Late Spring and Early Summer are great times for harvesting WEEDS!  (Have I ever mentioned how much I love weeds?) In late spring there is a burst of growth, plants are getting ready to harvest the heat and sunshine of the summer time. This year I found several curly dock plants in my garden isles between the beds.  I was terribly excited, although I don’t think anyone really shared  my excitement over another weed. I waited for the leaves to get nice and big and then harvested it to make herbal vinegar.

Curly Dock with seed heads

Young Curly Dock

Dock, also called yellow dock, curly dock, and broad dock is a perennial plant, which my Native American grandmothers use for “all women’s problems.” I dig the yellow roots of Rumex crispus or R. obtusifolius and tincture them. I also harvest the leaves and/or seeds throughout the growing season to increase blood-levels of iron, reduce menstrual flooding and cramping, and correct hormone levels.

Susun Weed 

I coarsely chopped the leaves, tightly packed them into a quart jar and them filled the jar to the top with pasteurized apple cider vinegar. The vinegar will help break down the cell walls and release the minerals and other beneficial constituents. A tablespoon of vinegar daily will help with iorn levels and “all women’s problems”.  After six weeks I will strain the plant matter and store the vinegar in a cool dark place.
Another plant I have been harvesting a lot of is the Common Mallow. We eat mallow fresh, cooked, we dry, tincture and vinegar mallow. I wrote an article about the medicianl properties of mallow here: Not So Common Mallow .

This batch of Mallow I made into an infused vinegar for use in the winter time when coughs and colds sneak in.  I find a tablespoon of vinegar with honey in warm water much easier to get down the throat of a child than an infusion.

Mallow and I have become good friends and ally’s through the year and I hope to discover more of her.