We are in June and spring wild medicinal plants are already ready to be picked with love! Presentation of 10 plants that we want as friends to start the season well. Let's go !

Burdock

Arctium Lappa

There Burdock is a huge plant considered a bad grass, but herbalists know very well that no plant is really bad (except perhaps the grass with aaaahhhhhhhhh). We use the large sheets of Burdock For skin and blood care, but mainly its swivel roots. The latter are often died with reverence in the fall, but it is quite possible to take advantage of it now. To do so, find old -fashioned bardanes plants from last year and look around for rosettes of leaves. The roots can be consumed as a vegetable (it is excellent in the oven) or macerated in the cider vinegar 5% for a blood -deputive effect (ideal for treating several skin problems).

Roots of Burdock dried (Quality Quebec)

Roots of Burdock in powder

Raspberry bush

Rubus Idaeus

The young raspberry leaves will be harvested on the plants of 2 nd and more. We recognize the raspberry by his thorns and below pale his leaves. This is one of the plants par excellence for the female reproductive system. He accompanies the woman to all the stages of her life: during the period, during a pregnancy (although prohibited by Health Canada) and the menopause. It is also an astringent plant (it tightens the tissues and therefore has a healing action) and nourishing, because it is rich in minerals. Raspberry leaves have a sweet and pleasant herbaceous flavor if they are carefully prepared.

Dried raspberry leaves (Quality Quebec)

Raspberry extract (Quality Quebec)

Ground ivy

Glechoma Hederacea

This wild ivy grows in our lawns. It is easily recognized by its small flowers of a Mallow dark. We can pick the aerial parts and dry them to make infusions or macerate them into a glycerated for children. Terrestrial ivy has affinities with the respiratory system and the lymphatic system. It is an excellent plant to do the big cleaning after a winter loaded with respiratory infections. It is also a slightly spicy taste that can be added in salads or culinary oils.

Mullen

VERBASCUM THAPSUS

Young leaves of Mullen are incredibly soft for the respiratory system. This is no more and less a balm for lungs. Beware of herbal teas, however, which will have to be perfectly filtered, at the risk of tickling the palate with their small hairs. There Mullen Easily preparing in glycére and is of great help in the event of asthma, even with children. It is also possible to harvest your roots. The ancient Greeks praised their action on the muscle bone system. According to Matthew Wood, the roots of Mullen Small what is hard, a bit like the plant that grows in the rock, but is very soft.

Leaves Mullen dried (Quality Quebec)

Nettle

Urtica Dioica

Nettle is good for everyone. Children, adults, animals, the garden, etc., all will have the advantage of enjoying it. It is a nourishing plant, rich in iron, slightly diuretic and tonic blood. It supports more in case of seasonal allergies by reducing the symptoms. It tones the scalp and calms muscle pain. In animals, it promotes a shiny hair in mammals, as well as beautiful feathers and eggs with a hard shell in the hens. Nettle is also edible. In soup, with a few potatoes and leek, it gives a green and delicious soup. Be careful, however, when picking up. Since it is stinging, it is recommended to wear gloves.

Dried nettle leaves (Quality Quebec)

Nettle in powder organic

Dandelion

Taraxacum officinalis

All of the dandelion is medicinal and edible. The leaves, harvested before flowering, are delicious in salads and act as a soft bitter tonic, ideal for digestion. The roots also have an action on the digestive system, more precisely on bile, because they are choleretics and cholagogues. The dandelion is often macerated in cider vinegar 5% for its digestive qualities. It is also an aquaretical plant, that is to say that it promotes the increase in the volume of urine while providing potassium. Roots, just like the roots of Burdock, are excellent in the oven (bitter flavor). If you want to color your salads with dandelion flowers, pick them just before serving them, because they do not keep well, even in the fridge.

Dried dandelion roots (Quality Quebec)

Dandelion leaf dried (Quality Quebec)

Video: Dandelion root chips

Plantain

Plantago Major

Young plantain leaves are quickly harvested in the spring. As they are often dirty, they can be washed (this is an exception). It is made of an anti-inflammatory and antipruriginous oil. However, plantain juice is undoubtedly the most powerful form. Do not hesitate to reduce plantain or puree leaves and freeze them to have them on hand all year round in the event of itching. Plantain leaves are also used to make syrups of coughs and to soothe symptoms of urinary tract infections because they protect and soften the mucous membranes. During the summer, you can chew the leaves and apply them directly to a wasp bite to calm the pain or mosquito to calm the itching. The leaves are consumed in cooking like spinach.

Dried plantain (Quality Quebec)

Macerated oil plantain (Quality Quebec)

Horsetail

EQUISETUM ARVENSE

You will have to identify the horsetail before harvesting it, because there are other horsetails, unfortunately toxic. The brown "males" came out and quietly begin to dry up, giving way to very green "females". They are the ones who interest us and who must be harvested quickly, because over time they concentrate in silica and become brittle. We want them tender. They will be harvested with a small chisel to avoid uprooting them. The horsetail grows near rivers, in wet floors. It is a mineralizing and diuretic plant, interesting for treating the joints and the stakes of which the nails are part. Be careful however, it is a plant to take sparingly for only a few days, because it is draining and can dry up the fabrics. It is also edible and it is used as a "sponge" to scour.

Horsetail of dried fields (Quality Quebec)

Horsetail of powdered fields 

Fir balsam

Balsamea abies

We will harvest young shoots from Fir balsam (Tender green color) to macerate them in alcohol, in oil, in honey and even in maple syrup. Fir dye is excellent for the internal respiratory system, but also for the external muscle system. The oil has an exquisite and sweet smell, ideal for massages. Honey calms the respiratory mucous membranes in case of infections and sore throat and maple syrup on pancakes will surprise more than one. The young fir shoots are also very rich in essential oils and will delight lovers of distillation of essential oils and hydrosols. It is also time to harvest fir gum using a picoué. If we should recommend that you collect a single plant this spring, it would be without any hesitation the tree!

That's a picoué ...

Young shoots of Fir balsam (Quality Quebec)

Honey Fir balsam (Quality Quebec)

Macerated oil of Fir balsam (Quality Quebec)

Coltsfoot

Tussilago Farfara

The flowers of Coltsfoot, also named Perce-Neige, already say goodbye and their Akens fly away at the whim, but the leaves are already installed, for the whole summer. It is best to harvest them now, choosing the small leaves covered with a white down. THE Coltsfoot is an antitssive, it will therefore be wise to make reservations in anticipation of the next winter. It is often transformed into a syrup against cough, but beware, because it contains toxic alkaloids for the liver. It is therefore suggested to avoid it with young children and to combine it with other plants such as Mullen. The cough is a natural mechanism of the organism and if there is mucus, it is desirable. We can take the Coltsfoot Only if it is a non -productive cough, either a dry cough, or if the cough has been last for too long (abdominal pain).

Video: how to make a guncére de Coltsfoot

Course and workshop suggestions:

Identification of medicinal plants

Wild and responsible picking

Harvesting and storage of plants

Manufacturing of therapeutic products (to learn to make maceration)

Cook with medicinal plants

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