Do you find that your children are much more interested in tasting new things if they have been involved in making them?
Often that seems to be the case in our household.
What's especially exciting about herbal creations is that children can be involved from the very beginning of the process.
My children love to harvest and eat dandelion leaves and flowers, chickweed, and lambs-quarter.
Well, this time of year we're not harvesting so many spring greens, but we do have fun digging roots together. As the weather turns cooler and we shift away from sunny summer, the plants pull their energy back into their roots, so it's the best time of year to dig and harvest roots.
Yesterday, the kids and I dug burdock (Arctium lappa) roots from our little burdock patch under our flowering cherry tree.
We let a burdock go to seed there last year, and now there are many small burdock plants growing happily around the tree. Unfortunately, the roots we dug were very small.
Usually, burdock roots are about an inch around and very long. One year Rowan and I dug one that was taller than 2 year old Hailey. Perhaps the plants need more sun than they get beneath our tree.
We thought we'd go ahead and experiment with the roots anyway since we were excited to try the sweet and sour burdock recipe from Susun Weed's awesome book, Healing Wise. If you do not own it, make sure you pick up a copy.
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Sweet & Sour Burdock Ingredients
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4-5 burdock roots (You can find them in many natural foods or Asian markets, sold as burdock or gobo root) Digging yourself? Dig fall roots of FIRST year plants. Not the burdock plants with stalks and burrs on them. Look for plants near those seeded burdocks that just have a basal rosette of leaves.
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2 Tablespoons sesame seeds (optional)
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We took our roots inside and washed the dirt off of them, then chopped them into small pieces. (If you have larger roots it's great to cut them on the diagonal so you get more surface area on each piece.)
Then we parboiled the roots. We put them in a skillet and covered them with water and covered the skillet with a lid. Then we simmered them until the water boiled away.
Rowan mixed together the tamari, honey, vinegar and water and we poured that over the now tender cooked roots and simmered them again until the mixture had mostly boiled away. At that point the roots were ready to eat.
We forgot to add the sesame seeds, but Rowan and I agreed they were still delicious!
This was a great beginning to our seasonal burdock root eating extravaganza. This time of year, and throughout the winter we integrate burdock root into as many dishes as we can.
Burdock is such a nourishing source of vitamins and minerals, providing nutrition specifically to our glandular and immune systems as well as our liver, kidneys, blood, lungs, and nerves.
Burdock acts slowly and steadily so eating burdock regularly is a wonderful way to access the nourishing, healing qualities of this plant. Besides providing delicious nourishment, regular eating of burdock can help prevent chronic disease and cancer.
I feel great eating burdock, because I know all of these qualities about the plant, but mostly I just love it's distinctive flavor. It is truly a delicious and favorite part of our family diet!
And as you can see, this process can really get your kids involved in learning about herbs. This is an important point covered in our upcoming Kids & Herbs course as well.
Enjoy!
-Kimberly
