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Posts Tagged ‘flower beds’

Chickweed Vinegar

Posted in farming, gardening, radical homemaking, spring, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on March 27, 2012| 10 Comments »

Northerners may not believe me, but I’m late harvesting the chickweed already. Tangled mats of Stellaria media have been sprawling over my aspiring flower beds and all through the composting area of the yard for weeks. Life’s daily demands (feed, wash, rinse, repeat) interfered with sterilizing jars and picking and chopping, but I finally remembered to put some jars and lids in the stockpot to boil this morning. I have had vinegar tinctures spoil in the past, so for this preparation I cut no corners.  Alcohol tinctures are more forgiving, but vinegar extracts chickweed’s rich mineral stores more efficiently. (Also it will make a delightful vinaigrette by midsummer.)

more than enough

The basic process I learned from Susun Weed’s book Healing Wise is simple: fill a sterile jar with fresh plant material, then fill it with vinegar and cover.

all done

I may need to “top it off” in a day or two, then it sits out of direct light and the extraction takes care of itself over several weeks.

Double-checking the botanical name and the plant description, I found mention of a poisonous lookalike I had never heard of. While I doubt I would ever mistake chickweed it bears repeating that care should always be exercised when foraging and wildcrafting. The safety and potential benefits of nature’s offerings depend completely on accurate identification. Reckless harvesting of improperly identified plant material does not show a person is one with nature, it shows a lack of respect for nature’s power and diversity. I wouldn’t want anyone to hesitate to learn more about foraging and making plant medicines, but I also wouldn’t want anyone getting sick from “wild plant bravado.” So that’s my disclaimer 🙂

Now to wash, rinse, repeat again…

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