Fennel and Kale Delight

Our first fennel bulb of the year finally came made its way to the kitchen. Looking at it, I realized how much my body missed eating fresh salads. The winter weather is quickly turning into Spring. The appearance of bulbs and fresh wild greens unfurling from the forest floor is letting my body know it’s time to wake up! Put the stews and soups on rest and eat something fresh… I hope you enjoy this transitional time salad.

 

Fennel Kale Combo Salad

Ingredients:

1 bunch kale

1 small bulb fennel

2 stalks celery, diced

1 apple, diced or cut to liking

½ cup sunflower seeds

1 Tbsp fresh thyme, finely diced

1 Tbsp Dijon mustard

Juice of 1 lemon

1-2 Tbsp maple syrup

½ cup olive oil

½ cup dried cranberries

crumbled goat cheese

Dash of salt and pepper

 

Directions:

1.     Take midribs out of kale and chop leaves, put into bowl.

2.     Massage kale with half of lemon juice and ¼ cup of olive oil.

3.     Thinly chop fennel bulb until you reach the leaves. Discard the leaves (feed to rabbits, they can eat fennel too!) and put chopped material into bowl with kale.

4.     Dice celery and add to kale, fennel mixture.

5.     Mix thyme with the rest of the lemon juice, maple syrup, olive oil, salt and pepper.

6.     Pour dressing over salad and top with cranberries, goat cheese and sunflower seeds.

7.     Toss and enjoy!

Plantain

Common Names: Plantain, English Plantain, Ribgrass

Botanical Name: Plantago major, P. lanceolata

Plant Family: Plantaginaceae

Parts Used: Seed, root, and leaf

Key Constituents: Mucilage, fatty acids, protein, starch, B vitamins, vitamin C, vitamin K, allantoin, bitters

Taste: Bland, slightly bitter

Energetics: Cool, moist

Actions: Antibacterial, demulcent, astringent, vulnerary, expectorant, drawing agent, poultice, laxative

Identification:

  • Plantain is a rosette-forming perennial herb
  • Basal leaves are lanceolate, scarcely toothed/mainly smooth edged and have 3-5 strong parallel veins
  • The easiest way of identifying plantain, is by it’s venation. If you end up picking the leaf, you’ll notice that the stringy white cores of the vein will snap longer than the leaf base.
  • There is one flower head per stalk and the stalks grow far longer than the leaves.
  • I compare the flower heads to cone heads with strange halos around the top :)

 

Here are two types of plantain that you'll see most often...

Broad-leaf plantain, Plantago major:                                                                    Narrow-leaf plantain, Plantago lanceolata:

Photos by Rachael Witt

Photos by Rachael Witt

Plantain Medicine:

·       Plantain draws toxicity from the body. It is a supremely healing herb for almost any injury to the skin and mucosa, it is most well known for its efficiency at treating external wounds and bug bites.

·       Plantain is also very useful in the treatment of any number of internal ailments as well, including IBS, gastric ulcers, bronchitis, food poisoning and any other hot, inflamed condition that needs some moistening and cooling.

·       The plant is a cell proliferent (inducing rapid creation of new cells in order to more quickly heal some kind of wound or abrasion) and so quite effective for local or systemic irritation as well as slow healing breaks in the integrity of the skin or mucosa. (Source unknown)

·       It’s soothing capabilities are helpful for bronchitis and pneumonia.

·       Its seeds are comparable to psyllium husk and are known to help aid the digestive system.

·       Eat plantain leaves and boost your Vitamin C and B.

·       Did I mention it “Draws” out infection and toxic injury to the skin?

My healing experience with plantain:

Three words: “Hot tub folliculitis.” Yes, after a lovely soak in a hot tub (or shall I say “warm” tub), I got a bacterial skin infection. It first looked like an in-grown hair on one of my legs, but quickly turned into a chicken pox outbreak all over my body.

Like chicken pox, I was itchy and uncomfortable. So, I soaked in a bath and started to put a plantain salve on as many “dots” as I possibly could. It was uncomfortable, but most of the rash was beginning to fade, aside from a few blemishes on my leg.

It turns out my bacterial skin infection went deeper into some of my leg hair follicles. Ouch. This infection did not itch, but instead became incredibly inflamed and filled with puss. I thought my salve would do the trick, but it felt as it the oil and wax was trapping the infection deeper in my pores. It was then that I walked out of my house and looked at the field in front of me just to find plantain leaves.

I immediately made a spit poultice and applied it to the inflamed (harden, at this point) pores. I felt immediate relief. The plantain cooled my skin down and actively drew out puss from the infection. In fact, the leaf itself became warm from the heat it was extracting. I ended up changing out the poultice every 10 minutes or so for as long as I could (admittedly, I bandaged the spit poultice with a plastic bag and an elastic bandage when I couldn’t tend to the infection for a couple of hours). After three days and many plantain leaves, the infection and inflammation were gone. Thank you FRESH PLANTAIN!

Preparing Plantain Leaf:

·       Spit poultice: Pluck a fresh plantain leaf and chew it well; then spit it on the wound. (Make sure it’s your spit, or perhaps a parent-child exchange)

·       Pounded poultice: Pound a large fresh plantain leaf between two stones; apply to wound. Wrap with cloth to hold poultice in place. Leave on for 30-45 minutes, changing wrap when necessary. The herbs may turn black and become very hot, which is a sign that toxins are being drawn out. Discard herbs and reapply new poultice if necessary.

·       Infused oil: Fill any dry glass jar, large or small, with chopped fresh-slightly dried (wilted) plantain leaves. Then fill jar to the very top with olive oil. Cover well. Label. Place in a bowl or on a plate. After six weeks, decant and use.

·       Salve: Warm infused oil. For each cup of finished infused oil, add ¼ cup beeswax. Heat the oil and beeswax together over very low heat (I use a double boiler or crock pot), stirring occasionally, until the beeswax had melted. Then do a quick consistency test…(don’t skip this step, it’s simple and ensures the desired thickness) place 1 tablespoon of mixture on plate, then let it sit in freezer for minute or two. Check the firmness of the slave. The more beeswax you use the harder the salve will be. For soft salve, add more oil. Once the mixture is at the right consistency, remove the blend from heat and pour immediately into small glass jars or tins. Store salve in a cool, dark place, where it will keep for months or even years!

Other Preparation: Fresh plant tincture, fresh plant or dried leaf for tea, depending on what you need. The dried plant is actually a very effective gut and skin healer, though it is much less effective than the fresh plant for venomous stings or bites.

Dosage: Tea/infusion by the cup, tincture by the dropperful, salve by the dollop and fresh plant by the leaf.

Cautions and Contradictions: None, except be sure not to overcool an already cool constitution with too much used internally over a long period of time.

 

Combinations:

Inflammation and dryness in the lungs: Marshmallow and Slippery Elm.

Chronic inflammation of the gut: Marshmallow, Slippery Elm and a bit of Rose plus a nice gentle aromatic like Chamomile or Fennel.

Plantain is the basis for a great many salves, but I especially like it combined with Cottonwood bud/bark, and Yarrow for an aromatic, stimulating yet very healing balm for all kinds of scrapes, cuts, abrasions, splinters and other first aid type needs.

 

 

Oh Yarrow

Photo by Rachael Witt

Photo by Rachael Witt

Common Names: Achillea, Devils Plaything, Devils Nettle, Soldier’s Woundwort

Botanical Name: Achillea millefolium
Plant Family: Asteraceae, Aster family
Parts used: Whole plant: Flowers, leaves, stems (not as medicinal) and roots
Taste: Aromatic, bitter
Energetics: Warm (and yet cooling), dry, spicy, bitter

Actions: Anti-inflammatory, antirheumatic, antiseptic, antispasmodic, anodyne (relieves pain), aromatic, astringent, carminative, diaphoretic, digestive, expectorant, hemostatic, hypotensive, stomachic, tonic

Identification:

·       Yarrow has alternate leaves that are in finely cut segments, giving each leaf segment a feathery appearance (a.k.a “bipinnate” or “tripinnate”).

·       Yarrow flowers in the summer and, A.millefolium has white flowers while other species or subspecies have pink, yellow or red flowers. The flowers look like tiny little daisies (both ray and disk flowers).

·       The cluster of flowers (a.k.a “inflorescence”) is flat-topped and has loose heads (cymes) that are terminal (at the end of the flowing stalk).

·       The whole plant has white, silky, appressed hairs, making it “pubescent”.

·       But, most of all, people recognize yarrow by its strong sweet scent, that you will also taste in teas or tinctures of the herb.

·       Yarrow is commonly found growing in dry soils of grassland, meadows and other clearings or roadsides. Once you i.d. it, you’ll start to see it everywhere.

·       Depending on the environment it can grow from 1-3 feet tall.

 

Yarrow Medicine

According to Greek mythology, Achilles painted himself with a solution of yarrow to make himself invulnerable to arrows. His commitment to using this herb was said to have spread throughout his regime. As men who fought with him carried dried yarrow to make spit poultices and stop bleeding amongst wounded soldiers.

The Micmac people of Maine, New Brunswick and Nove Scotia chewed the stalks to induce sweating to break fevers or help restore the body when taken by a cold. They also made poultices with the stalks to apply to bruises, sprains and inflammation.

Though not “medicinal,” yarrow can even be found in Chinese culture, yet mainly for consulting the oracle by manipulating yarrow stalks in reading the I Ching.

 

From folklore tales, historical uses and medicine case studies, we’ve concluded that yarrow can be used for the following:

·       Yarrow can stop heavy bleeding (pretty miraculously). It is commonly used for hemorrhoids, cuts, scrapes, post-partum care, and bruises. It can even be used to treat mouth sores.

·       Yarrow can also stop internal bleeding. Examples include excessive bleeding associated with uterine fibroids, bleeding hemorrhoids, urinary bleeding, coughs that produce bloody mucous, nosebleeds, and bleeding ulcers. (Rosalee de la Foret)

·       And also promotes circulatory flow, hypertension? Vericose veins?

·       Yarrow root for toothaches or spongy gums (make a tincture of the root and take internally) (Michael Moore).

·       Yarrow works as a wonderful bug repellant. 

·       It can be used for colds and flus, especially when a dry fever is present. Yarrow’s ability to promote sweating has made it a sacred herb used in sweat lodges.

·       Yarrow is an anodyne, quite effective at relieving pain. It can be used topically on bruises, musculoskeletal pain, and even arthritis. (Rosalee de la Foret)

 

Yarrow is my go-to herb. I always have a tincture at hand or dried flower and leaf material. I find that yarrow can help with nearly any problem I am dealing with. Even if I have a stomach ache I’ll take some yarrow to help ease my digestive pains (but I do prefer other herbs for digestion, if they’re around). Mostly, I use yarrow as a “disinfectant”. When I cut myself or need to clean a wound, I use yarrow. When I feel the onset of a cold, I use yarrow.

Spend time with yarrow, smell her sweetness and taste her bitterness. See what herbal remedy she brings to you..

 

Yarrow Remedies

Combinations:

Fever: elder flower, peppermint, boneset, cayenne and ginger

High blood pressure: hawthorn, lime blossom and mistletoe

 

Tea:

In a small pan, combine 1 tsp of the dried herb, chopped or crumbled, with 1 cup cold water. Cover the pan and bring the mixture to a quick boil, letting it steep for a while before straining it. A daily dose is 3 cups.

 

Tincture:

Mix the fresh juice with an equal amount of wine spirits (70% alcohol). Let the mixture steep in a closed container for 3 weeks before straining it into clean dropper bottles. A dose is 30 drops taken 3 times daily.

 

First Aid Kit:

Keep a tincture in your first aid kit, or have a container with dried, ground yarrow flower and leaf. Use the tincture to clean wounds and stop bleeding. Put dried herb on open wounds to help stop bleeding.

 

Yarrow Natural Insect Repellent:

Gather enough yarrow leaves and flowers to fit snugly in a jar.

Chop them up and put them in the jar.

Pour in vodka to the top of the jar.

Shake it every day for a first week.

Strain after 2 to 6 weeks.

Pour desired amount into a spray bottle and add catnip, lavender, lemon or lemon verbena essential oils.