I'd snagged a few sprigs of chickweed earlier this year when I first spied a small patch snuggled up against the foundation of my house in the northeast United States, but only enough to gussie up a few salads of store bought organic lettuce. My tiny chickweed patch was soon buried under a few feet of snow, and I figured it would be another month before I saw it again.
Lucky me, today the snow had receded enough from in front of my house to uncover a now much larger patch, and I could grab quite a large bunch!
Above is a photo of an undisturbed patch of the stuff. It's very pretty, and super welcome in the dead of winter. I wonder if it looks this fresh and green when it's under a lot of snow.
I've zoomed in on that little sprig that seems to have poked through the concrete just to pose for this post. Note that there is a sprig of gill-over-the-ground on the lower left of the photo - that stuff does not taste good. But the rest is chickweed, and delicious!
If you look closely you can see my chickweed is just about to bloom. This is prime time for nutritive potency for many plants, but I can tell you that with chickweed, this is also prime time for eating. The stuff is tender with a mild herb taste that goes with just about anything.
Chickweed has one unmistakable characteristic that makes it very easy to identify - there is a single row of tiny hairs along the length of the stem, not visible in my photos, but oh so very much there.
Today's snap preparation was to first quickly sauté a zucchini in olive oil, then toss in turmeric, black pepper and a smidge of water. I let it simmer for a minute or two, just until the zucchini was tender, and turned off the heat. Finally, I tossed in a large handful of lightly chopped chickweed, stems and all.
Fini!
Truth be told, I didn't cook this for myself, although I did end up eating it.
I cooked it for my dog!!!
I've heard it said that the plants we need turn up in our environment when we need them, so my intent was to give this to my very sick dog.
My dachshund Jimmy has an inflammatory condition - more on that in another post. Chickweed, turmeric and black pepper are all said to be good for inflammation, it was time to cook dinner for all the creatures in my house, and out of necessity came a dish that was dinner for both humans and canine. Had I been cooking it only for humans, there would have been a variety of onion, or two, in there. The cats would have nothing to do with it.
Dr. Axe says that chickweed has all sorts of nutritive and medicinal benefits. Besides being anti-inflammatory, it is loaded with anti-oxidants, vitamins, minerals and flavonoids, among other good things.
I especially like this bit Dr. Axe has to say about the powerhouse plant:
Because it’s a great source of vitamin C and zinc, it can support overall immune system health and protect against a number of conditions, such as coughs, asthma, allergies and bronchitis.
Go out and get yours today!!!
Brilliant! I had a friend who was housesitting this really slow and arthritic old dog. Every day she'd make a thick vegetable broth with tons of turmeric, and add it to his meat. That dog was leaping like a puppy by the end of the month!
How awesome is foraging. You kinda feel like you've landed on this secret - what, a free food source no one is using because they're spending money at the supermarket? Succcckkkerrrrs!
Loved this post!
It's amazing. There are so many new tastes, right in your own yard. And you can FEEL that foraged food is more nutritious. Why doesn't everyone do it?
Thanks for loving my post!
I hope this works for Jimmy - @riverflows, I will try it on my 5-yr-old collie as well.
And a thick vegetable broth. Who knew. Thanks for this post Owasco and may Jimmy recover soon.
Ah cool, hope your collie gets some benefit from it! How awesome that we can have nat med for pets!
Brilliant! I had a friend who was housesitting this really slow and arthritic old dog. Every day she'd make a thick vegetable broth with tons of turmeric, and add it to his meat. That dog was leaping like a puppy by the end of the month!
How awesome is foraging. You kinda feel like you've landed on this secret - what, a free food source no one is using because they're spending money at the supermarket? Succcckkkerrrrs!
Loved this post!
Ok very cool to read about chickweed, and that it is popping up now in the north east (we're in NY state somewhere near Kingston!). I'm very excited about spring.... so tired of this winter!
But also I am excited about getting to know a new wild food/medicine. Thanks for this post @owasco
Oh you are very near me then. I'm sure you can find chickweed now then. I'm in Nyack.
Hey very cool, sorry about the late reply. We are super close-ish. I was in Nyack last thursday wokrking. We should get together one day in the future, we have lots of small events (yeah even in the dead of the lockdowns) on the property we're trying to develop into a eco-village of sorts.
oh my yes!! I can't travel far or often, but I would love to get up there to see what you are doing. Or meet with you here.
And events!!!! Music?
Lucky dog!
Solid recipe for sure!
I've always been reluctant to eat plants growing in the wild, in case I mis-identify them. I will have to find out if this particular plant grows in the Northwest.
That row of hairs all along the stem makes this one unmistakable, really. The climate and flora are very similar. I'll bet it grows there, but am not sure.
According to the internet, it grows in every state. So I will have to take a look around for it after the snow melts.
Thank you for that information!
Score! I still need to become more well-versed on what I can forage around my neck of the woods. Though I do have my eyes on the pines to forage catkins to make more tinctures for the upcoming allergy season. I think the neighbors must have thought me crazy when I found some good boughs in front of the local church that were low enough to pull off a few good handfuls. 😂
When do you do that? Soon? Any kind of pine? I have lots of pine in my yard. I've never noticed catkins.
I harvested these on March 25th last year here in Georgia, so perhaps just a little later up there? I think they are from a longleafpine. I got the idea from @nateonsteemit when he shared about them. These were nice and fresh. The ones I pulled off a week or so later had already started to release their pollen and dry out a bit.
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Thanks. I'll definitely keep an eye out for them, on my trees, which I have always called white pines.
Here's a video I just found. This guy makes the tincture with catkins around 8:30. Very informative! He even makes beer with the stuff!
That's a great video! All that pollen looks familiar. 😂Crazy that so many of us go so long without realizing the abundance of resources so close to our fingertips. And for free!
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...and having lived a natural life. That's what is impressing me today. Plants that have lived according to nature's principles, not man's. There they are, at the ready, freely given. We can thank them as we take them for our own nourishment. Connected. Not sure what I am trying to say. Yet.
💚💚💚
Woah, already getting pine pollen?!!?
I was talking about that magic stuff with someone, and he said out that it's actual human testosterone. So have fun doing roids!!! (IDK if this is true, but it's gonna be my new joke)
All I know for sure is that I have never once had a bad day after taking my pine pollen tincture, and I'm making a LOT more this year so I can share.
Should be popping up soon! I definitely want to harvest more this year, so happy you shared about it so I knew to look out. And that is funny about getting jacked on it. Maybe I should try some before a workout. 😂 I would be curious how some beer would turn out!
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Yeah, plenty of folks use it as a workout supplement. That's actually where I first saw it, was a working out chick who was raving about it for energy, weight loss, and muscle building.
Nothing better than a free foraged find. I'm not super familiar with chickweed, may or may not have consumed it. This is very educational and cool to know it's an ant-inflammatory. I love how your canine meal became a human meal too.
Thanks @owasco for sharing this with us.
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