Plant Lore
GOOD GUYS
Comfrey
Since the FDA frowns on the consumption of this plant, I won’t recommend it’s wonderful cucumbery tea. I use it for achey muscles as a bath tea, on bruises, insect bites, sprains and broken bones, among other things. (See “Green Gunk”). It’s most wonderful use is as a bandage. It has slightly prickly and very large leaves. If you wrap it on an owie and press it against itself, it will stick like velcro. It grows pretty much anyway with very little effort and is a lot cheaper than BandAids™.
A word of caution: in the wild it looks a great deal like Foxglove. The flowers, however, are totally different. Foxglove has 1 1/2 inch showy, bell-shaped flowers on a central stalk. Comfrey has tiny (1/2 inch) blue or lavender flowers on a central stalk that may branch. If you’re not sure, leave it be.
Dandelion
6 inch long, thin, pointed leaves in a rosette close to the ground, may be smooth sided to deeply indented. Bright yellow flower with lots of petals on a single stem growing from the center. This turns into a puffball of seeds.
Put yellow flower under your chin to see if you love butter. Blow seeds off the stem and make a wish. Gather the young leaves before there are flowers for a spring salad. Nibble the flower stems for a healthy liver. Dig the thick roots, wash them and dry them in the oven until crisp. When ground, they make a lovely and healthy coffee/tea substitute. Gather great amounts of the golden blossoms and make dandelion wine. This plant is truly a gift of the Goddess!
