I had a HUGE Burdock weed in my front flower bed that was beginning to seed. What to do. Well, I've been reading about how beneficial it is for liver health, and in all earthy honesty liver health helps monthly cycle health and I'm still trying to get all that sorted. Anyway, I dug up the burdock root.
Ha. It sounds so simple doesn't it! Just dig it up. Pah! Those suckers are called tenacious weeds for a reason! A spade, garden knife, moved flower-bed and a few new callouses later, I had a broken bedraggled burdock root. Apparently digging up weed roots gets easier with time. I'm hoping its true! If not, Mountain Rose Herbs has it for sale. (Altho I have a couple of friends who would justifiably smack me for frugal failure if i did so. PAYING some hippies in Oregon to dig up weeds for me?!)
I then proceeded to decoct a tea. Decocting is the method of boiling roots and barks of medicinal plants until a nice stout tea is brewed. A more intense brewing of tea if you will.
I based this tea off of Rosemary Gladstar's herbal root beer, and in that recipe she very clearly states to NOT add too much dandelion root. Did I listen? Ha! Of course not.
So equal parts of dandelion, burdock, sarsparilla, some sassafras just because, a little fo-ti, and enough ginger to pickle the faint of heart. Aaaand a little cardamom, because I couldn't resist. Oh and cinnamon. And just a dash of nutmeg... and at that point I had to force myself to stop sprinkling a little of this and a little of that in. It gets bad sometimes. I hope when I take my herbalism course it will cure me of my 'a pinch more of this and just a dash more of that!" thing I have going on. I've tried drinking just raspberry leaf tea... and then five more herbs end up in the teapot, so I still don't know what JUST raspberry leaf tea tastes like...
So this particular herbal tea was not one of my most favorites, nor on the list of amazing successes. It is incredibly bitter, and I simply cannot drink it straight. I added about a quarter cup of raw honey to about 2 quarts of tea, and then had to cut it with raw milk by about half. THAT made it into a delightful iced chai tasting concoction, so maybe its not a complete failure after all. And every sip I've taken I can almost hear my liver, gallbladder and gut thank me. So there's that plus too...
However I am NOT introducing this blend to my husband without a huuuuuge 'taste this at your own risk, dear!" disclaimer. I really am blessed with how cooperative he is about trying my new concoctions!
Ha. It sounds so simple doesn't it! Just dig it up. Pah! Those suckers are called tenacious weeds for a reason! A spade, garden knife, moved flower-bed and a few new callouses later, I had a broken bedraggled burdock root. Apparently digging up weed roots gets easier with time. I'm hoping its true! If not, Mountain Rose Herbs has it for sale. (Altho I have a couple of friends who would justifiably smack me for frugal failure if i did so. PAYING some hippies in Oregon to dig up weeds for me?!)
I then proceeded to decoct a tea. Decocting is the method of boiling roots and barks of medicinal plants until a nice stout tea is brewed. A more intense brewing of tea if you will.
I based this tea off of Rosemary Gladstar's herbal root beer, and in that recipe she very clearly states to NOT add too much dandelion root. Did I listen? Ha! Of course not.
So equal parts of dandelion, burdock, sarsparilla, some sassafras just because, a little fo-ti, and enough ginger to pickle the faint of heart. Aaaand a little cardamom, because I couldn't resist. Oh and cinnamon. And just a dash of nutmeg... and at that point I had to force myself to stop sprinkling a little of this and a little of that in. It gets bad sometimes. I hope when I take my herbalism course it will cure me of my 'a pinch more of this and just a dash more of that!" thing I have going on. I've tried drinking just raspberry leaf tea... and then five more herbs end up in the teapot, so I still don't know what JUST raspberry leaf tea tastes like...
So this particular herbal tea was not one of my most favorites, nor on the list of amazing successes. It is incredibly bitter, and I simply cannot drink it straight. I added about a quarter cup of raw honey to about 2 quarts of tea, and then had to cut it with raw milk by about half. THAT made it into a delightful iced chai tasting concoction, so maybe its not a complete failure after all. And every sip I've taken I can almost hear my liver, gallbladder and gut thank me. So there's that plus too...
However I am NOT introducing this blend to my husband without a huuuuuge 'taste this at your own risk, dear!" disclaimer. I really am blessed with how cooperative he is about trying my new concoctions!