It's a salad! It's like spinach! It's CHICKWEED!
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- Carol Wallace
- LadyB
- Carol Wallace
- whowhat
- LadyB
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» Carol Wallace - Five buddies in a blender?? Is one of them, by any chance, jewe
Five buddies in a blender?? Is one of them, by any chance, jewel weed?? Carol virtually gardening-- posted by Carol Wallace
» LadyB - Very good Carol! The other four 'buddies' are Burdock leaf (for
Very good Carol! The other four 'buddies' are Burdock leaf (for swelling) Comfrey leaf (for healing the skin) Chickweed (for cooling) Plantain leaf (for itching) and the Jewel Weed (because it's the best antidote for poison ivy going!) All these go into the blender as fresh leaves, kind of a handful of this and a handful of that with some water and witch hazel and believe me, the ensuing soup is just a miracle in a bottle for the X-file that one's skin can become when blessed by Rhus tox! I invented this out of sheer desperation two years ago after getting a hideous case of P.I. from clearing vines out of trees in early spring when there weren't even any leaves on them. I had enough sense to scrub down with baking soda, but I pulled my jacket sleeves right back down over my arms and did myself in.It IS that time of year, maybe next article should be on that particular itchy weed!
Lady B
-- posted by LadyB
» Carol Wallace - Burdock -- is that the thing with the huge leaves and the taproo
Burdock -- is that the thing with the huge leaves and the taproot that goes to China??? If so, it sounds like all I'd need to do to cure any poison ivy I'm likely to contract is to roll around on my lawn -- it has all the ingredients. It's sort of a "freedom" lawn -- not much in the way of real grass. Carol virtually gardening-- posted by Carol Wallace
» whowhat - Herb ID or pictures Chickweed, Comfrey vs Borage
I've been told that 2 differnt weeds on my property are chickweed, however, I would really like to know which is chickweed "if," either... Also, I've been growing borage, however, someone told me it's not borage, it's comfrey, but I purchased it as borage seed from a seed savers type program 2 years ago, with it returning each following year....Is there anyplace that you know of that shows good detailed pictures of chickweed and comfrey?
-- posted by whowhat
» LadyB - Re: Herb ID or pictures Chickweed, Comfrey vs Borage
In response to message posted by whowhat:As I stated in the article, the sure-fire way to tell whether what you have is Stellaria media is to pinch off a sprig and hold it up to the light. Turn it in your fingers until you see fine hairs on JUST ONE SIDE OF THE STEM. Nothing else I've seen so far has this. There is what they call Mouse-Eared Chickweed that has furriness on each and every leaf. Whole different animal. Folks will call pretty much ANYthing that a chicken will eat....chickweed.....doesn't narrow it DOWN much!
As far as Comfrey vs Borage, that's pretty easy. Comfrey flowers hang down like bells and Borage flowers are unmistakably perfect bright blue stars with black pointy noses. The leaves are different too, with borage leaves looking decidedly seer-suckery, ANNNNNNND....Borage LEAVES smell deliciously of CUCUMBER. Comfrey leaves just smell sincerely GREEN. How's THAT.
If that's not enough, type Symphytum officinalis.jpg (that be Comfrey) into a search engine to pull up pictures of the plant.
Hope this helped!
-- posted by LadyB
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