Another spring wild food friend: Chickweed

Spring is officially here in North Carolina!  What once used to be a nuisance in my garden because I didn't allow time to pull up weeds in my garden early enough, has become a yummy wild edible food this year.  It's chickweed and it grows in my vegetable garden soil wherever I didn't mulch last fall.  The above photo is from my first pick of chickweed two weeks ago.  Do a Google image search to get a closer look and see if you find it in your vegetable/flower garden. 
      I learned from a fellow herbalist several years ago that chickweed helps in cleansing our lymphatic system: our body's garbage disposal of what the circulatory system is not able to clear, specifically fats.  Together with a diet adjustment modulating phlegm-producing foods such as sugar, cow dairy, fried foods, alcohol, fatty animal meats, and possibly wheat gluten, adding chickweed can be helpful for facilitating detox of phlegm/congestion conditions like seasonal allergies and excess weight from calorie-rich winter foods. Chickweed is also a mild diuretic, very much like asparagus, cilantro, parsley, dandelion leaf. 

Nature always provides what our body needs during the season, so chickweed is a beneficially food to consume this time of year, very much like dandelion leaves and flowers, which I wrote about a few years ago in this blog Dandelion Flower Tea.  Reading back on this has inspired me to go out and pick dandelion flowers to make sun-infused tea today! 

How have I been using chickweed the past few weeks?

1)  I added a small handful to my green smoothie that I blended up in my Magic Bullet, with water, mandarin oranges, hemp seed, chia seed, homemade water kefir, and dash of apple cider vinegar.  Experiment with your own green smoothie recipe!

Spring is the Wood element in Chinese medicine 5-element theory, consisting of the Liver and Gallbladder meridians, and one of the ways to balance our internal Wood element is to experiment, be creative, and try out new ideas!  Interested in knowing more about the Wood element?  Check out my previous blog post Spring as Growth

2)  I've picked the tender top leaves and mixed it with romaine lettuce very much like how you would add arugula or sprouts to salads.

3)  Chopped the tender top shoots together with cilantro/parsley and added to soups and broths at the end as a garnish.

4)  After reading about dried chickweed tea, maybe I'll try to dry some this year! 

Do you have any other uses you've tried?

Spring as Growth

Greetings to All and Happy Spring!


Spring is a time of birth, change and rapid expansion. The Chinese medicine element or energetic phase for spring is Wood. Just as spring is the time for plants to quickly pierce the ground and for trees to flower, it also represents birth and the quick growth of children and infants. Therefore, the Wood element is concerned with movement, with motivation, and with the harmonious flow in our lives.

A healthy Wood element person is sure of oneself and can speak up for one’s needs, but also knows when to relax the urge for control and go with the flow. Many great visionaries such as Martin Luther King and Mahatma Ghandi have strong Wood elements. An example in nature is bamboo: the main stalk is very straight and firm but can also easily curve and bend with the wind.

The principal organs of the Wood element are the Liver and Gallbladder. The energy of the Liver ensures the smooth flow of Qi/Energy in the body and prevents such Liver Qi stagnation problems such as:

* spasms

* tight muscles

* painful menstruation

* continuous sneezing, itchy eyes from hay fever

* nervous tension, anger, frustration

* premenstrual symptoms

* constant hiccups, belching, or gas

* pounding headache

* feeling of restlessness with lethargy   How can we balance our Wood element if we experience any of the above symptoms or feel a lack of motivation or vision? Here are some suggestions:

* Increase intake of vegetables, particularly green vegetables. If your digestion is sensitive or you have a hard time digesting certain foods, eat more lightly cooked vegetables, rather than raw.

* Look at the green in nature whenever you have spent several hours reading or at a desk. Green helps children focus and relax. Rub your bare feet over green grass. Place plants inside your house (ie bamboo is very easy to maintain in water and moderate light).

* Include a moderate daily amount of sour foods such as lemons, seasonal berries, limes, pickles, berries, organic yogurt, apple cider vinegar, locally made sauerkraut

* Exercise, stretch, play. Movement keeps the Liver Qi from stagnating.

* Get enough sleep because the Liver Blood replenishes at night; insufficient Liver Blood leads to energetic stagnation. This is particular for women, since Liver blood is intimately connected to menstrual blood.

* On a psycho-emotional level, Wood energy is about unfulfilled desires, but rather than figuring out "what am I supposed to be doing with my life?!", in other words, big life questions, focus on a present moment frustration that arises.  For example, if you are not a morning person and you are easily stressed in the morning, take a moment next time you find yourself frustrated, just a few seconds, to ask yourself, "What is happening at this very moment that I am frustrated?  What is the unfulfilled desire at this very moment?"  See what arises.  You do this enough times, you will find that answers will come easily, and your Liver Qi will flow more freely, allowing for more awareness to tackle deeper issues.