You never know when you’re going to run out of food and have to start foraging, right? No . . not really but there are herbs/weeds that have medicinal value and I think we’ve (Vince and I) have gotten too attached to buying mass produced supplements, some of which are made from naturally grown, organic herbs but we’ve been wanting to learn more about what grows around here and what we can and cannot use.
Vince has been wanting stinging nettle tea and the stinging nettles haven’t emerged yet. If I’m lucky, I pulled them all up and we’ll never see them again but I don’t think I’m that lucky. He said “Come out to the garden with me and let’s look for stinging nettle!” It’s funny that I’m out there looking for that evil weed to make tea and in a few months, I’ll be cursing it for stinging me every day.
There’s a plant identification group on Facebook and I check with the for anything I’m not sure about.
This one is is marrubium vulgare or white horehound. This one has medicinal value!
This one is lactuca serriola. It gets huge thorns on it later in the season. They will go through the toughest gloves. I hate this plant and, of course, it’s the most common one we seem to have in the garden area. There are some culinary and medicinal uses but I don’t like anything about this plant.
This one is Lamium purpureum and it’s my favorite of the three shown today. There’s a lot I can do with this plant and the chickens love it too. It’s growing all over the yard so every time I go out to see them, I bring them a handful of it. Before it gets to big and mostly stems, I need to pick a bunch of it and freeze dry it.
I’m on the lookout for plantain but I don’t know if I have that growing here or not!
Paula Nordt says
What is the name of the Facebook plant identification group? I don’t want to get the wrong group. I sure could use this!
Judy Laquidara says
Plant Identification. This is the one with no discussion – just say where the plant is growing and post a picture. They aren’t supposed to share anything about it – just the name. There are brilliant people in there. Within seconds someone most always answers.
Phyllis says
Isn’t the third plant called henbit? Never knew chickens like it. Maybe named appropriately?
Judy Laquidara says
Yes! I had never heard it called henbit but I googled it and apparently that is why they call it “hen”bit. And, yes, it is the same thing as purple dead nettle.
Ava says
I have used plantain twice, once with poison ivy and once with a spider bite and it helped with both.
Judy Laquidara says
Does it grow wild there?
Nelle Coursey says
I guess that is why they call that Chickweed!
Susan Nixon says
Herbalism is so interesting! I get some things from Mountain Rose Herbs and they have lots of free information and recipes for how to use some of them, too. That’s where I got the essential oils to make perfumes with Miss R, too.
Judy Laquidara says
I love Mountain Rose Herbs and have used them for years.
Joyce says
When I was little, I would pick “bouquets” of henbit for my Grandma and Mom. They didn’t care since it was a weed, and I wasn’t picking all the good flowers. 🙂 They would dutifully put them in water and admire my gift! (And sometimes tell me to go pick more…) LOL