Goldenseal is a low-lying, herbaceous plant native to Southeastern Canada and the Northeastern U.S in the Ranunculacea family. It’s stem is hairy and purplish-green above ground, but yellow b…
This Herbalist Day, Mimi Hernandez, RH(AHG) shares with us a celebratory cheer with her sparkling Mimi’s Mimosa Mimosa recipe!
Wild violets are edible and medicinal and come up in the late winter or early spring. Foraging wild violets is easy as they are very common!
Many of us look forward to the arrival of spring farmers’ markets but there’s another source of beautiful, seasonal greens: your own yard or local park! Plants like dandelions, chickweed, and lamb’s quarters are often dismissed as weeds, yet in many cases they are even more nutritious than cultivated produce — and quite delicious, too.
Photographs and information about Inflated Lobelia, Indian Tobacco - Lobelia inflata
Mullein is one of the most recognizable, medicinal and useful plants. Foraging for mullein is easy and fun!
Woolly mullein is extremely beneficial. Here's how to identify it, forage for it and use mullein.
Horseradish at its best. Clearing out pathogens, stuck mucus and keeping things moving. I am so excited to share this NEW herbal remedy with you.
Scientific Name(s): Lactuca spp. Abundance: uncommon What: young leaves, shoots, flower buds/stalks How: leaves & shots raw or boiled; flower buds/stalks cooked Where: woods, fields, disturbed areas, moist areas When: spring Nutritional Value: fiber, some minerals Medicinal Summary: Sap - sedative, cough suppressant; soothes chronic pain; anti-anxiety (tisane, tincture) There are twelve different wild Lactuca species, of which I've only found three. These are Lactuca serriola (aka prickly lettuce), Lactuca canadensis, and Lactuca floridana. Lactuca floridana and Lactuca serriola are fairly common in the Houston area while Lactuca canadensis appears more frequently in areas north and east of Houston. Lactuca canadensis. Note the lobed leaves at the base and unlobed leaves up higher. Young Lactuca floridana. All leaves are lobed. Mature Lactuca floridana. Lactuca floridana flower. Texas distribution, attributed to U. S. Department of Agriculture. The marked counties are guidelines only. Plants may appear in other counties, especially if used in landscaping. North American distribution, attributed to U. S. Department of Agriculture. Both the tasty Lactuca canadenesis and the somewhat bitter Lactuca floridana can grow 7-9 feet tall. Lactuca canadenesis Structural Features: Leaf Arrangement: Leaves start out as basal rosette and deeply lobed when plant is young then grow alternating along the stem. Leaves higher up the stem are much less lobed than those at the base. Leaf Shape: The leaves are lanceolate to oblanceolate, measuring 2 to 12 inches in length and 0.5 to 2 inches in width. Leaf Venation: Pinnate veins system. Leaf Margin: The leaf margin is typically serrated or toothed. Leaf Color: Medium to dark green Flower Structure: Many small (<0.5" diameter), flower heads arranged in clusters at the ends of stems. Flower Color: The petals of the flower heads are yellow. Fruit: The fruit consists of small achenes with a pappus (tuft of hairs) for dispersal. Seed: Achenes are small and brown, often with a pappus attached. Stem: The stem is erect, branching, and when damaged it produces white sap that very quickly turns yellow. Hairs: Fine hairs/spines along rib on underside of leaf. Height: Lactuca canadensis can reach heights of 4 to 9 feet. Lactuca floridana Structural Features: Leaf Arrangement: Leaves start out as basal rosette and then grow alternating along the stem. Leaves are deeply lobed in all positions and age. Leaf Shape: The leaves are lanceolate to oblanceolate, measuring 2 to 12 inches in length and 0.5 to 2 inches in width. Leaf Venation: Pinnate veins system. Leaf Margin: The leaf margin is typically serrated or toothed. Leaf Color: Medium to dark green Flower Structure: Many small (<0.5" diameter), flower heads arranged in clusters at the ends of stems. Flower Color: The petals of the flower heads are blue-white. Fruit: The fruit consists of small achenes with a pappus (tuft of hairs) for dispersal. Seed: Achenes are small and brown, often with a pappus attached. Stem: The stem is erect, branching, and when damaged it produces white sap that very quickly turns yellow. Hairs: Fine hairs/spines along rib on underside of leaf. Height: Lactuca floridana can reach heights of over 14 feet. How to tell them apart: L. canadenesis Leaves: deeply lobed at base of plant but much more un-lobed, grass-like at top of plant. Sap: white at first but quickly turns dark yellowish as it dries. Flowers: yellow. Height: 5-9 feet L. biennis Sap: stays white even after drying. Leaves: deeply lobed from base of plant all the way to those at top. Flowers: blue-white. Height: up to 16 feet. The young leaves of L. canadenesis have a slight bitterness, even less than some arugulas, and can be added to salads raw. The flower stalks are tender before the flowers open and can be snapped off and cooked similar to asparagus. L. biennis is extremely bitter even when very young. Boiling in multiple changes of water helps but most people still don't like it, plus that removes any minerals. On the plus side, the plants produce a LOT of leaves, so you can get a lot of food from it. There is some record of wild lettuces being smoked for medicinal purposes but it is supposedly a very harsh smoke and must be mixed with other herbs to reduce this harshness. The sap is collected by pureeing the leaves and stem, squeezing out the juice through a tightly-woven fabric, then boiled down to a black, gooey tar. This tar contains the sedative/pain relieving compounds lactucin and lactucopicrin. The tar is usually taken by dissolving a pea-sized drop of it in a shot of alcohol. Buy my book! Outdoor Adventure Guides Foraging covers 70 of North America's tastiest and easy to find wild edibles shown with the same big pictures as here on the Foraging Texas website.
Yarrow (Achillea millefolium) is one of the most useful and widely available herbs you can find. Once you know how to identify yarrow, you'll see it everywhere. The plant has dozens of traditional uses, most of
A classic but often overlooked herbal preparation, oxymels have been used for ages for a variety of respiratory and immune system issues including coughs, mucus, and difficulty breathing. Made from vinegar and honey, oxymels are a tasty and simple herbal preparation to make.
Today I made delicious homemade summer lemonade with sweet clover flowers. Yellow sweet clover (Melilotus officinalis) – which is also called yellow melilot, king’s clover, common melilot, honey clover and ribbed melilot – is a tall herb which grows on wastelands, blooms in June and July and has a sweet coumarin flavor. Ingredients handful yellow sweet … Continue reading Yellow Sweet Clover Lemonade (Melilotus officinalis) →
Bitters are vital to health, and most people don't get enough. This bitters recipe is easy to make and convenient to use.
Lemon bam is an edible and medicinal herb in the mint family. You may not have heard of it, but you've probably seen it and may even have some growing in your own backyard. Learn how to identify lemon balm, how to forge for it, how to grow it, and its many culinary and herbal medicine uses. Plus a recipe for lemon balm iced tea!
Horsetail has been used for centuries for it's variety of health and cosmetic benefits. It's easy to find and harvest in the wild!
When is the best time to harvest yarrow? Like waiting on strawberries to be ripe, judging the best time to harvest yarrow means you'll need to check your plants periodically and evaluate what stage they have reached. Here's how to tell when they are ready to harvest.
Spring wildflowers are the most prominent feature in our forests at this time of the year, while cold-season weeds are most prominent in the vegetable fields. If you want to see images of the sprin…
Make the most of St. John's Wort's healing power by using St. John's Wort for mood and body ailments with these two easy DIY projects.
This is a simple mead recipe that is very easy to put together. Learn how to make mead using this beginner's recipe!
Get relief from seasonal allergies, sneezing, and stuffy nose with these eight herbs.
Harness the healing power of plants with these 10 ways to use yarrow for use in external and internal home remedies to slow bleeding, reduce fevers, & more.
Skullcap (Scutellaria species) Monograph, The Medicinal Uses of Skullcap
Nutritional powerhouse, medicinal herb, and... ancient aphrodisiac?! Common mallow is much maligned in the garden as just another weed, but there's more to this wild forage than you think. Not only is the entire plant edible (from roots to fruits), it was once described as having magical sexual powe
Meet this common and effective medicinal mushroom.
Meadowsweet elixir is a home remedy for pain, headaches, acid reflux and more. This recipe extracts the medicinal properties of the meadowsweet with alcohol and glycerin.
Easy to find and multiple uses makes foraging for dandelions a worthwhile springtime endeavor!
Linden flowers are only up in the trees for about 2 weeks a year, but that's just long enough to harvest a few handfuls for a wild foraged linden mead. The linden blossoms are used
Finding immune-supportive, antiviral herbs for autoimmune disease requires an extra layer of care and research by the individual or practitioner.
Usnea is an all around infection fighter, combatting bacteria, inflammation and pain. This tincture is perfect for acute complaints or long term use.
Most of us are familiar with vegetable gardens and herb gardens- but what about your own tea garden? (Catnip tea brewing in our Tea Posy pot.) I love a good black tea in the afternoon, but herbal teas are my friends for various health benefits. I have paid premium prices for a small bit of […]
Yellowroot’s elegant, subtle maroon flowers are just emerging in March in the mountains of North Carolina. It grows abundantly in central and southern Appalachia near forest streams that are wide enough to allow a moderate amount of sunlight.
This homemade echinacea tea is just what the doctor ordered to help clear up a cold. Echinacea boosts the immune system while lemongrass and peppermint help clear the sinuses.
Fantastic website that teaches people how to have fun while saving money!!
Spring is a great time for foraging! Learn what to forage in spring with this list of 20 edible and medicinal plants and fungi. Spring foraging is fun!
Whether you're growing sassafras tree or not, read these sassafras tree facts. Sassafras is a North American tree famous for its ornamental features and culinary and medicinal uses.
I've just returned home from my camping trip. It was a great time away and I managed to do some walking, reading and some good eating too! I also ended up with a good burn. The second day out, the sun was popping in and out of some cloud cover and the wind was cool. I didn't pay attention to how long I'd been in the sun and ended up with a rather severe burn on my legs and the tops of my feet. Luckily I had packed a jar of salve I had made with chickweed, plantain and mallow from my yard. These amazing healers are the weeds that people dig out of their lawns and toss away. I just cant part with these plants, and it's a good thing too. My burn went from painful and sure-to-blister, to calm and healing in no time. Plantain pops up in my yard in both long-leaf and broad-leaf form. It is probably my favourite all-purpose healer. It is touted as a styptic, a blood cleanser, a cooling touch on skin, an itch-remover and is even a great pulling herb (will pull foreign matter from the body - slivers, etc.) I include it in any healing salve I'm making. Chickweed is also a cooling herb and is very soothing on burns, rashes and cuts. Common Mallow is another "weed" that pops up all over here. Not only is it edible, but it also has anti-inflammatory properties that make it a wonderful addition to healing salves. If you don't have time to make a salve, simply chew or mash one or more of these plants into a pulp and place them directly on the wound. With Midsummer's Eve here and summer just starting to heat up, a little sun-preparedness is never a bad idea. Make sure you check your yard for these cooling herbal helpers!
Can you believe that Easter is less than two weeks away? I swear, it feels like I’m still digesting Thanksgiving dinner. I must be getting old. Needless to say, Erica, Karen and I had to celebrate . . . you know how we do it! Two words: Easter brunch. We got you covered. This year, […]
Blending other plants and herbs with cannabis to create a smoking blend is pretty popular. Find out more about smoking blends on Leafly.
The summer solstice is a perfect time for harvesting and preserving herbs! Here's the complete guide to preserving the culinary and medicinal bounty of the herb garden. (This post was contributed by Melissa Keyser.) If I
Maitake mushrooms are high in protein, B vitamins, potassium, and fiber. They are also very beneficial to the immune system! Here's a delicious recipe as well as other ways to use this healthy food.
Slippery elm bark contains a substance that becomes slick and slippery when mixed with water, hence the name. The tree has been used in herbal medicine in this country for centuries. For more informat
