Free Food , Foraging Mini-Series: Medicinal Plant Edition Pt. III
For most of the past year, Daily Kos has been blessed with a really wonderful series of diaries by Wide Eyed Lib, on Free Foods and how to forage for them.
With the onset of winter, the foraging season here in the Northeast is drawing to a close and W.E.L. has decided to take a well-earned break. A few of us have offered to fill in the gap by authoring diaries in the spirit of the series that will focus on some other aspects of the general topic. Today I’m presenting the third part of my four-part shift: Making herbal tinctures.
First, an apology for missing last week, but sometimes life has a tendency to get in the way of itself.
The inspiration for this diary comes from a blessed event that occurred this Christmas day. You see, my wife is a Doula and an apprentice midwife. At around 10:30 Thursday night, she got the call that one of their clients was in labor. She got up, grabbed her gear, and hit the road.
She arrived around midnight (after a 90 minute drive) with the midwife arriving soon after, and by shortly after 3 AM, there was a new-born 10 pound baby boy contentedly nursing away in his mother’s arms.
Thinking about this event reminded me of back in the early 1980’s when my wife and I used to have our own herb business, preparing birthing kits for expectant parents. One of the most important herbs (in tincture form) to have on hand during late pregnancy and labor is a fairly unobtrusive herb called Blue Cohosh (Caulophyllum thalictroides).
Blue Cohosh grows most often (in my experience) in moist deciduous forests. While it can reach 30 inches in height, what I have seen in the wild is generally shorter than that. But that might be because I live up around 44 degrees latitude.
It has bluish-green, tulip shaped leaves, and blue berries. The odd tint to the leaves is what attracts my attention to the plant. But even living in the woods, more or less, I don’t see it in any great abundance. Therefore, unless a forager were to get really lucky, this is one plant that you are most likely to obtain from a health food store or a herbalist.
Blue Cohosh, deluxe edition
Blue Cohosh like I've seen around my area.
Blue Cohosh has been used for centuries to help tone the uterus in the final couple of weeks before a birth. During delivery, Blue Cohosh can help ease pain and "jump-start" labor. After the birth, it helps control bleeding, helps with the delivery of the placenta, and promots the clamping down of the uterus. It also has several other uses which you can research if you are interested.
Blue Cohosh should never be used early in pregnancy unless one’s intent is to terminate the pregnancy. In addition to being an invaluable aid for labor and delivery, Blue Cohosh has also been used as an abortifacient.
Cautionary note: As with any medicinal herbs, I strongly suggest that you do lots of research (including asking questions of an herbalist, if you have access to one) before using any of them They all have some potential for interactions with other medications, and possible adverse side effects with existing medical conditions.
Tincture making: One of the best methods of delivering the medicinal benefits of herbs is through the use of tinctures. A tincture is most often alcohol based. Although some folks use glycerin, I think alcohol does a better job of drawing out the medicinal ingredients. Plus, an alcohol-based product will tend to have a pretty long shelf life.
For dried roots, which are what you’ll be using for this tincture) the ratio of herb to alcohol (usually in the form of Vodka or clear Rum) is one ounce of dried herb to 4-5 ounces of liquor.
Depending on how fine the herbal root is cut or ground, one might wish to use a seed or coffee grinder further process the dried root.
Use a clean glass jar, and combine the herb with the liquor. Label, and shake well. The mixture should be stored in a dark place and shaken at least once a day for two weeks. After 2 weeks has passed, the liquid can be poured off or strained. Toss the root material, and keep the tincture in a brown glass bottle, if possible (note: once you start making these sorts of concoctions, it becomes second nature to save little brown glass medicine bottles whenever you come across them.). Make sure to always date and label whatever herbal products you create. Since many herbal therapies use standard drops for dosage, it is helpful to pour some of the mixture into a dropper bottle (remember to label and date them!).
Woo-Woo alert: I prefer to make my tinctures around the new moon. Thus the two weeks of storage coincide with the waxing of the Moon right on up until she is full.
And there you have it.
Next week, herbal oils.
Important update: As per Unduna's comment below, the reason I don't see this plant in any great amount in the wild is because it is over harvested in the wild and threatened with becoming endangered. Definitely buy it from a commercial dealer.
And now for a word from Wide Eyed Lib:
If you'd like to learn more about foraging but missed the earlier diaries in the series, you can click here for the previous 36 installments. As always, please feel free to post photos in the comments and I'll do my best to help identify what you've found. (And if you find any errors, let me know.)
Here are some helpful foraging resources:
"Wildman" Steve Brill's site covers many edibles and includes nice drawings.
"Green" Deane Jordan's site is quite comprehensive and has color photos and stories about many plants.
Green Deane's foraging how-to clips on youtube each cover a single plant in reassuring detail.
Linda Runyon's site features only a few plants but has great deals on her dvd, wild cards and books (check out the package deals in particular).
Steve Brill's book, Identifying and Harvesting Edible and Medicinal Plants in Wild (and Not So Wild) Places is my primary foraging guide. (Read reviews here, but if you're feeling generous, please buy from Steve's website.)
Linda Runyon's book The Essential Wild Food Survival Guide contains especially detailed information about nutritional content and how to store and preserve wild foods.
Samuel Thayer’s book The Forager's Harvest is perhaps the finest resource out there for the 32 plants covered. The color photos and detailed harvest and preparation information are top-notch.
Steve Brill also offers guided foraging tours in NYC-area parks. Details and contact info are on his website.
Don Wiss’s website is a treasure trove featuring hundreds of photos of common northeastern edibles.
Finally, the USDA plants database is a great place to look up info on all sorts of plants.
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