After sticking my arm into a bunch of nettles yesterday, I chewed up a few plantain leaves and wiped the green stuff all over my forearm. Burning gone within a minute never to return.
Thanks for reading! A lot of the best constituents come out in the tea. We have a plantain containing tea formula for the waterpik to maintain the gums.
That's an interesting idea. Thanks for sharing. And actually, would you like to collaborate on an upcoming post? I'm going to share a recipe for homemade toothpaste, and I could pair it with this plantain tea formula. We could call it a 'Weed pairing,' lol!
I love the mushroomy flavour of plantain (especially our Aussie locals P. debilis and P. cunninghamii), although I think regular folks not used to eating weeds will dislike the bitter aftertaste.
Cooool! You have fuzzy plantain. P. debilis is much hairier than our rugelii, which is pretty naked. That non native plant in your article looks just like the P. lanceolata. After awhile of foraging, a lot of the cultivated leaves taste kind of bland. Josh, a self taught forager who lives not too far north of weedom has built a pretty big YouTube channel. He says he depended on foraging for awhile, due to economic troubles. He recovered financially, but eventually went back to eating wild food due to preference. He's at trilliumwildedibles.com.
Yes I can barely stand shop-bought lettuce any more. Wild brassicas have replaced cabbage on my table, and amarath, pigweed, fat hen, orache and another native weed, warrigal greens, have replaced the spinach we used to get. I'm still experimenting with our local saltbushes too.
Yaaaa there are really some good leafy weeds for each part of the growing season. I think your fat hen is Chenopodium, right?? I'm going to write on that one next, because it's ready to eat here. Do you have purslane, Portulaca oleracea?? Both of those two are yummy.
Yes, fat hen is widely available here, it comes up of its own accord in mulched council garden beds in my area. I think, like amaranth, it prefers the warmer spring-summer months. Pigweed (Portulaca oleracea & other natives) is widely distributed, even in our arid desert regions where the tiny seeds have long been a staple grain. They grow prolifically after desert rains; the plants were piled into heaps over kangaroo skins or spinifex mats and beaten, the seeds being ground into oily meal for bread (usually mixed with mulga, millet, woolybutt, desert fig and/or desert kurrajong).
It's interesting how many of the present day "weeds" have been used elsewhere as a major crop. The Chenopodium has been big grain crop too. People used to work a lot harder for their bread. The reason for the big weight problem is that food is too easy now.
After sticking my arm into a bunch of nettles yesterday, I chewed up a few plantain leaves and wiped the green stuff all over my forearm. Burning gone within a minute never to return.
They were big nettles as well.
Yaaaa!! Way smarter than what I did when I was young, (before I knew about that weed). Jumping in the creek was not nearly as helpful. :-D
I’ve used it for tea and fresh on blisters. Thanks for the info!
Thanks for reading! A lot of the best constituents come out in the tea. We have a plantain containing tea formula for the waterpik to maintain the gums.
That's an interesting idea. Thanks for sharing. And actually, would you like to collaborate on an upcoming post? I'm going to share a recipe for homemade toothpaste, and I could pair it with this plantain tea formula. We could call it a 'Weed pairing,' lol!
Sounds cool. Got a target date for publication? I haven't collaborated yet, but noticed that you're pretty social :-) What's the easiest way?
I'm looking at July... I think I have your email address as a subscriber. I'll reach out that way to coordinate.
I love the mushroomy flavour of plantain (especially our Aussie locals P. debilis and P. cunninghamii), although I think regular folks not used to eating weeds will dislike the bitter aftertaste.
https://bushfoodforager.substack.com/p/native-ribwortplantain
I havent had much success experimenting with the mucilage or seeds to make gel or porridge.
Cooool! You have fuzzy plantain. P. debilis is much hairier than our rugelii, which is pretty naked. That non native plant in your article looks just like the P. lanceolata. After awhile of foraging, a lot of the cultivated leaves taste kind of bland. Josh, a self taught forager who lives not too far north of weedom has built a pretty big YouTube channel. He says he depended on foraging for awhile, due to economic troubles. He recovered financially, but eventually went back to eating wild food due to preference. He's at trilliumwildedibles.com.
Yes I can barely stand shop-bought lettuce any more. Wild brassicas have replaced cabbage on my table, and amarath, pigweed, fat hen, orache and another native weed, warrigal greens, have replaced the spinach we used to get. I'm still experimenting with our local saltbushes too.
Yaaaa there are really some good leafy weeds for each part of the growing season. I think your fat hen is Chenopodium, right?? I'm going to write on that one next, because it's ready to eat here. Do you have purslane, Portulaca oleracea?? Both of those two are yummy.
Yes, fat hen is widely available here, it comes up of its own accord in mulched council garden beds in my area. I think, like amaranth, it prefers the warmer spring-summer months. Pigweed (Portulaca oleracea & other natives) is widely distributed, even in our arid desert regions where the tiny seeds have long been a staple grain. They grow prolifically after desert rains; the plants were piled into heaps over kangaroo skins or spinifex mats and beaten, the seeds being ground into oily meal for bread (usually mixed with mulga, millet, woolybutt, desert fig and/or desert kurrajong).
It's interesting how many of the present day "weeds" have been used elsewhere as a major crop. The Chenopodium has been big grain crop too. People used to work a lot harder for their bread. The reason for the big weight problem is that food is too easy now.
PS: I have articles on chenopodium and portulac already:
https://bushfoodforager.substack.com/p/fat-hengoosefoot
https://bushfoodforager.substack.com/p/purslanepigweed