With the approaching Autumn, I begin to think about making “root medicine”.  The flurry of summer activity is beginning to wind down, the kids are back to school and I start thinking about the coming seasons. I’m pulling “in” a bit and so are the plants.  If you stop to think about a plant’s life it becomes evident that this is the perfect time of year to harvest roots.  After the rush of putting on stem and leaf in the Spring - think lettuce, spinach, & asparagus -and fruit and/or seeds in the summer, when we collect those gifts, a plant begins to pull its energy back into the Earth in preparation for the coming winter, concentrating nutrients and phytochemicals in the roots.  It is the perfect time to collect plant roots to make into medicinal concoctions. 

The first thing to concern yourself when collecting any wild plants for food or medicine is that you have absolutely correctly identified the plant you’re going to use.  There are many good field guides for this purpose.  After that, one must decide how to preserve the harvest.  The roots can simply be dried for future use in teas or may be made into an alcohol extract.  This is my favorite way to preserve medicinal roots.  Frankly I don’t weigh the roots and measure the alcohol.  I simply wash my roots, cut them up well in a food processor if the roots are soft enough, put them in a glass container and pour some 60 proof vodka or brandy over that.  (Roughly about 4 ounces of herb to 8 -10 ounces of alcohol).  Leave it for about 4 weeks.  Strain if you want to - but it’s not necessary.  This mixture will last a VERY long time.  You should use it well before it goes bad.  

In our area of the Black Hills there is an abundance of plants whose roots we can gather and make into medicine.  Echinacea is probably the most well known and is sold all over the world, but there are others as well: burdock, yellow dock, dandelion, licorice, oregon grape, low mallow and false solomon seal.  When collecting any plants it is also important to be aware of the legality of your actions.  In some public areas gathering plants is considered poaching.  On private property it goes without saying that one needs permission.  Also it is considered unethical (if not illegal) to gather rare or endangered species or to over-gather in a single place.  Instead, think of the future (yours and the plants) and gather with gratitude and prayer, if that works for you. You might consider leaving a gift of some type, as many indigenous cultures do. Ask a blessing on your work, bury some seeds to help the plant proliferate.  Make gathering a sacred act.

Use Lambs Quarters just like you would spinach, exchanging it equally in nearly any recipe. Cooked or raw, it has a mild, delicious flavor any time of the year. In Spring the leaves are the largest so that’s the easiest time to gather. As the season progresses the plant adds side shoots which have much smaller leaves. This nutritional powerhouse is listed as the #1 most nutritious plant according tothe USDA’s bulletin “Composition of Foods”, ahead of collards, spinach and even broccoli. The simplest way to prepare is to simply wash the leaves, put into a sauce pan wet with just a little bit more water and lightly saute for about 5 minutes. Add some butter, salt and pepper to taste and you’re done - Enjoy!

You know those weeds out in the yard? Yeah, those weeds that you’ve spent the summer trying to eradicate. Those weeds that have survived the heat and lack of water, even when the lawn and garden, which you’ve pampered, watered, hoed and fertilized, persist in wilting and barely eeking out survival in South Dakota. Well those weeds are the very foods and medicines so treasured by our ancestors that they ever so carefully brought plants and seeds with them from their homes far away to their new homes in the New World. In fact they’re still the same foods grown in many countries as an agricultural product. About a month ago, I met a woman, new to this country, who had come to Earth Goods looking for organic produce. One of the vegetables she wanted to order was Dandelion greens, which incidentally retails for about 7.00 per pound, anyway when told that it grew wild everywhere she absolutely did not believe it. When taken outside and showed the abundance of her favorite green veggie one would have thought that she was shown where to pick up gold nuggets – she was that excited! At this point I can hear what you’re thinking, “ I don’t care what they’re good for! I am never gonna let a dandelion set root in my yard”. Well hear me out and just maybe I can persuade someone to leave just a little bit of yard space for dandelions and other tasty nutritious plants – AKA weeds.

Let us start with that bane of the Kentucky Blue Warrior Society; the mighty dandelion. Dandelion is listed as number four on the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture’s list of nutritious greens. Incidentally among the top 3 are two other “noxious” weeds, Lamsquarters and Pigweed. With the remaining cultivar the ever-popular Collard green. Dandelion is very high in calcium, containing twice as much as Spinach. It is also high in many other vitamins and minerals, and is higher in both vitamin A and magnesium than any other green. Taraxacum, the Latin name of dandelion, is from the Greek taraxos meaning disorder, and akos meaning remedy. So here we have a remedy for nearly any disorder. The leaves made into a tea are a very good and safe diuretic that does not cause a loss of potassium. They are an aid to weight loss and are known as a spring tonic, which helps remove the winter toxins from the blood. The French call it “piss-a-bed”, attesting to its strong diuretic action. The roots are a wonderful liver herb, which helps to increase the flow of bile from the liver. This has many health implications such as improved digestion, lower cholesterol levels, and detoxification which in itself may help reduce pain and stiffness, improve mental clarity and improve general well being. It also makes a tasty coffee substitute. The trick is to gather it at the right time. Leaves are best in spring and fall when they are young and before it blooms. Roots are best gathered in the fall. Both roots and leaves can be dried for tea or one can freeze or can the leaves to enjoy later.

Another great wild food which I am sure most everyone is battling since I see it everywhere, is the above mentioned, #1 nutritious green – Lambsquarters. This fabulous tasting green which is related to Spinach, has a whooping 30% of the daily need for calcium in only a 3 ½ ounce serving. It is also high in vitamins A, B2, B3, C, Phosphorus and fiber. To top it off, I think this is the most delicious green there is! Collect it anytime, young leaves are best. Treat it just as you would spinach.

One of the most useful weeds in the yard, especially if one spends lengthy time outdoors, is Plantain. This plant’s leaves can be mashed up and put on any type of skin irritation that can occur, abrasions, insect bites, poison ivy or any various skin rash imaginable. Just pluck a leaf, chew it up and plop it on the problem. If that isn’t to your liking you can also make a simple oil by chopping a bunch of leaves and soaking them in oil for a few weeks. Strain and you have healing skin oil. Plantain also acts as a great drawing salve for things like splinters, pimples and again insect bites.

Many other so-called noxious weeds make great medicine, plants such as mullein, burdock, purslane, nettle and chickweed. I would wager that all of these plants are found within a block of all of our homes. There’s also the whole issue of pesticide and herbicide use, which could be drastically reduced if we just started harvesting some of what nature is so generously providing. This would be good for us, our kids, our pets, and our planet., and just think how easy it would be to grow “a garden” of weeds. It makes perfect sense to utilize these fabulous natural resources which are so safe and best of all free. It also seems sensible to subscribe to the adage “if you can’t beat ‘em, eat ‘em”.