One way I keep each day fresh & new is to watch the roadsides of my daily drives. I name the plants I see as practice and also note the newcomers to scene. When I was in St. Louis at the very end of spring, that felt like deep summer there, this blue roadside flower caught my attention. It wasn’t until the end of June that this plant made its debut for the season in Northeast Wisconsin, and now it is lighting up the roadsides. My investigation revealed that this is chicory, and my mind was blown. Chicory is known as a coffee substitute, so my brain had a hard time putting this delicate periwinkle-esque flower in the category of a more earthy, warming taste.
Curbside chicory.
Chicory is a Eurasian plant that found its way to our roadsides where it, at least in my world, happily takes its place when in full bloom. Its stems are stick straight like branches, that weep milky contents when cut. The stems shoot from the ground and its alternating leaves and flowers take turns decorating the ascension. Chicory’s lower leaves are covered with hairs that can grow up to eight inches. In NorthEast Wisconsin, chicory is the star of the show from the end of June until October, when the scene primes for fall with explosions of goldenrod.
Chicory showing off in an otherwise “unused” industrial lot.
As I mentioned, chicory is most popularly known for being either mixed with or replacing coffee. It is thought that roasting chicory root for coffee started in Holland in the late 17th century. We cannot forget that chicory was used in practice all the way back to ancient Egypt, but the coffee mix may be a more modern use. Since the United States Civil War, chicory has been used as a rationing measure to stretch the coffee supply. To this day it is used in the Cafe du Monde blend as a New Orleans staple.
Chicory is a resilient grower, I even saw blooms on the ground level popping back up after being mowed.
My research revealed some other interesting uses for chicory and I highly recommend the Elder Hour podcast episode on the more magical uses of chicory. A topic that kept popping up in my research was the benefit of chicory in feed additives for chickens and pigs. In the study done on chickens, one day old broiler chickens were fed a control feed or feed with probiotics or a percentage of chicory. The control group was found to have higher triglycerides, LDL and lower HDL cholesterol levels as well as more incidents of E. Coli in their gut flora than the groups fed chicory or the probiotic blend. This gives a different form of evidence for what we know chicory to be, hepatoprotective and beneficial for metabolism functions like blood sugar and cholesterol. The study on pig feed also showed that supplementation of chicory is hepatoprotective, serves as an antioxidant, and modulates how the liver’s cholesterol metabolism.
Can you spot the chicory?
While chicory has served its social purpose across time, its addition to coffee culture also adds amazing health benefits. As mentioned above chicory is protective to the liver and enhances the body’s metabolic pathways, including blood sugar regulation. If you choose to add chicory to your morning coffee not only are you jump starting your mental system, but also your gastrointestinal system we well. Chicory is a prebiotic food and is helpful for digestive issues and ulcers. This blend may make coffee less harsh on a sensitive stomach or replace it completely for those just looking for that earthy grounding taste to start their day (add dandelion and cinnamon for ever more benefits!).
In our modern world, chicory loves rough edges, filling them with their delicate, yet ridgid touch.
Last but not least, chicory is known for its benefits to your immune system. Chicory seed and root extracts have been found to be antibacterial, antifungal, antiparasitic, antitumor, antiprotozoal, antiaging, and an antioxidant! Learning all of this is inspiring me to add chicory to a mushroom/dandelion root blend to really soak up so much goodness to boost me in these coming cold winter days!
Yet again I am so glad I followed my curiosity and was not afraid to admit I didn’t know something. Following the powder blue trail led to a greater understanding of chicory. I also gained another plant ally on my team to help keep my liver and immune system functioning to the best of their abilities!
Sources: The Lost Book of Herbal Remedies – Apelian, Ph.D & Davis
Khoobani M, Hasheminezhad SH, Javandel F, Nosrati M, Seidavi A, Kadim IT, Laudadio V, Tufarelli V. Effects of Dietary Chicory (Chicorium intybus L.) and Probiotic Blend as Natural Feed Additives on Performance Traits, Blood Biochemistry, and Gut Microbiota of Broiler Chickens. Antibiotics (Basel). 2019 Dec 20;9(1):5. doi: 10.3390/antibiotics9010005. PMID: 31861921; PMCID: PMC7168175.
Lepczyński A, Herosimczyk A, Ożgo M, Marynowska M, Pawlikowska M, Barszcz M, Taciak M, Skomiał J. Dietary chicory root and chicory inulin trigger changes in energetic metabolism, stress prevention and cytoskeletal proteins in the liver of growing pigs – a proteomic study. J Anim Physiol Anim Nutr (Berl). 2017 Oct;101(5):e225-e236. doi: 10.1111/jpn.12595. Epub 2016 Nov 17. PMID: 27859709.
Pouille CL, Ouaza S, Roels E, Behra J, Tourret M, Molinié R, Fontaine JX, Mathiron D, Gagneul D, Taminiau B, Daube G, Ravallec R, Rambaud C, Hilbert JL, Cudennec B, Lucau-Danila A. Chicory: Understanding the Effects and Effectors of This Functional Food. Nutrients. 2022 Feb 23;14(5):957. doi: 10.3390/nu14050957. PMID: 35267932; PMCID: PMC8912540.
Confession: I am still new to this whole herbalist life. However, ever since the door to the plant path opened for me, my worldview has shifted immensely. My connection with my surroundings feels much deeper. It is an honor and a complete delight to watch as the scenery changes each year. Not only with seasonal shifts, but also annual differences. These last few years have taught me to notice the subtleties of particular growth patterns, who is blooming, who seems to be the star of the moment, and what message the earth around me trying to send. Nothing is accidental and everything has a role. Once you begin to understand this is the language of plants; it allows you to get a taste of the magic of the universe as a whole. Their intelligence is mind blowing and our attempt at comprehension is just scratching the surface, or in some cases we translate to appease our own desires, but that’s a story for another day. The story for today is yarrow, our lovely friend who in my eyes is the star of the summer.
My baby yarrow that I grew from seed and resides in my front yard.
Just like a fireworks show, wildflowers and plants begin their show as the weather warms and the sun shines longer, blessing us with spring then summer. In my area and my perception things this year began with wild mustard and the show began to pop off. While you can predict who will show up, you never know how much or what the phases will bring. Some plants only flower in the second year and some need an instigator like soil disruption or fire to awaken their growth. When watching a particular area or even your own front yard, things change every year. You never know when a plant ally will show up. For example, motherwort blessed my yard this year & I am soooooo grateful. Whether a bird angel dropped some seed or it just blew into my life on the wind, my garden is forever changed. This is the magic of plants and nature.
A yarrow patch on my way to work.
One of my mentors told me about the secret language of plants and it really stuck with me. They mentioned that they should have known we were headed into a phase where the respiratory system was going to need a lot of help due to the plants they saw growing in abundance. Mullein was one ally that has continued to really show up over the last few years. In hindsight, Queen Ann’s Lace was notably prolific last year. Road sides, fields, you name it were full of the wispy white lace saucers. Did it know we might need its powers this year? Did is sense an attack on the reproductive system? How do you engage with their messages when you have to be thinking ahead, allowing them to help you predict the future. This year, instead of Central Wisconsin roadsides being filled with Queen Ann’s Lace I was intrigued to find my drives across Wisconsin to be FILLED with yarrow.
A Northern Wisconsin roadside, full of yarrow.
In order to attempt to translate its message, let’s take a step back and understand what we know about yarrow. Starting with plant identification, yarrow’s latin name helps you remember some key features since white wild flowers can be a very tricky topic. With that being said, plant ID is CRITICAL if you are going to forage yarrow! You must feel 100% confident in your ID skills since there are a few unfriendly look alikes. While this is a serious note, yarrow does have key features that are extremely helpful.
Notice the growth pattern of the stem into flower.
I am going to explain this in my own lingo. Please consult your favorite guide books and several references so that you can develop your own lingo as well. This will ensure that you understand what you are looking at and for in your own perspective of the plant. When I was first starting out I confused yarrow with Queen Ann’s lace. Thankfully this was not a harmful error, but looking back I needed to study a bit more before heading out foraging.
Botanical drawings are helpful when assessing each phase and part of the plant. I found this on Etsy.
As I mentioned before, in the case of yarrow starting with the latin name tells you some helpful tips for plant identification. Achillea millefolium, millefolium referring to the apparent thousands of leaflets coming off of the leaf base stem structure. This looks feathery or even like mini squirrel tails. For the most part, yarrow is short (1-3 feet tall) a lot of times growing below knee height, but this year I have seen it growing to its max potential along roadsides. Yarrow thrives in full sun to partial shade and blooms from May to July. Along with leaf structure, the composition of flowers/buds is another key feature in white flowered plant ID. In yarrow’s case, somewhat dense clusters of flowers form from a stem that multiplies at is reaches to top. It starts with the base stem and then almost has a tiny separate stem for each small white flower. The clusters are slightly firm to the touch with 10-40 mini white flowers. Yarrow does come in various colors (white, yellow, pink, red), each with their own energetics, but the predominant wild flower in my region is white. The scent of yarrow is described as sweet pine, but once you positively ID the plant you can develop your own description. Yarrow leaves and flowers are bitter, notiably part of the aster/daisy family. Caution for allergies along with improper plant identification, specifically poison hemlock, which should not be touched or smelled. Nature’s Garden by Samuel Thayer breaks down the differences excellently.
Dense flower heads that remind me of cauliflower.
Now that we know what plants we are looking at, we can move on to the message it is trying to send to us. My first thought was are we all going to be a bleeding mess next year, but I discussed this topic with a friend and she reminded me of the energetic properties of yarrow and that reset my focus a bit. Let’s discuss both.
Yarrow grow in patches, spread by rhizome.
The reason my the first thought my overly dramatic brain had was worrying that we all will bleed to death is because yarrow is a reliable wild medicine ally. Yarrow can be added to your wilderness medicine/first aid kit or if you are hiking it can be used in emergencies. This is because it can stop bleeding and has antimicrobial powers. However, The Holistic Herbalism Podcast did note that the small particles of yarrow are not always easy to get out of wounds, so yarrow is better in an infused wound wash. I am currently making a plantain & yarrow powder infused witch hazel.
Close up of yarrow leaves. Notice the many (thousand) little leaves.
The prevention of bleeding is definitely not all that yarrow is known for. It is a mild diuretic, meaning it can help flush fluid off of the body. This can be helpful for individuals who struggle to manage their fluid either in congestive heart failure or high blood pressure. Its bitter nature can assist with digestion and reduce gas build up or cramping bellies. Another way it helps upset stomachs is through antispasmodic properties.
Even closer shot of the leaves. A lot of the bitterness is found here.
Combining a lot of what was just mentioned above, yarrow can be an ally to those who menstruate. The stimulating and sedative actions of yarrow excite uterine muscles while relaxing them, thus bringing on late periods or easing cramps when taken as a warm tea. Yarrow can be used in a sitz bath or in a postpartum pericare blend to help with healing/bleeding/episiotomy incisions and can tone the uterus after birth. Yarrow is also hormone balancing and promotes progesterone production and is useful for when menses in menopause are coming too frequently.
More roadside yarrow.
One last physical effect of yarrow is that it is a very helpful fever aide. By drinking yarrow in a tea blend, preferable with some immune boosting allies like hibiscus or elderberry that will help improve tea flavor, the body is encouraged to sweat and work through what it needs too. There is a place for fever in the illness process, but sometimes you need some relief. Yarrow helps the immune reaction of sweating it out take place in a supportive way that can help illness move through faster in some cases.
Rainbow variety of yarrow.
Now let’s move on to the energetic properties of yarrow. These can be captured in a flower essence, but also have some effects when you interact with yarrow, grow yarrow near your home, and work with yarrow as a plant ally. Below is an excerpt from my materia medica and sources will be included at the end of this post.
Flower Essence:
White yarrow: Strengthens and protects against toxic environmental influences, geopathic stress, and other hazards of technology-dominated modern life. This includes the disruptive effects of radiation on human energy fields from X-rays, televisions, computer monitors, electromagnetic fields, airplane flights or nuclear fall-out.
Golden yarrow: Positive qualities: Remaining open to others while staying self-contained; active social involvement which preserves inner equilibrium. Patterns of imbalance: Over-sensitivity to one’s social surroundings, resulting in social isolation, or a false social persona; dependence on drugs for protection or social masking
Pink Yarrow: boundary medicine for those who work in the healing field/work close emotionally with others. Positive qualities: Loving awareness of others within a field of self-contained consciousness; appropriate emotional boundaries. Patterns of imbalance: Unbalanced sympathetic forces, overly absorbent auric field, lack of emotional clarity, dysfunctional merging with others
End of story, yarrow is boundary medicine in many forms. In a world that seems to never stop, especially when we have technology involved, it helps us sit with our own energy, protecting us. So much of others opinions and emotions are thrust at us, telling us certain things are bad, be mad about this, the world is scary etc. etc., but when we sit with our own truth we can see clearer and realize that we are all, at our core, coming from the same place. At times we are divided by what our body looks like or what/where we identify with, but at the end of the day we truly all are just on a journey to try and experience joy, love, and the passions our soul drives us towards.
Simply divine.
So whatever message yarrow is telling you, for some reason it is really calling out to me this year. From patches on my way to work that are persistently growing despite being mowed, to the roadsides on my drive across Wisconsin. Yarrow is here this year. What a blessing it is to grow along side it.
Sources:
Midwest Medicinal Plants – Lisa M. Rose
The Holistic Herbalism Podcast
The Lost Book of Herbal Remedies – Nicole Apelian Ph.D & Claude Davis
Due to summer’s late start here in the Midwest, it seems like everything is blooming at their own pace. Which makes sense that even this post is coming out later than I had planned. Despite trying to follow a schedule or expecting things to happen the same every year I am realizing more and more that everything happens as it should, in perfect timing.
Instead of editing the first paragraph, I am just going to demonstrate how a master herbalist’s learning journey will truly never end and that there are several layers to learning plants. During my research for this post, I learned that the prime harvesting time for sumac berries is late July/ early August. Looking back, I am unsure if what I was connecting with in last June was an early fruiting or more mature fruits. Whatever the case was, I feel blessed to have witnessed a longer process of sumac growth than I did last year. Next year I will probably notice something different that will continue to strengthen my relationship with this tree, and that is the fun of plants and relationships with nature!
Sumac beginning to fruit
I was formally introduced to sumac last year at herb school and I fell in love. We ate the fuzzy, baby shoots and admired the ruby red fruit. After this meeting my whole world lit up with sumac and I was fascinated by this tree that was everywhere! My whole drive back from Eau Claire was lined with sumac and I was ecstatic to learn that we also had sumac all over Green Bay.
Baby sumac shooting up.
Speaking of noticing seasonal shifts, staghorn sumac is one of the first trees to turn color in the fall, so we will have to keep an eye out for their cues as they turn from green to red/maroon. Ever since I learned about sumac last June, my eyes were peeled for the ruby red, burgundy-esque fruit again this year. However, during June I really only saw the flower, which is a similar cone shape to the fruit just light green. By now (late-July) more fruit should be present and ready to be adored and even indulged.
Small staghorn sumac flowers.
Staghorn sumac (Rhus typhina) is a member of the cashew family and can live for 25-50 years. It grows through its root system, spreading with little shoots popping up around taller, more mature trees. This explains why you will see waves of sumac patches and not just a stand alone tree. The reason why you see it along highways is that these sumac patches are able to stabilize the soil and prevent erosion!
Sumac transitioning from flower to fruit.
Sumac fruit, or berry clusters, are not just for the birds! Sumac is a popular Middle Eastern and Mediterranean seasoning. Through cold infusion simac is enjoyed as a “lemonade” type beverage. You might have heard about poison sumac, but staghorn sumac looks very different from that variety and if you look at pictures before foraging you will be well equipped with the knowledge to make safe choices. This edible variety has fruit that points straight up in cone shaped, furry clusters and the poison variety is white and hangs down in a draping fashion. Both plants have different growing environments with poison sumac primarily growing in swaps out East. Make sure to find a sumac patch to watch blossom and pick them before any heavy rains, as that washed off the malic acid that makes the lemonade so tart. You can try a little bit of the cluster you are eyeing up to see just how tart it will be.
Sumac trees with flowers transitioning to fruit.
To make the seasoning, collect tart, deep red, sumac berries. You can sun dry them in a safe place or break clusters up into small pieces and dry in a dehydrator. Once removed from the stem and ground, the seasoning will bring a floral acidity to your dishes and can also be used to tenderize meat.
Sumac fruit, ready for harvest.
As mentioned before ripe sumac fruit makes a refreshing “lemonade”. For this step the pre-forage taste test is important for picking the most tart clusters. Samuel Thayer says that the best time for harvest is late July/early August before the deep red fruit gets rained on too many times. Place several clusters in a large jar and pour cold water over them. Crush the fruit down a little bit, mixing it in the water then allow it to infuse for several hours in a cool place. Strain before drinking to remove any fuzz from the fruit that might be irritating to drink.
Sumac & Monarda/bee balm growing in harmony.
After I fell in love with sumac last summer I was able to carry that memory and summer vibes into the winter. I harvested about two quart jars full of sumac fruit and this has lasted me the whole year. The tartness may have gone down, but I use the berries as a vitamin C addition to my winter immune protection tea. Not only does it support my immune system with nutrients, but also that summer sun energy is captured and delivered to my cells and soul during a time they need it most!
Sumac, lemon verbena & lemon balm sun tea
As we get deeper into harvest season, venture out and add this wonderful tree to your bounty!
Keep in mind that anyone allergic to cashews or mangos may also be allergic to sumac.
