Plantain; Plantago

The Plantain, not to be confused with the banana Plantain.  The younger, newer growth is preferred for use, such as the inner two leaves of the lower plant.

I did my first "herb walk" with an amazing herbalist named Robin in Viroqua, WI.  She showed us so much during that walk, it made me realize how empowering it is to discover the uses and benefits of the plants all around us.  Before that experience, I always thought you would have to go to places like Australia, the Mediterranean, and China to get medicinal plants.  I began to realize that right here in my neck of the woods grow some plants with amazing culinary and medicinal benefits.  One great example of extraordinary abundance and practical use is the Plantain.  This was the first plant Robin showed us, and we walked about two steps out of the barn before we stopped to take a look at it.  I thought to myself, wow, we are really going to stop and talk about this weed right here?  Robin said the Plantain is known as "Nature's Band-Aid," and can help treat minor cuts, scrapes, boils, and bites.  I asked, "why is this called Plantain...it's nothing like the banana Plantain."  Robin simply replied with a grin, "I have no idea!" 

Among the weeds, the Plantain doesn't initially stick out as a beneficial plant

The plantain typically grows well where the ground is disturbed; walking paths, driving paths, and mowed lawns are places you will find plenty.  After looking at the pictures, you can probably picture where you've seen some before.  To use the plantain for cuts and scrapes, you will take the inner, newer leaves of the plant, put them in your mouth and chew them up.  Form the chewed up mass into a wad in your mouth and take it out.  This is a poultice.  Now put that poultice on whatever area of the body needs help.  Plantain is reported to be astringent, anti-toxic, antimicrobial, and anti-histamine.  I use this is a natural Neosporin substitute, and so far, so good on the small cuts, scrapes, boils, and mosquito bites.  You can also make a tea or tincture in order to primarily help coughs or colds. 

You can use the leaves for salads or sandwich toppings as well.  You will want to stick with the younger leaves, but the outer, larger leaves aren't as bitter as the outer leaves of a dandelion. 

Basswood; Tilia americana

Here is a big, mature Basswood in my backyard

The leaves are getting bigger, but they are still edible

Have you heard of a Basswood or Linden tree?  I first learned about Basswood in an old wood carving book.  The light, soft (yet strong) wood makes it great for carving.  While we were working at Harvest Moon Farms in Viroqua, WI, my friend Patrick Robbins and I were increasingly intrigued with finding a Basswood after learning about it.  We studied the leaf shape in a field guide, and the next day I thought I spotted one at the farm.  I told Patrick, and he gave me that big old grin only Patrick could give, and we darted into the woods to take a closer look.  Sure enough, it was a Basswood! (later we found out that Basswoods are quite common in deciduous forests around here...but still, it was fun!)  We wanted some Basswood to do some wood carving projects.

Here's the Basswood's leaf shape

The nice thing about Basswoods is that they are usually multi-trunked, so Patrick and I didn't feel too bad about sawing down one of the three main trunks of this Basswood.  We sawed it down and yelled "Timber!" and then held a small ceremony where we chewed some Plantain (Plantago) into a poultice and put it on the freshly cut nub as a symbolic encouragement for the tree to heal and stay strong.  Patrick and I never got to carving the Basswood, but I still have the logs at my house--I'm hoping to get to that real soon, at least by this winter.

Notice the left leaf is a lighter shade of green, signifying younger growth.  The lighter in color, the younger--and tastier--they are.  The leaf on the right is still young and very edible. 

Last spring, I took some used salad containers and really went to town on harvesting the new leaf growth of the Basswood.  I read in Samuel Thayer's book that Basswood leaves and flowers can be eaten, and the new leaf growth is particularly good.  I couldn't believe it at first...I can eat a leaf from a tree!?  I was skeptical, but I pinched off a good container full of Basswood leaves and used them as a base for salad.  I first tried one of the leaves raw, and it didn't have much taste, kind of like a lettuce leaf.  There is some extra fiber in these leaves, which is a nice benefit.  My wife and I found Basswood leaves to be a great base for salads during the spring, and they are very abundant.  When harvesting the leaves, look for the ones that are smaller, but the full sized ones are just as good as long as they are a light green color instead of a dark green, which signifies they are young, new growth. Wash the leaves and coarsely chop them so they are easier to eat.

The flowers can be eaten or brewed into a tea.  I will be trying the latter this year because I read that these flowers have antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties to them.  We will see if they are any good...perhaps I will incorporate them into my iced nettle/black tea I have been enjoying this spring.

Spruce; Picea family

Here is a nice, big Spruce growing in my backyard.

As a homebrewer, I truly enjoy trying the lesser known adjuncts that add character...and a conversation...to beer.  One adjunct I have read about and gained an appreciation for are spruce tips, harvested from that cluster of new spring growth at the tips of each spruce branch.  Late May this year has been the perfect time to harvest these little guys.

How do you know if you're dealing with a spruce or some other conifer?  That's a good question, it's particularly hard to tell the difference between a spruce and a fir, but there's a trick my friend Zach from Morningwood Farm & Nursery in Madison taught me.  He said, "Pluck a needle off of the tree, and try to roll it between your fingers.  If it rolls, it's a spruce, and if you can't roll it then it's a fir."  Another plant similar to spruce is Yew (Taxus), and somewhat similar would be red and white pines.  Other evergreens such as Cypress, Juniper, Eastern Red Cedar, and Northern Whitecedar (Arborvitae) shouldn't look like spruce, but take some time to learn them and know the different uses of these plants.  I will be adding photos to this blog in the future, but until then, just think of a spruce as a Christmas tree, then do that needle trick to find out if it's a Spruce or a Fir.

The light green growth on the tips are known as "Spruce tips."  They can be picked at this stage, but it is preferable to pick them earlier when they are more compact.

Harvesting these tips are not only good for brewing beer, but also for making a tea.  It is quite refreshing and like some other conifers such as White Pine and Norhtern Whitecedar (Arborvitae), it is packed with Vitamin C.  If you find yourself in a survival situation in a coniferous forest, the tips can be eaten raw (they have some moisture content as well for hydration).

Back to the beer, I read that spruce beer has a nice, crisp, Pepsi-Cola-type taste without the sugar...and the author went on to say, "but it's much more than that!"  I recently harvested about 4 pounds of spruce tips from a big spruce in my backyard.  I put them in a bag and directly into the freezer.  I read that a pint jar loosely filled with spruce tips is a sufficient amount to add nice character to a 5 gallon batch of beer.  I will be trying this with my next batch of beer, and will update this article when I learn more. 

Stinging Nettle; Urtica dioica

Stinging Nettle, Urtica dioicia, pictured in the center left.  The rounder leaves on the right are that of the Wood Nettle, Laportea canadensis.  Both great to use!

 Overview

The stinging nettle is hands down my favorite wild green to forage.  You may know of it as that notorious weed lurking out in the woods ready to rub against your unsuspecting legs and cause a fury of itching, but there's more to it than that.  Nettle is full of vitamins and minerals and is known as a superfood, which loosely means that it has a very high nutrient content.  There are many health benefits to the stinging nettle, which include relief from hay fever, allergies, skin conditions, arthritis, asthma, stress, high blood pressure, and even depression.  There's a book out there called 101 Uses for Stinging Nettles  by Piers Warren you should check out.  It is exciting to know that there is a food right outside our doorstep that is so nutritious, so delicious, and so abundant that all we have to do is be able to identify it and harvest away!  While Stinging Nettles were introduced to America from Europe, the Wood Nettle is the Stinging Nettle's native American cousin.  I have read that Wood Nettles are used in the same ways that Stinging Nettles are, and I will be experimenting more with the Wood Nettle this year to see how they compare.

Let's talk about taste.  Nettles have been described by many as tasting like spinach...but to my palate I believe it's a perfect blend of green beans and asparagus.  The stingers on the nettle plant will certainly cause some skin irritation when in contact, so why would you put that in your mouth?  Well it turns out that once cooked, these stingers dissipate to nothing--they are neither erect nor rigid.  I will repeat: after cooking the stinging nettle there is absolutely no chance that you, your mouth, your throat or your stomach will get stung.  All that's left after cooking is a delicious and nutritious green.

This may look like Stinging Nettle, but on second glance, it's Catmint, aka Catnip.  Rub the leaves and smell them to test it out.

When I harvest nettles, I usually come prepared with gloves and scisssors.  There are times when I'm in the woods and I find a nice patch of nettles I can't pass up, and I'll pinch off the shoots between my fingers and bear the stings.  The stinging sensation is a lot different than, say, a bee sting or when rubbing against poison ivy.  The stings of nettle are very slight and shallow, while a bee's sting is strong and deep.  Poison ivy's oils tend to spread over the affected area and leads to uncomfortable itching for long periods of time.  Nettle stings are slight, shallow and quick.  If I get stung by a nettle, the itchy, stinging sensation will go away within 2-5 minutes.  I've gotten so used to nettle stings that I sometimes intentionally rub against it to get that refreshing sensation on my skin.  When you harvest the nettles, be sure to avoid the woody part of the stem, only harvest down to the tender parts of the shoot.  It's still edible, but just not as good as the tender, new growth.  Now, this time of the year the nettles are just starting to come up and the whole plant for the most part of spring should be quite tender.  Harvesting nettle into the summer and fall, be sure to just harvest the tops of the plant, where the stems are most tender.  Stuff the nettles into a large bag and bring them home for processing.

I will rinse the nettle in a big colander to get any debris, etc off of them...much like when washing lettuce from the garden.  Use your gloves for this task to avoid stings.  Now after it's been rinsed, the fun part is deciding what to do with them!  Perhaps you'd like to make a tea, eat the boiled greens as a side dish, maybe throw them in a soup, or even dry them for future use.  My personal favorites and most common uses are for tea and as a side dish.  As a tea, you can drink it plain, and with lemon it can be quite divine.  Drinking a hot tea during the summer is not usually on people's priority list, but don't forget about iced tea!  Simply steep the tea, let it cool, then put it in a pitcher and throw some ice in there.  As a side dish, just steam or boil the greens--I prefer to steam--strain and put on your plate.  You can amend the nettles with what you typically amend your corn/green beans/broccoli side dishes, such as butter, salt, and pepper.

Well, it's April 9th and the nettles haven't come up by my house yet, but I'm looking forward to doing lots with this amazing plant.

P.S.  Did I mention you can use the tall nettle plants in the fall to make your own rope?  A legal hemp alternative...

The Boxelder Tree; Acer negundo

Overview

The multitudes of shapes of the Boxelder leaf, compared to a standard Maple leaf

The "helicopter" seeds hanging from a Boxelder tree

Late winter is upon us here in the Wisconsin/Minnesota area of the country, and soon the maples will be flowing their wonderful sap, the raw material that makes our Maple Syrup and Maple Sugar.  This year I have tapped 10 box elder trees for just such a purpose.  Now you may be thinking..."Why would you tap a box elder tree for maple sap?  It isn't even a maple!"  However, the box elder tree is, in fact, in the maple family, but it's hard to see the similarities at first glance.  First of all, the leaves don't take that typical maple shape and secondly, they tend to grow in all sorts of configurations...unlike the straight up and down growth seen with most other maple varieties.  One thing that can tip you off as you walk through the woods is that they still have those "helicopter" type seeds found on all maples.  Where there's one in nature, there will usually be more nearby.

Tapping

Box elders are actually considered an invasive species in North America, so all the better reason to make some use out of them...because they're everywhere!  The Box Elder will begin its sap flow when we have our first lengthy consecutive string of thaw/frost days, where the temperature is above 32 degrees Fahrenheit during the day, and below 32 degrees at night.  As stated earlier, I have tapped around 10 trees and the sap will be flowing soon.  I will update this post as we get farther along in the process!


UPDATE | April 9, 2013

After a longer than expected waiting period, the sap finally began flowing about two weeks ago.  It was great seeing those buckets full of sap and ready to be boiled down.  I was getting a little worried because I was told from an experienced maple syrup person that the holes begin to heal up if they are dry for too long, and it greatly reduces or completely stops the sap flow when it comes.  It was a good month after I tapped the trees that I finally started seeing some sap.  Next year I will keep a better eye on the weather patterns and try to get the tap holes drilled closer to the sap flow time.

My taps have hose fittings, and I attached some hose to each tap, then drilled a hole in each bucket lid just large enough for the hose to fit through, that way it minimized any debris or rainfall coming in.  I then had to tape the lids to the bucket because they were not tight fitting.  Taping in the cold is not very easy, some tape type's adhesive qualities diminish in the cold...I would recommend duct tape.

 The buckets I used are 2.5 gallons in size and I got them free at the local grocery store.  Sometimes it works to get them free and sometimes it doesn't.  Don't expect to be handed 10-20 free buckets the day before you set up your taps, because stores just may not have them.  Ask around town (nicely, of course...maybe explain your upcoming adventure into tapping) and keep a good window of time on your side and you'll be able to find some buckets somewhere.  The hose was purchased at the local home store for around $5 for 15 feet...plenty for my needs.  As for the taps, I bought 12 stainless steel with a hose fitting spout.  These were more expensive...around $3.16 each including shipping fees.  There are very cheap plastic ones you can buy, and you can even make your own out of 1" staghorn sumac shoots!  I got the stainless because I wanted something that would last my lifetime.  As I expand my operation I will be home-making taps out of sumac.  Another thing I'll mention is that your best bet for price and selection for taps would be going online.  Try amazon, or ebay, or any other places you can think of.  The local home stores sometimes have taps, but they are priced significantly higher than what you find online, even if you factor the shipping costs.

The boiling process was long.  The first weekend we had about 25-30 gallons of maple sap to boil down, and it took most of Saturday and all of Sunday to get it reduced.  Tasting the sap was interesting because I expected it to be so diluted that it would only taste like water.  I was surprised to taste a very light and refreshing sweetness, along with some earthy tasting undertones.  We should have been watching it closer at the end of the boil because the end consistency turned out to be more like maple sugar instead of maple sap.  The end product tastes unbelievably sweet, kind of like a caramel candy.  Yesterday I used some to sweeten up a fruit smoothie and it certainly did the trick with just a small quantity.  The boiling was very inefficient because we used a large pot instead of something long, wide, and shallow.  Next year I hope to improve this operation by finding a more suitable boiling apparatus.

Since boiling the sap is so inefficient with a large pot, we decided to use the sap in different ways.  We will be freezing some of the sap to have as a nice refreshing drink in the summer, and my wife likes to make mead (honey wine) so she used the sap as a water substitute for her mead recipe.  I would like brew beer with the sap as well, but my carboys are full of beer in the lagering process for the next month...so that may not happen.  All in all, I had a really fun time learning how to tap a tree that is in the maple family, the Boxelder tree.  I will certainly look at the Boxelder tree from now on as a very useful and abundant tree.  As for the Boxelder bug...that's a different story.