In the city we saw a beautiful empty lot. Out front is a notice to “destroy weeds.”
Meanwhile, it’s a beautiful patch of goldenrod, wild mint and morning glories.
Last year we missed harvesting goldenrod but this year we’re on it. It’s a beautiful and useful medicinal plant. We plan to make tinctures and teas with it. I also plan to try using some as a replacement for hops in some home brew. It has a bitter flavor that is similar.
We’ve laid some out to dry and are headed back to pick more – the weather is lovely, and the city is on the hunt for growers of medicinal plants and bee forage providers people with overgrown lots.
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Sweet! … we just foraged a whole bunch of GR today along with some wintergreen and sweet-fern (Comptonia peregrina) … we put up a half gallon of this mix with warmed raw honey and the rest will be used for winter tea. In a month or so the infused honey will be used on biscuits and raw milk yogurt for morning meals. It’s a great way to preserve the wild herbs and harness all of the rich health benefits at the same time.
That is awesome. You just pour honey over it? That’s a new one!
David, yes! … just pour the honey over it and cap on tight. We flip it over once a day for the 1st couple days to keep the plant material well soaked, but that;s it!,,, while we like to give it a good month, or at least a few weeks, we had a little on our yogurt this morning and it’s already has an amazing flavor.
Just an aside, have you ever tried fermenting your garlic cloves in honey? … just put the peeled cloves in a jar, fill about 2/3 full w/ honey and it will ferment nicely ..just keep the cap loose so gas can escape! … either use a weight to keep the garlic submerged or flip the jar every couple days. It will thin up a bit as the garlic releases liquid, but it keeps forever and besides tasting wonderful (especially dribbled over grilled chicken), but it is a potent medicine when taken b y the spoonful for infections/cold. …etc :)
How do you use goldenrod? It’s just about done here but there are a few flowers here and there.