Spring Cleanup means nice chickweed harvest -- salve?

[applestar]

I'm slowly getting my garden beds ready for planting vegs. And as I clear away lush growths, I wonder if they are good for anything besides wilting and using as mulch.

I'm pretty sure chickweed makes good healing salve? I wasn't positive but I washed a nice sized clump that were just starting to bloom, and am letting them dry. How to proceed from here though? Is it dry, fill jar, top with oil, then whip with melted beeswax? Any preferences for type of oil and proportion of beeswax? Any other additions to make it better?

Are mouse ear and common chickweeds both good for this?

I also ended up with some really nice dandelion leaves and flower buds and tender young roots. I blanched then sautéed in butter and extra virgin olive oil with a good handful of pecan halves, finished with a generous squirt if lemon juice, and am eating them now with brown rice. Yum!

Other weeds I'm clearing away right now are bitter cress, Veronica, ....something wort -- ...nope! Can't remember , ground ivy, dead nettle, I might have healall, also evening primrose....

[rainbowgardener]

Great ideas. I throw dandelion leaves in spring salads along with violets and other stuff. I've never done anything with the chickweed except compost/ mulch. But now you have inspired me (as always, you are a mentor for me) to look in to what I could be doing with it - I also have plenty!

[imafan26]

Weeds get trashed, but some of the leftover broccoli and beans made it to the worm bin. I kept the bolted cilantro to collect the seed heads and the cutting celery is bolting now. I am also collecting seeds from the stevia. I cut back the Mexican oregano, it was pretty unruly and the bindweed was growing into it. I made more cuttings of the Mexican oregano.

[rainbowgardener]

So I looked up the chickweed which does turn out to be a really good healing herb. Lots of nutritional value for eating and lots of medicinal properties. The old way was to boil it in lard for topical use. They say it can be eaten raw in salads. I tried eating some. It may be very nutritious, but gastronomically, it would add nothing to your salad. It doesn't taste bad, just doesn't taste like anything at all and doesn't have any texture.

I am going to gather a bunch (I have plenty!!) to dry and figure out to what to do with it from there. Let me know what you do with yours...

[applestar]

My mom always grimaces when she sees chickweed -- it reminds her of when it was her job to gather them and feed them to the chickens as a child.

I remember her showing them to me to give them to my budgies when my pair became amorous, and they successfully raised one of the three eggs the Mama budgie laid. One egg was a dud, second chick died, but the third one grew up to fledge and get chased out of their cage by the Papa budgie (I had to get a 2nd cage.)

She makes a face that I harvest them to put in salads in early spring. She does NOT believe it can be people food.

[valley]

Not sure what Chick weed is. Have a picture?

[rainbowgardener]

It is low, spreading, stays pretty close to the ground, and has pretty little white flowers.

https://www.ppws.vt.edu/scott/weed_id/steme.htm

[applestar]

I have my bunch drying on a badminton racket. They're past wilty though there are some that are still not shriveled.

I'm thinking general consensus on the net appear to be 3 hrs heated oil extraction in water bath or top of double boiler kept at simmer, then strained. The excess moisture in the plant material tends to result in spoilage and some seem to recommend fully dried, so heated quick extraction is preferred.

It sounds like fresh harvested and wilted works but fully dried works as well, so I think I'm going to dry a whole bunch from my next harvest.

My browser had a moment and I lost the links and have to find them again, but I found a recipe with chickweed, confrey, and plantain. I might try that. Another "Pennsylvania Dutch" recipe includes mint, which would be cooling, and rosemary, which was a surprise.

One source said oil alone soaks into and penetrates the skin while adding beeswax to harden/thicken keeps the salve on the surface of the skin, depending on purpose.

I have poison ivy again (careless moment gathering pine straw duff -- pulled on a vine that I *thought* was Virginia creeper, but I should have been more cautious since they don't have any leaves yet and it's impossible to tell). I think the salve with pepper mint might be soothing, but am not too sure about using an oil-base. I wonder if I can make chickweed witch hazel extract like I usually make with plantain, jewel weed, and peppermint?

[rainbowgardener]

Welcome to spring! I have poison ivy between my toes--walking around in sandals when you can't see the leaves yet.

The witch hazel extract makes sense....

[digitS']

....something wort -- ...nope! Can't remember ....

I just decided to take a moment to try to find a suggestion for the "something wort." Rainbow, you used the same Virginia Tech Weed Identification Guide that I was looking in . Good guide but I, for one, didn't need it for chickweed.

It surprises me how very bad my memory is for even fairly common weeds. There are weeds that I have looked up repeatedly over a number of years - & the names still escape me when I first see them in the spring .

The weeds I remember, the ones that are edible - no problem. It must be the usefulness (imagined or otherwise) of the weed. I had never thought to identify them as a "lotion weed" .

Oh, I didn't come up with your wort, Applestar but, if you can think of it, let us know. Attach some use to it or I, at least, will quickly forget.

Steve

[applestar]

I did take a picture of "something" wort --


...still can't remember what it is, though....

[rainbowgardener]

I didn't need the guide for chickweed either, but valley asked for a picture.