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Rootin' Around

© Barbara Hall

Yes, all you squirrels and groundhogs, it's that time of year again.

With every brightly colored leaf that falls, we in most of the Northern Hemisphere are inching ever closer to that official flag of FROST. While we shall miss the soft warm days, the dragonflies, the magical sense of being surrounded by GREEN, there is another part of us that is ready to spring into action. (or in the case of the groundhogs, fall asleep) We only have that brief time between Frost and Freeze to get our harvest in.

The harvest of which I speak is ROOTS......When you begin to understand what roots are DOING down there, you'll understand why that first frost is so important. The magical, medicinal, healing, nourishing ROOTS for which we hunt are Dandelion, Burdock, Yellow Dock, Echinacea, Teasel (did I forget anybody?) Why wait 'til NOW??? Well, while most folks think that roots do little more than hold the plants DOWN and drink water, there's LOTS more going on down there where the sun don't shine.

Our friends with the long taproots are searching for minerals and nourishment and bringing all that good stuff UP. These impressive roots also store starches and sugars to keep the plants alive and well through the winter. While we CAN dig some of these roots very early in the spring, they're quite different when they have used up most of their own starches and sugars.

And so we wait.....when the first few frosts take the leaves DOWN, we know that the plant is pulling everything DOWN below. That's when we start digging. I have a lovely photographer-friend who has graciously allowed me to nurture a grand crop of lush dandelions all over his perennial garden until the frost, when I will pop them easily out of the rich soil, tincture those roots for one of the all-time grand liver tonics and any surviving greenery we shall cook into Noodles and Weeeeeeeds! {Start cooking pasta. Three minutes before said pasta is done, add chopped dandelion greens. Cook together for remaining 3 minutes, drain, toss with olive oil and garlic and dive in face first.}

Burdock roots are a bit more of a project. First off you need to 'mark' some FIRST YEAR Burdocks, not the ones that blasted into bloom. The process of producing that towering flower stalk full of lavender thistly flowers and then those 'velcro' burrs that get stuck all over your sweaters and dogs renders the root dry and useless. No, the first-year plants, foliage only, are what we want. And don't think for a MINUTE you can pop this baby out with some pitchfork. Got NEWS for ya. No, no, one must get on one's KNEES, and begin to gently dig AROUND the stem. Trench, trench, trench, round and round. Here you see that the 'shoulders' of the burdock root begin below where you would have popped its head off with that pitchfork. Keep digging. Keep removing soil. Keep feeling around. (sure wish you hadn't started on one at the side of the driveway now, don't you?) I have dug a trench up to my ELBOW before I've felt that root taper down to something I'm willing to leave behind when I BREAK it off. Once my partner and I WATCHED a monster burdock growing at the edge of a compost pile behind a cemetery for the entire summer. When digging day came, we crept in like thieves in the afternoon, and dug and dug and dug and got a two and a half pound root from just one plant. What a score. Usually, you're lucky to get something as thick as your thumb. So the Burdock root also gets tinctured in 100 proof vodka for yet ANOTHER splendid liver buddy.