soothe sore throats.

These antiseptic and anti-inflammatory leaves make a great addition to topical skin salves. Plantain leaves are also one of those safe green leaves that can be picked straight from the field, crushed to activate the healing juices, then rubbed directly on bug bites and wounds. The astringent tannins in the leaves also help to stop bleeding.

On some species including Plantago psyllium, the central stem that develops over the season produces psyllium seeds in the Fall that can be added to water as bulk laxative.

Next time you see Plantain, do not pass it by.

Foraging Linden Flowers

2010-09-20T11:30:00.000-07:00

Lovely Linden

Foraging Linden flowers in the middle of the summer is easy. As you are walking in your local park or your neighborhood simple follow your nose to the sweetest smelling tree around.

When I know the Linden is blooming I put a large cotton sheet and scissors in the car and head out to the gathering location. Since the flowers are dangling from the trees and it is hard to hold the both the gathering basket and the scissors, I just lay a sheet out on the ground below the flowers dangling down amongst the leaves and snip away.

I dry the Linden flowers in wicker baskets that I set on a wooden clothes drying rack. The flowers dry relatively quickly (3-5 days) and shrink in size. To make a tea only a pinch ( about 1 tsp.) is needed per cup because they do expand once that are re-hydrated.

To make a rejuvenating nerve tonic tea I blend linden flowers with equal parts of rosemary leaves and lavender flowers. Pour 2 cups of boiling water over the tea blend and steep for 20 minutes. I like this tea when I feel fatigue due to excess thinking, worry, or overwork. It helps to create calm focused sustained action.

Linden flowers on their own makes a soothing evening tea to help you drift into a peaceful night's sleep and also encourages sweet dreams. I add a touch of agave sweetener to mine for a perfect way to end my day.

One of my favorite tea blends that I call Relaxing tea contains organic rose petals gathered from my meditation rose garden, organic lemon balm from my gardens, and the wild linden flowers that I gather.

Coming soon: Gathering Elderberries, Rose hips, and Fall Seed saving.

Collecting Cleavers

2010-08-26T09:45:00.000-07:00

This medicinal weed is easy to identify with its 4 sided stem and slender leaves that grow in whorled clusters. It grows in shaded areas and near streams. The unique characteristic of Cleavers is that the whole plant clings to you as you walk by due to its small hooks on the leaves. Later in the season its small round seeds cling to animal fur and socks like velcro. Also know as northern bedstraw, Cleavers is mostly used medicinally, compared to the non sticky variety of bedstraw that has a sweet smell and taste which makes it edible.

I blend cleavers with nettles, marshmallow, and uva ursi for urinary tract health. Some clients have benefited from the tea as part of a natural protocol clear kidney stones. Another tea made with calendula flowers, cleavers, and mullein supports healthy lymphatic function and can reduce edema.

Foraging Oxeye Daisy

2010-08-19T11:11:00.000-07:00

Oxeye daisy grows like a weed in my gardens and lawn. The fresh leaves are edible and have a sweet lettuce-like taste when they are young. They are best eaten then since after the flowers bloom the leaves can turn bitter. I like to nibble on the cool smooth textured leaves or decorate my midday salad with its deep green color. For something different I toss the chopped leaves with red grape tomatoes and a little balsamic vinegar for a condiment and also serve it on toast for a bruschetta appetizer. Fresh oxeye daisy leaves can be substituted for parsley in many grain dishes including tabouli. I have enjoyed being creative with this tasty wild edible.

This perennial daisy is easy to find in spring as a low growing rosette of leaves. It has a unique basal leaf pattern that distinguishes it from other daisy plants. The spoon shaped leaves have rounded teeth at the end of the thin leaf stem.

Research says a tea made with the leaves acts as a natural antihistamine. If I had allergies I would certainly try this free medicine in my back yard. To prepare them for tea, gather the leaves by snipping at the base and dry them on a paper plate or in a basket. When they are dried, usually within 3-5 days, the leaves will crumble easily when pinched. Store the dried oxyeye daisy leaves in a glass jar. When you need relief from allergies, simply add 2 teaspoons of dried leaves to 1 cup of boiling water and let it steep for about 20 minutes. Use a small strainer to separate the leaves from the liquid tea. Enjoy this natural health remedy.

Foraging Miner's Lettuce

2010-08-04T20:00:00.000-07:00

You'll find miner's lettuce growing in shady areas like the woods and near the water. It is ready to harvest from late May-August or until the heat dries it up. This slightly sour wild green high in vitamin C adds a unique taste to a cool summer salad.

Harvesting Yarrow

2010-07-27T23:27:00.000-07:00

Yarrow Natural Insecticide

2010-07-20T10:13:00.001-07:00

Recently I noticed little aphids clinging to the rose buds in my Medicine Wheel garden, so I gathered fresh yarrow to make a natural insecticide. To make this natural remedy, snip up fresh yarrow into a bucket of water and allow it to brew in the sun then overnight for about 24 hours. Strain off the liquid and pour in a plastic spray bottle. If you want to measure proportions, add 2 quarts of fresh yarrow to 2 gallons of water, or a ratio of 1 part herbs to 4 parts water. Let the brew sit overnight before straining off the liquid.

I apply the spray in the evening when my roses and hops are in the shade to avoid burning tender leaves or buds. For prevention and as a natural fertilizer the yarrow brew can be applied to the base of the plant.

Foraging Fresh Purslane

2010-07-20T09:35:00.000-07:00

Plump purslane is a low growing wild edible weed that grows in yards and meadows. It has a unique slightly sour flavor and can be added to salads and as a condiment for rice dishes and sandwiches.

I like to nibble on the moist cool leaves when I am reading in my back garden. To gather simply pinch off the leaves and stems and enjoy fresh.

Foraging Stinging Nettles

2010-07-19T19:12:00.000-07:00

Foraging Stinging Nettles

This was an unplanned springtime foraging that happened on a wet day while we were out taking sunset photos. Luckily my rubber mud boots were in the car and I found some clippers. I used plastic bags to create gloves to protect my hands from the thorns. I gathered a grocery bag full of nettle tops which later dried down to about 2 oz. enough to fill a quart jar and make about 80 cups of tea.

I always feel rich when I find a patch of wild stinging nettles. The dried leaves make a wonderful nutrient packed tea that soothes jangled nerves, eases nasal drip (due to its antihistamine action), and boosts vitality. Nettle tea has a mellow green flavor. On days when I am feeling overwhelmed, I drink a quart of the tea and by the time I have finished, I feel better. If one quart doesn’t do it, I’ll have another.

Depending on how strong I want the tea, I add 2 Tbls. – ¼ cup of dried nettles to a quart jar then fill it to the top with boiling water. If I need it sooner than later, I let it steep for at only ½ hour. For a stronger infusion it can sit overnight and the water turns a lovely emerald green color. Nettle tea is a tonic herb and is healthy way to relax at the end of the day and is better for your liver and kidneys than a glass of wine or beer. If you’re trying to reduce your alcohol consumption try my favorite end of the day tea called Serenity made with Nettles, Oat Tops, Lemon Balm, and Lavender.

Nettle tea is great internally (due to its high mineral and chlorophyll content) as well as topically as a rinse after shampooing to silken and strengthen your hair. It is also beneficial for a healthy scalp.

Nettles is a must to have in your woman's herbal pharmacy for hormonal support. And oh if you have cranky joints a cup or 2 of tea a day can cool the pain away. When my joints talk to me its time to make a cup of tea.

Dr. Linda Digs Burdock

2010-07-17T15:06:00.000-07:00

Grandma Barker Gathered Dandelions Too!

2010-07-17T14:55:00.001-07:00

Grandma and Linda in Newport Rhode Island

Grandma Elsie Maxwell Barker said as a child she used to gather pails of the fresh greens and sell them for a nickel. Later when she was married and had 4 daughters, she gathered the yearly dandelion greens from the same field where she ate the dandelion greens as a child.

My mother, Kathryn Louise Barker Kingsbury remembers going into that field where generations of women from her family gathered the dandelion greens. She says,“We’d clean the dirt off in a bucket of water, then cut off the root, and wash them in a sieve. Then my mother would boil them in water. We ate them with butter. She said, “I didn’t like taste very much, it as bitter”. They were just there in the beginning of the year, not all the time. We liked the yellow flowers too. We’d put the flowers in a little black vase and have them on a corner table.

What would our world be like if everyone ate their dandelions instead of killing them?

Gram Kingsbury Gathered Dandelions

2010-07-17T14:42:00.000-07:00

Gram in her Garden in Keene, New Hampshire

Gram Vera Etta Twitchel Kingsbury lived in Keene N.H. where I was born. As I child I played in the flower gardens and woods at her home. When I was a young adult and told her that I was working with herbs and creating an herb business she told me a story about her Aunts gathering dandelions and wrapping pieces of the root in bread for liver pills in the spring.

Gram loved the dandelion greens for supper. I recently asked my Father more about that and he said "My mother would go out in the spring just when they were popping up. She had her own way of cutting them from the ground and processing them like spinach. I’d like a little vinegar on them. Boy they were bitter. My mother said Early in the spring they are not as bitter. We used to use those right from the front yard. She’d leave the root in the ground because she wanted more. She would just cut the tops and hopefully it would grow a second crop for her."

Gram lived to a ripe age of 94. Could foraging wild edibles be the next longevity craze?

Dandelions Grounding Abilities

2010-07-17T14:34:00.000-07:00

Do you want to feel more connected to the earth and your body? Dandelion root can help you get back to simply what works for you and your life now. It helps to ground your mind, body, emotions, and spirit into the present moment. It supports you in sorting out what matters.

Dandelion root is especially helpful on those days when frustration and anger get in the way of productive action. Chugging a cup of tea or a few drops of tincture can bring a smile to your face in no time. It allows you to have more energy to create a calm body, clear mind, and open heart.

To make it simple for you to benefit from the metaphysical properties of dandelion, I make Spirit Herbs Chakra #1 Elixir with dandelion root, peony flower essence, and garnet gem elixir. Adding 5 drops 2x a day to 2oz. of water assists you in creating a conscious connection to your body and the earth. This helps you to align with life purpose and manifest the dreams of your Higher Self.

Metaphysical Message from Dandelion: I will help you to dig deep into your ancestry for the wisdom which you are to bring forward. Steady yourself for your earth journey by flowing with nature rhythms. The river, the lakes, the streams, the trees, the birds, the grass, my flowers all have gifts for you. Let my yellow flower keep you connected to the sun as if you were touching its fiery warmth. All parts are good. No need to throw away what you do not like. Let me help you learn about connection. How we can all work together to strengthen and unify the whole.

When I learned that dandelions made their way to North America from my Pilgrim Ancestors on the Mayflower, I sensed a circle of completion as well as a new beginning of honoring myself as an Herbalist.

Bountiful Burdock

2010-07-02T18:40:00.000-07:00

Burdock in my back yard is huge this year due to all the rain that we've had. They were calling my attention today, so its time to share about them. The young leaves, stems, and roots are edible. The dried root is what is used mostly for its medicinal value in teas and tinctures. I blend it with red clover, fennel seed, paud'arco, and rose hips for a Detox tea beneficial for supporting a healthy digestive tract.

Both fresh and dried burdock root can be used in cooking. Look for it in the root section of the produce section at your grocery store. Ask for Gobo which looks similar to a brown parsnips. It is used in Chinese Medicine it is beneficial to the kidneys, liver, and gall bladder.

Here's a quick ( 2 minutes video) of me preparing the meal pictures below.

Dr Linda Digs Dandelion

2010-07-01T14:40:00.000-07:00

WEED OF THE DAY: CHICKWEED

2010-07-01T13:44:00.001-07:00

This morning I nibbled on some succulent chickweed in my back yard garden after going on a bike ride. I always say that chickweed tastes like the smell of beets. I realize it is more like the earthy flavor of the beet greens. Light and mineral rich chickweed makes a great additional to salads or sandwiches. A good addition to menopausal women's diet since it can regulate body temperature. I blend it with motherwort for a Hot Flash formula and nettles and alfalfa for a popular allergy remedy.

Have you tried Chickweed?

Eat Your Dandelions

2010-06-30T20:34:00.000-07:00

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Dandelion Recipes

Dandelion greens are the most versatile part of the plant for cooking. Even though some people believe they can only be gathered and used in cooking before they flower, I enjoy them as long as they are growing. Simply gather, wash, and chop into small bits to add flavor to sandwich spreads such as hummus and tuna fish. Dandelion leaves fresh or dried add a wild flavor to a baked potato or summer potato salad. Quiche, pizza dough, meat balls, and lasagna are brought to life with chopped bits of this versatile green. Use your imagination. The possibilities are endless.

Black bean soup topped with dandelion petals and Dandelion flower biscuits

Dandelion flower biscuits with tuna and dandelion greens

Dandelion pesto: Blend in a food processer or blender until smooth: 1 cup of fresh dandelion greens, 1 cup of fresh parsley, and 1 cup of fresh Oregano leaves, 1/2 c. olive oil, 1/2 c. pine nuts or green pumpkin seeds, 3 cloves fresh chopped garlic, 1/4 cup parmesan cheese (optional). Yummy on bread or tossed with your favorite pasta.

Dandelion Vinegar: Watch video 2 and replace the vodka with vinegar. For a milder vinegar snip the greens into a jar. Fill 3/4 of the way with dandelion leaves then top off with apple cider vinegar. Close the jar with a plastic lid and let sit in a warm place for 1 month.

Dandelion Flower Biscuits/aka Dandy Dog Biscuits: Blend together 1 3/4 c. gluten free flour , 2 tsp. baking powder, 1/2 tsp. salt. Mix in 2 Tbls. butter with your hands until the dough is crumbly. Blend in 1/4 c. dandelion petals (or greens for more flavor) and 2 cloves of chopped garlic. Add 3/4 c. milk and 2 Tbls. agave nectar. Stir until it holds together well. Form into a ball then place on a rolling surface ( I like the Tupperware rollup mat) dusted with corn flour. Roll to about 1/4" thick with a rolling pin. Cut shapes with a glass or biscuit cutter. Bake at 425 degrees for 12 minutes. Brush with olive oil for the last minute. Enjoy. Sasha, my Siberian husky loves them as a treat.

Dandelion cocktail: Juice a handful of Dandelion greens, 3 celery stalks, and 6 Carrots. Make variations with the fresh fruits and vegetables that you have on hand. Support your local Farmer's market and exchange with neighbors.

Dandelion Vegy Burgers: Mix together in order listed 1/4 c. spelt flour, 1/4 cup corn flour, 1/4 cup cooked rice, 2 tbls. flax seeds ground, 1/2 tsp. garlic salt, 1/2 c. chopped and dried dandelion greens, 1/4 c. chopped sweet onion, 1/4 c. milk. Form into patties and fry in oil until golden brown. You can add tuna or salmon for extra protein.