Chickweed

Chickweed

Chickweed emerges in late winter at just the moment we need her most. After a heavier winter diet, chickweed is a wonderful way to begin a gentle spring cleansing of the body. Early spring greens like chickweed, dandelion, cleavers, violet and stinging nettle are all good allies for easing the seasonal transition. I always think of mama bear coming out of her winter slumber, foraging the first greens of spring to get her digestive system going again... 

For such a delicate little plant, chickweed has powerful medicine. Chickweed contains saponins, plant compounds that can soothe inflamed body tissues. Chickweed has a cooling, moisturizing effect and is useful for many conditions of inflammation.

CHICKWEED FOR DIGESTION

Eat a handful of chickweed (all aerial parts are good!) along with or after a meal to help aid digestion. 

Chickweed can also be added to any salad. Wonderful with lemon, olive oil, and salt. Maybe a little cheese and nut if you're not used to the flavor yet.

I use chickweed as food medicine for as long as she is growing. Last year she emerged in September, stayed throughout the winter, and then really began to flourish in April and May. I found chickweed (and fresh dandelion leaves) to be indispensable for aiding my sluggish digestive system throughout my pregnancy.

CHICKWEED INFUSION

If you don't have access to fresh chickweed, you may also use dried chickweed to make a strong infusion. One ounce of dried plant to one quart of almost boiling water. Allow to brew overnight. Keep any extra in the fridge for a day or two.

CHICKWEED AS EXPECTORANT

Chickweed is a gentle expectorant for moving mucus out of the lungs. A strong infusion may be used or the fresh or dried plant added to another healing brew.

CHICKWEED AS LYMPH CLEANSER 

Chickweed also may be used to gently cleanse the lymph nodes. For this, I would use the infusion of dried plant, tincture of fresh plant, or fresh plant as food.

CHICKWEED POULTICE FOR PINK EYE 

Chickweed is a go-to remedy for pink eye (conjunctivitis). 

Smash a small handful of the fresh plant into a poultice. Lie down, relax, and place that on the eye for about ten to twenty minutes until you begin to feel the poultice heating up. You can also use the dried plant by adding a bit of warm water and making it into a poultice. Sometimes it helps to put a cotton cloth or round over the poultice. 

Yes, this is very difficult to do with a child and it is often children who get pink eye. I find it helps to begin with a story about an adventurous fairy or brave knight who got pink eye and had to lie down on a bed of leaves and go to dreamland with the chickweed fairies...   

*Be sure to throw out the used poultice and start fresh every time. And wash your hands! Pink eye is highly contagious and you can spread it even from your left to right eye! 

CHICKWEED & CHILDREN 

Chickweed is a wonderful plant for children to learn because she is packed with vitamins and minerals. I have found that a child who normally refuses vegetables at the dinner table will eat a whole bucket full of her own foraged greens. It also helps the child to accept chickweed's other medicines if he already knows the plant. If you don't have access to chickweed in the wild or your yard, you and your children can grow chickweed in a pot! I often grow her indoors during the winter. 

CHICKWEED FOR INSECT BITES

Chickweed is my preferred remedy for quickly healing mosquito bites IF I put a fresh spit poultice on as soon as I see the red welt forming. I carry the fresh plant in my pocket when I'm out foraging and it's in season. Otherwise, the oil or salve also may be used, but they don't work quite as well. I've seen a new bite completely disappear when a bit of chickweed is placed on it! (You can hold the chickweed on for a few hours with a band-aid if you need.)

CHICKWEED FOR CYSTS 

Herbalist Susun Weed speaks to chickweed's ability to help shrink unwanted growths like cysts. For this I would use both the oil externally and the tincture internally (and eat fresh chickweed daily!). Because chickweed is such a gentle herb, she may be used over long periods of time. 

CHICKWEED TINCTURE

Fill a jar with the fresh chickweed plant, push it down slightly (it compacts a lot!), and cover with vodka 40 proof or higher. Allow to brew six weeks or longer.  

CHICKWEED OIL

Chickweed has a high water content, so you have to take care when making her into an oil. I harvest the plant, pick out any dead parts, let it wilt overnight, and make the oil the next day. For this I put the whole aerial part into a jar, cover with olive oil, and then gently warm the jar in a pot of water on the stove on the lowest possible heat for an hour or more. Then I let the plant in oil sit for a few days before straining. It's important to strain out all of the plant matter with a cotton dishtowel or other fine mesh so that mold doesn't grow. I keep my oils refrigerated for longer shelf life. Or I add beeswax to make into a salve which also extends the life of the oil. I've been carrying the same chickweed salve in my first aid kit for over a year and it's still potent and fresh. 

FORAGING CHICKWEED

Chickweed likes to grow on land that has been disturbed. I have found her along many trails, railroad tracks, up on our ridge with the cleavers and barberry bushes, growing with the stinging nettle on abandoned farmland. Today (early Autumn) there are several beautiful strong stems of volunteer chickweed that have grown up in the pot where my chamomile flourished in June. Big agriculture and many others view chickweed as an invasive weed. Take care not to harvest near big ag farmland or other places that seem likely to spray herbicides.

CULTIVATION OF CHICKWEED

I'm never able to harvest enough chickweed in the wild to meet my appetite for her as food or medicine, so I grow my own chickweed as well. I like to carry my seed packet around in late fall and mid to late summer and sprinkle chickweed seeds here and there. She likes cooler weather and will thrive throughout the spring, eventually going away in the heat of summer and then returning again in the fall. Last winter I was eating the baby stems in January! 

Blessins, friends.

*Disclaimer*

This material is intended for educational purposes only. This recipe does not provide specific dosage information, format recommendations, toxicity levels, or possible interactions with prescription drugs. Accordingly, this information should be used only under the direct supervision of a qualified health practitioner.