Spring Forage: 3 Herbs from the Lawn

Tags

chickweed, clover, foraging, henbit

Chances are, if you live in North America, parts of Europe, and (maybe) even bits of Australia and New Zealand, that (at least some of) these “weeds” can be found in your yard, a neighbor’s yard, or a field in a park or school yard.

Henbit

(scientific name: Lamium amplexicaule)

Henbit crown (the best part for eating, with or without flowers)

• sprawling, annual herb
• square stems (a sign that its in the mint family)
• fuchsia tube-like flowers with a slightly fuzzy top (though flower color is variable from pale lavender to a dark magenta)
• naturalized in Eastern North America (and in other areas globally)
• popular with pollinators (including honeybees and hummingbirds)
• similar looking plants are also edible (no poisonous look-alikes)

So, this guy is one of my favorite early spring forage foods.  Henbit is easy to find and super tasty….sort of like kale or spinach, great sauteed with a wee bit of butter and some garlic, or in salad, or in a smoothie.  Plus, you can take the flowers (fresh or dried) and make tea from them (and we all know how I like tea).  Or you can take the flowers and munch on them and they taste sort of like honeysuckle (and we all know how much I like to rid the world of honeysuckle flowers).  I will make one very practical suggestion, from personal experience…limit yourself to no more than one cup of henbit (before cooking), else you may end up very, very gassy.

If harvesting for the greens, be sure to just snip the crowns.  Also, get the juicy ones, not the sort of crunchy and dry ones for best flavor (you’ll know when you feel them up a bit, lol).    Historically, henbit has been used to help heal wounds (as a wash or in tea), to induce sweating or help digestive ailments, and to bring on menstruation (if you are pregnant, you might want to avoid this herb as a precaution).  Magically, henbit is well suited to spells or rituals for clarity, energy, cleansing, and creativity.

Henbit (L) vs Purple Dead Nettle (R)

Chickweed

Common Chickweed, great in smoothies!

 

Common chickweed (Stellaria media) is one of several species of chickweed, all of which are edible.  It is characterized by tiny, white  5 cleft-petaled flowers (which basically make it look like it has 10 petals) and paired, smooth petals.  It produces saponins (which can be toxix) and should not be consumed in large amounts, but is a nutritious and delicious addition to salads and smoothies, and can be eaten raw or cooked.  Chickweed is best when young and tender.  When looking for chickweed (as opposed to similar but poisonous species), be sure your plant has:

• NO milky sap
• A row of tiny hairs growing in a row on one side of the stem that switches to the other side at each pair of leaves
• Opposite ovate or lanceolate (meaning they are ovular with a pointy tip) leaves
• If you gently bend and twist the stem, you can break the outer stem while the inner stem remains intact
• Small white deeply notched five petaled flowers (looks like 10 petals)

I usually harvest the ends–the flower and first couple pairs of leaves.  This can then be frozen, dried, or prepared fresh (freezing  chickweed lets you add it to smoothies all year long!).  Star chickweed can also be eaten in the same manner, but mouse-eared chickweed needs to be cook to moderate its hairiness.  Magically, these flowers can be used for magic and rituals associated with love, relationships, and fidelity.  Historically, it has been used medicinally to reduce inflammation (internally and externally), as a mild laxative, and in salves and poultices for mild burns and injuries.

 

White Clover

White clover (Trifolium repens) is a low growing pasture plant readily found in yards and fields.  It is characterized by its three leaves with the pale triangular markings and tiny spiky white flowers clustered together (what we think of as the flower of a clover is really dozens of densely packed flowers).  While the leaves are technically edible, they need to be boiled for at least 5 minutes before they are easily digestible.  The flowers however, make a lovely tea, whether fresh or dried.

 

Other clover varieties can also be used as tea (red clover is especially nutritious and widely used medicinally), but care should be taken when foraging because there are some similar looking species that are poisonous (most clovers are edible, but some have mixed reviews, and others are not).

Magically, clover can be used for magics dealing with protection, money and success, love, fidelity, and exorcism.  It is a masculine herb that corresponds with Mercury and Air.  Medicinally, clover has historically been used in teas for colds, coughs, and fevers, and in washes for wounds (also as a rinse for the eyes).  Additionally, the dried flowers and seed pods can be ground up as “flour” and used as a seasoning.  the dried flowers also make a good addition to incense and potpourri.

Crimson Clover (or Italian Clover), not to be confused with Red Clover (which is really pink

June Forage: Japanese Honeysuckle

Tags

bioregionalism, edible plants, forage, herbs, honeysuckle, invasive species, know your flora, magical herbs, medicinal herbs, wildcrafting

Not long ago, when most people were still fairly attuned to nature, it was commonly noted that her flowers resembled lovers entwined, thereby making “Love Bind,” as she was sometimes called, a symbol of devotion and love. In Victorian times, it was said that if one brought a Honeysuckle bouquet into the house, a wedding would follow within the year. Prudence being the operative theme in those days, perhaps marriage was the only possible option for release of wanton desires, for it was well-known that the perfume that spills from her honey-lipped blossoms would spark dreams of passion and desire.

(source)

If there is any plant that I have a love-hate relationship with…its honeysuckle.  On one hand, its fragrant and tasty and medicinal.  On the other hand, its a pervasively invasive species that does an incredible amount of damage to native ecosystems. When it comes to plants like these (kudzu, garlic mustard, mimosa, etc), I’m particularly bloodthirsty (sapthirsty?) and more than happy to pick ’em til they’re gone (a number of parks are more than happy to let you rid them of invasive species, if you ask the persons in charge of them).

There are about 180 species of honeysuckle, most native to the northern hemisphere. The greatest number of species is in China with over 100. North America and Europe have only about 20 native species each, and the ones in Europe are usually toxic.  Taste is not a measure of toxicity. Some Lonicera have delicious berries that are quite toxic and some have unpalatable berries that are not toxic at all. This is one plant on which taste is not a measure of edibility. Properly identify the species.

(from one of my fave wild edible sites, Eat the weeds)

Our favorite way to enjoy honeysuckle, of course, is sucking the nectar out of the bottom of the freshly picked flower…but we also dry the flower buds and fresh blooms to use in teas and salves.  I’m more then happy to pick as many of the flowers as possible, because less flowers mean less berries, and less berries mean less seeds, and less seeds, mean less honeysuckle plants taking over and smothering native plants.  Unfortunately, honeysuckle is a difficult plant to control the growth and spread of.

General Description: 

Japanese honeysuckle is a perennial vine that climbs by twisting its stems around vertical structures, including limbs and trunks of shrubs and small trees. Leaves are oblong to oval, sometimes lobed, have short stalks, and occur in pairs along the stem. In southern and mid-Atlantic states, Japanese honeysuckle often remains evergreen – its leaves remain attached through the winter. In colder northern climates, the leaves may fall off after exposure to prolonged winter temperatures. Flowers are tubular, with five fused petals, white to pink, turning yellow with age, very fragrant, and occur in pairs along the stem at leaf junctures. Stems and leaves are sometimes covered with fine, soft hairs. Japanese honeysuckle blooms from late April through July and sometimes into October. Small black fruits (photo) are produced in autumn, each containing 2-3 oval to oblong, dark brown seeds about 1/4 inch across.

(from the National Park Service’s “Least Wanted” list)

Parts of interest:   Harvest the unopened blooms early in the morning for infusions or tinctures.  Open blooms can also be harvested for tea and for culinary preparations (honey suckle flowers are tasty in salads).  The young leaves and vine tips of Japanese honeysuckle are edible after boiling (I haven’t tried this myself yet)–the big thing to remember here is the “after boiling”–the leaves are said to have high levels of saponins, which can make you sick to your tummy, but are mostly removed through parboiling, and not readily absorbed through the human digestive tract anyhow. Additionally, it is reported that the vines themselves can be used for basketry. DO NOT INGEST THE BERRIES!  Reports of toxicity vary, but honeysuckle berries are generally agreed to be mildly poisonous in  most species.

How to prepare flowers:  There are a number of ways to use honeysuckle blooms.  First, consider drying them for later use in infusions.  Honeysuckle makes an excellent additive in salves, and a lovely and fragrant infusion.  The unopened blooms are best for drying, but the opened blossoms are suitable for using fresh.  Flowers can be candied, used to make a simple syrup (which can even be used in adult beverages), infused in honey, or turned into jelly.

What its good for:  Medicinally, honeysuckle has been traditionally recommended to combat inflammation, fever, infection, and skin conditions.  Magically, it is said to attract friends, love, prosperity, fidelity, and clear thinking.

Errata:  Honeysuckle is a plant that has quite a bit of disagreement about its use–which species and which parts of a particular species should be used for which ailments, which parts of the plants from which species are safe, etc.  If you choose to forage for honeysuckle as a food or medicine, please do so with caution.

a pot of tea (part one)

Tags

herbal infusions, tea

I like tea.

If you are a regular reader, you may have guessed this already.  I mean, I do include what tea I’ve had to drink that day in my  weekly musings posts!

To be precise, I like all sorts of teas.  I also like all sorts of herbal infusions and decoctions (since tea is an infusion of a particular herb, the tea plant, or Camellia sinensis).  Sassafras tea is probably one of my favorites, along with peppermint, or a nice cup of chamomile and lemon balm after a rough day.  I like to experiment too–pumpkin with pumpkin pie spices and black tea (it was pretty darn tasty) to cucumber, watermelon, and lemon balm as a cold infusion (great on a hot summer day).  And on the days that I don’t want to be be bothered to blend my own, a pot of Constant Comment usually hits the spot.

Whenever possible, I like to grow or forage my own herbs–some are easier than others (particularly since I’m an apartment dweller without a balcony for growing things).  When I can’t, I really like Frontier Herbs to order dried herbs (our local grocery store of awesomeness carries a pretty good selection of their herbs too).   Richters is a good supplier to order seeds, live plants, etc, if you have a better growing situation than I!

When it comes to concocting tea blends, there are a books I would recommend…over the years, I’ve thrifted or libraried a number of herbal tea books, of which I think these are the most useful while being user friendly…

• The Book of Herbal Teas: A Guide to Gathering, Brewing, and Drinking
• 20,000 Secrets of Tea: The Most Effective Ways to Benefit from Nature’s Healing Herbs
• Herbal Teas: 101 Nourishing Blends for Daily Health & Vitality
• Healing Herbal Teas: A Complete Guide to Making Delicious, Healthful Beverages

But really, the real way to make tea is to be a scientist about it!  Start with the building blocks–single herbs.  Research their magical and medicinal properties, contraindications, etc.  Make a pot, or two, or ten and record the flavor and how it makes you feel, emotionally and physically.  Everyone is different, and just because X is good for Y doesn’t mean that you and your body will like what X does for you (or maybe you won’t like how X tastes, or maybe you think you need more or less of X to achieve the flavor you like).

Stock your cabinets with the best collection of useful and complimentary herbs that you can afford that suit your daily needs (your daily moods and goals), and test them out in combination for whatever mood or moment you are trying to celebrate, enhance, influence, etc.  Don’t forget proper herb storage!  And most importantly, don’t forget to record your results!

You may be wondering, “What the heck do I record?” That’s really good question, and it will depend on you.  I would suggest (particularly if this is new to you) that you start with a list of herbs you know you can easily get your hands on.  Then, I would suggest looking up the basic properties for each herb, and recording them in the front of your handy-dandy notebook (can you tell I’ve seen too much Blue’s Clues?), along with medical contraindications and dosages**, the “taste profile” of each herb*, as you start trying out single herbs.  Once you have that, try out combinations that seem likely on paper.  Put them next to each other and smell them–if they don’t smell good together, it is unlikely (though not impossible) they will taste good together (and remember, we are talking about enjoyment tea, not medicinal tea).  If you like the combination, write it down and try it out…and then record the results.  As an example, if I wanted to relax, I would maybe start with equal parts of chamomile, linden, and lemon balm…or if I thought that I was starting to feel a bit cruddy due to winter ick, I’d use some white pine needles, oranges and ginger.

The “standard” for a non-medicinal herbal infusion** is about 3-4 tsp dry herb (or 2-3 tsp fresh) to 2 c of water that has just been boiled, and seep for 10-15 minutes before straining and drinking. I find that using a french press is simplest way to make tea (no bags necessary). If you are mixing herbs, that amount would be divided into “parts”. When I write a tea recipe out in my handy dandy notebook, it looks something like this 2 cham: 1 lav: 1 lem balm, and I just sort of “eyeball” it.  But hot tea is not the be all and end all of tea.  In the summer, when it has busted 100 degrees F, the last thing I want is hot tea.  Cold infusions are fantastic.

If you are looking for ideas of herbs to start with, my “tea cabinet” is always stocked with the following: lemon balm,
linden, cinnamon, elderflower, lavender, hibiscus, sassafrass (forage), damiana, corn silk (which I get from fresh corn in the summer @ the farmers market), rose petals (forage), rose hips (forage), ginger (really, this one is in my freezer), apple (fridge), oranges (fridge), white pine needles (forage), red clover flowers (forage), chamomile, and yarrow.  I also supplement from fruits and veggies in the fridge and from my medicinal herbs…and even from commercial blends.  One of my favorite combinations is Bigelow’s Plantation Mint with sassafrass and orange slices.   Basically, get some herbs and start brewing!

Next time we’ll either talk about the science of infusions, or making them magic…I’m not sure which yet!

*Taste is mostly smell, so the smell of an herb can offer you a lot of information on how an herb will taste.  If you are wondering how to record the aroma and taste of each herb, this site which talks about the smells of essential oils and picking combinations that go together, offers a good introduction which is herb-specific.  Other sites that might help–this one and this one on the terminology describing food flavors, or this one on the technique of wine tasting, and this one on spices.

**Medicinal teas are really not the same as non-medicinal ones.  They are generally stronger, and prepared as a decoction, rather than a simple infusion.  Also, some herbs that one might use medicinally aren’t meant to be used very often internally.  Medicinal teas should also be prepared by the weight of herb (which is more precise).  I do still advocate knowing the medicinal properties for non-medicinal teas, because some medicinal properties correspond to psychology–an herb used to calm the digestive system is often useful in settling nerves as well, as well as for magical properties that might have been overlooked.  Also, I advocate keeping track of the medical contraindications (like pregnancy and medications and common allergens) and dosages so that you can make the appropriate decisions regarding how much of a herb (or none) that you should use based on your own medical condition (and that of any one you are serving).

Ring in the New Year With a Tree

Tags

bioregionalism, native plants, trees, witch, witchcraft

So…I’ve been doing a fair amount of internet browsy-browsy out of sheer laziness on my part.  Part of it is because I’m still recovering a bit from the ick, but mostly its because the weather has also been a bit ick…and I find the combination of the two to be a bit draining.  The Hubby sometimes makes the joke that I’m solar-powered–I have to have sunlight just to function.  I don’t fully wake up til the sun streams in the window and I need the shades open and fake lights off to really do justice to the day.  Working nights when I wa in the military was difficult, mainly because it was so darn hard for me to sleep in the day.

But my solar powered-ness isn’t really the point of this so much as some of my browsy-browsy ponderings, and what they suggest for our family for the new year.  I have a couple I’ll probably be turning into posts, but right now, this is the one I’ve been thinking upon for most of the day:

If Druids indeed live all over the planet then we need to know the magical trees and their lives and uses more than we need to know the trees of Britain I would think. Indeed I think it’s kind of lazy not to know what is around you and waiting for your attention. So who is outside your window waiting for you to notice?

From Adventures and Musings of a Hedgewitch

Holly-effing-loo-lah!

Seriously, I’ve been wondering this forever.  Its not just Druidry and trees–thumb through just about any herbal correspondence.  Same thing there too.

Southern Live Oak (Quercus virginiana) & photo for Day 2 of the First 31 Photo Challenge, taken on my cell phone since my real camera is in the car, which is at work with The Hubby!

I’ve said it enough times that I think I’m a broken record on the subject, but part of being a witch is being part of one’s environment.  That means knowing my local plants and animals, knowing where my water comes from, what my geography means for my weather patterns, what the natural AND human history of my land base is, and where my soil comes from. That means darn well knowing what my local trees are!

We have birch, and willow and ash too…but there ain’t no bald cypress in England (or, for that matter, any outside of a fairly narrow range in the southeastern US).  And any witch worth her salt within spittin’ distance of a bald cypress should be able to tell you that its one of the most woo woo plants out there.  Not to mention sassafras, the paw paw, live oak…

Every one of us lives in a unique ecosystem with a unique history.  Our ecosystem can strengthen us, can teach us, can shape us…if we let it.  If we know how to talk to it–and more importantly, if we know how to listen to it.

Which brings me to this year’s bloggy goal (I prefer goals over resolutions): Be more bioregional in purpose and practice.

And that gets us back to trees…

Which tree species are in your yard?  On your block?  In your neighborhood?  In your bioregion?  How many of them are native vs. naturalized?   Are any of them invasive?  What animals make their homes in them? What do they provide to the ecosystem?  What do they look like in the different seasons of the year?  How do they disperse their seeds?

What do they say to you when you sit under one of them or climb into its branches?

Get to Know Your Tree Resources:
Leafsnap, an Ipad app (as I twiddle my thumbs waiting for the android version…)
The Arbor Day Foundation (has tons of stuff, from an online tree guide to growing info)
Making an herbarium
Our family’s Year of a Leaf Meditation
A Must Read Book

July Forage: Sassy-frass!

Tags

foraging, nature, ponce de leon, sassafras, tea

Sassafras albidum (or Sassy-frass!, as both Chickadee and Sharkbait call it) is one of four species of deciduous trees in the Sassafras genus (and part of the Laurel family), one of which is extinct. It is native to the eastern US and Canada and commonly found in open woods as part of the understory, and along roadsides and fence lines. Sassafras is easily identified by its unique leaves, which come in three (or four, depending on how you look at it) shapes on the same tree. As Chickadee puts it, sassafrass leaves come in “feather”, “mitten” (which can be right or left-handed, and why some claim there are 4 leaf shapes), or “ghost” shapes. Sassafras flowers in the spring and produces dark blue fruits in late summer/early fall (FYI: fruits are inedible).

Nicholas Monardes, botanist and doctor in 16th century Spain is said to be responsible for naming the Sassafras tree (thought to be a bastardization of the word saxifrage), which was discovered by Ponce de Leon in his quest for the Fountain of Youth (Señor Monardes also has the honor of a genus of herbs including bee balm being named after him, as well as the more dubious claim to an unshakable faith in the curative ability of tobacco smoke). Various Native American tribes used sassafras medicinally, and it was one of the first exports to Europe, while early Colonists popularized the several century long practice of sweetening it with molasses and fermenting it into root beer.  Today sassafras has been somewhat vilified as a commercial food product (more about that later), though many herbalists and foragers remain fans, and it is the traditional component of filé powder (used in making gumbo filé).

Personally, I grew up with a bottle of Pappy’s Sassafras Tea Concentrate (which is safrole free) in my momma’s cupboard, and iced sassafras tea was one of my favorite treats.  Sassafras has been one of my favorite trees for about as long as I can remember. It smells great, tastes great, is fun to say, and is absolutely spectacular in the fall. And the best part of a sassafras tree is when you spot one on a long, hot, sweaty, buggy hike –sassafras is an awesome skeeter bite remedy (chewing a bite of a fresh leaf and applying it to a mosquito bite reduces the swelling and relieves the itching better than any thing I’ve tried before).  The crushed leaves are also reputed to be a decent insect repellent, though I haven’t ever set out to specifically test it out (though I have noticed it keeps the skeeters off your assets when used as on-the-trail toilet paper!).

By and large, sassafras products are not found in stores (file powder in specialty stores and safrole free products being the exception). Since 1960, FDA regulations have banned products containing safrole for internal consumption, due to its potential as a carcinogen that has been demonstrated to cause liver cancer in rats in a laboratory setting (though the actual carcinogenic risk of sassafras in humans is difficult to judge).  Even so, many foragers (like me) consider the occasional indulgence in a glass (or mug) of sassafrass tea to be no more harmful than the occasional indulgence in an alcoholic beverage (alcohol, of course, has also been linked to higher incidence of cancers).  I make my sassafras tea from the leaves, rather than the root, which contains less safrole (two or three crushed playing card sized leaves to a quart of water makes a nice mild sassafras tea–I like it iced and sweet).  Fowever, if you do choose to forage for sassafras, there are there are some things to keep in mind (enter the big fat warning).

Warning: Oil of sassafras has about an 80% safrole content, and the root bark of the tree contains about 6-9% oil of sassafrass, the roots in their entirety contain about 2% oil of sassafrass, and the leaves contain about 1%.   In excess, sassafras can cause nausea and vomiting and be toxic in large doses–acute toxicity often presents with profuse sweating, rapid heartbeat, hypertension, and hallucinations (a dose of just 0.66 mg safrole per kg body weight can be hazardous for humans). It is a known emmenagogue and abortificant, and should not be used by pregnant women.  Don’t give sassafras to children internally. Persons with liver disease or cancer should avoid sassafras.  Check here for more information on sassafras as a medicinal plant, or its toxicity potential.

In herbal magic, sassafras’s uses are centered around health and money, though in Appalachian folklore, a bit of sassafras bark is also said to protect one against the evil eye. Sassafras is associated as a male herb, with the planet Jupiter and the element Fire.

More items of interest:
How to make sassafras tea (from the roots)
How to make filé powder
Sassafras recipes (and amusement)
Botanical information
Harvesting roots