We’ve started to bring our fresh herbal produce and greens to the market, but there are a lot of questions regarding what the heck to do with them!!

I will be sharing recipes for eating these amazing medicinals throughout the coming weeks. So from our table to yours:

First of all, lambs quarter (Chenopodium album) is something that most people would call a weed. Sadly, this medicinal is often pulled up in favor of a nice stand of iceberg lettuce…. it’s a crime folks!! I am on a mission to change your mind about the “weeds” in your garden! Lambs Quarter is packed with vitamins C, A, B1, B2, B3, B6, folate, protein, zinc, potassium, manganese, iron, fiber, copper and calcium! Contrast that to a well known superstar in the garden… let’s say spinach. Lambs Quarter is higher in Vitamins A and C and also higher in calcium! The added bonus is that you don’t have to till, plant seed, pull weeds away from and water your Lambs Quarter!

But HOW do I eat it, you ask. You can basically treat them like a wild spinach and put the leaves in soups, stir frys, eggs, casseroles… the list goes on and on. You can even blanch them and put them in the freezer for the winter!

Last night we did a “Mock Hot Spinach Salad” as a side dish for dinner. Here’s my recipe:

MOCK HOT SPINACH SALAD

Serves 4

2 bunches lambs quarter

1 bunch fresh chives

1-2 Tbsp bacon grease

1/4 cup apple cider vinegar

2 Tbsp honey

Dash of cayenne pepper

Salt and Pepper to Taste

1. Pull leaves from the main stalk of your lamb’s quarter.  

2. Finely chop chives.

3. Heat the bacon grease in your skillet and then toss in the lambs quarters and the chives.
4. Saute until wilted (about 5-7 minutes).
5. In a small bowl, combine the apple cider vinegar and honey. Pour over the wilted greens and toss a few times. Add salt and pepper and a dash of cayenne to taste and then shut off the heat.
6. Serve immediately.

Hello from a long lost friend!!

It’s been insanely busy here at the farm for as long as I can remember now and anytime I’ve sat down to write a few lines I find I’ve fallen asleep again- drat! I’ve just had a great experience with one of my favorite herbs though and Carson not only suggested, but insisted I share….

So last week I was eating a delicious lunch with a friend of mine who had stopped by to lend a hand. We were having salads and Carson had grilled up a skirt steak to go on top. Sadly, this particular cut of steak was VERY tough and had a lot of gristle in it. I bit down on one piece and felt a big wedge of gristle go in between my back two teeth! It was painful right away… enough that I got up from the table and made what I was later to realize was a HUGE mistake. I went to the bathroom and swished water around in my mouth… nope… still there. Then, I reached for…. duh, duh, duuuuuuh, the floss! Never do this in this type of situation. What I succeeded in doing was jamming that piece of meat not just further down between my teeth, but actually way below the gumline!!!

In order for you to understand just how painful this is I’m going to reveal that I actually took prescription pain killers… not mine, but Carson had some from having his braces put in. There isn’t even and OTC “medicines” in our house. I would rather suffer any other time- but this was mind numbing, SERIOUS pain! I was on them for 2 days last week and was actually praying on the way home from my Thursday market that this stupid thing would pop out on its own. I knew I was beaten and was going to have to go to the dentist… luckily, by the time I got home it had somehow decided to capitulate to my cry of “uncle”. A huge piece of gristle came out of the space between those two teeth.

That’s not the end of it though… and sorry if I’ve grossed you out before we get to the helpful part of my story. I’ve been in pain for the past two days- even while I’ve slept. I realized that there was still something under the gum. In my continuing bid to avoid any kind of doctor whatsoever I’ve been racking my brain for what I could do. Last week before the main piece came out I had been oil pulling with coconut oil for a few days… but today I was at the end of my rope and needed another answer. So I turned to my unassuming weed ally, the Plantain. Plantago major or Plantago lanceolata. Plantago major is the one that I have in the picture, it’s the wide leaf kind. Lanceolata is a thin leaved plantain. You can find either one of them just about anywhere you go here in the midwest… just be careful that they haven’t been sprayed. They have some pretty great healing qualities and are pretty high in vitamins, so I use them in the kitchen a lot. My favorite quality of the Plantain though is its ability to pull things out of your skin… toxins, infection, glass, and……in just under 20 minutes…. MEAT!!!

How did I do it? I went out and selected a nice large, clean leaf and chewed it up. I then put on my best baseball player attitude and shoved that wad of Plantain chaw into my cheek just over the affected area. Within 20 minutes I spit it out and shortly after, I got another piece of meat out of my gum. AMAZING!!! Further proof that herbs aren’t magic, but they ARE magical!! I feel such relief, AND I didn’t have to go the doctor!!

Plantain will work wonders for your child’s splinters. You know- instead of the old sharp pin and tweezers digging around while they scream method? We use it to pull out the toxins from a bee sting or a mosquito bite. It can pull out infection as well. We have it in our Ivy Itch and Bite Relief Kit… it’s GREAT to help pull the oils away from the skin in a poison ivy outbreak!

Now… I’m off to address the extra toxin load from those prescription painkillers…..