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by Jillian Ashley
When the first lime green velcro like leaves of cleavers emerge from the soil and the worms begin to surface we know that the earliest days of spring are upon us! These are tell-tale signs along with the usual suspects of violet, chickweed, dandelion & clover that it is time to shake off cozy hibernation and bring the hearth to rest as father sun has changed his axis in the sky and is bringing in the heat to greet us.
There are a few rituals I have cultivated in the kitchen and the garden that I have held over the years to bring a smoother and more fruitful transition to these times. Coming out of a slower and more stagnant season in what feels like a never ending cold that reaches my bones can be tough and so I have put together recipes for you that have really nourished my inner and outer landscapes as the season changes. These holistic practices can bring sunshine and vitality into your body and into the garden with easeful steps and mindful preparation.
Cleavers, violet and chickweed are all allies when it comes to waking up the earth from her slumber, and us from ours. Our bodily systems can benefit from a boost to move energy, circulate blood and support the lymphatic system. All of these systems working together can assist us in moving toxins and sluggishness out of our orbit as we greet the spring sun.
- Handfuls of cleavers, violet and chickweed chopped fine
- 1 cup of olive oil
- 28 grams beeswax
- ½ tsp rose geranium essential oil *optional
- Mason jar
- Garden shears or scissors
- Chopstick
- Knife + cutting board
- Double boiler or crock pot
- Marker and Tape for labelling, or a label maker if you have one
Harvest fresh herbs and set them out to wilt on a screen in the sun or in a dehydrator to remove some of the water content. This can happen overnight in a dehydrator, your oven with the light on, or over the course of a couple days outside in the sun.
Fetch herbs, finely chop and add to a crockpot or stove top double boiler on medium /high heat. A mason jar can be used sitting in a crockpot or small pot surrounded by water if you don’t have a glass bowl to set on top of your small pot. Pour your oil over the herbs, keep temp on low heat, stirring to submerge your herbs with a chopstick, and allow herbs to infuse into your oil base for a couple hours or overnight. When infused strain through a mesh strainer and return oil to your double boiler method of choice. Oil strains best when slightly warm. Reheat on medium and slowly add beeswax and your essential oil, stirring with a bamboo or metal chopstick until beeswax is melted.
Pour your salve mix into sterilised containers. Label your salve with the ingredients and date. Store right side up, as salves can melt in extreme heat.Keep around to encourage movement in the body as we reawaken with the spring sun! As well as itches from bug bites whilst outside tending to your garden.
My life changed and this seasonal shift became more fruitful when I realised pesto could take on so many forms amongst the variety of herbs, greens, nuts, seeds and oils! I make a dent in my freezer every spring as weeds begin to take over my yard, the kitchen witch inside of me gets giddy and goes to work! This recipe is twofold 1) Making a master concentrate of wild weeds can give you access to their benefits all year long when blended and frozen into manageable amounts. 2) making a full on pesto with wild weeds and complimentary ingredients gives you a week or so of daily vita-mineral greens, experiencing the benefits by consuming at least a tablespoon a day. From personal experience I could eat a whole bowl of this stuff. What I find is that I don’t need the cheese when the flavour and aroma of all of these herbs come together.
If wild and weedy pesto sweeps you off your feet, my recommendation is to gather as much wild edible weeds as you can whilst in season and to make up a large batch of pesto, freezing in small usable portions, so that you can enjoy it throughout the year. Sometimes I will even measure out 2-4 cups of fresh weeds and pulse with a little oil or water to puree them and then freeze into portions so that I can switch up my pesto ingredients as the mood strikes.
- 2 cups of assorted wild edible greens; fresh cleavers, dead nettle, dandelion, violet leaf, stinging nettle and/or chickweed
- 2 cups fresh coriander, arugula or basil is optional if you’d like to cut the herbs with something more familiar, or if you are low on your access to wild herbs for this recipe. If you opt out gather 4cups of the above wild edible herbs.
- ⅔ cup extra virgin olive oil
- ¼ - ½ cup of almonds, pine nuts, walnuts or cashews
*soak raw unsalted cashews or walnuts the night before and rinse before use
- Salt and pepper to taste
- 3 cloves of garlic
- Zest of one lemon or tsp of raw apple cider vinegar
- Parmesan cheese or nutritional yeast optional
- 2 tsp coconut aminos or honey
*Optional sweetener, I like aminos for the sweet and savoury component or I will use honey. A little sweetness brings out a lot of flavour in the herbs
- Mason jar or tupperware, glass preferable
- Garden shears
- Spatula
- Knife + cutting board
- Food processor
- Marker and Tape for labelling, or a label maker if you have one
Uses: Salad dressing, when thinned with water or vinegar, sauce for pasta or tossing roasted or steamed vegetables, a snack on toast, crackers or by the spoonful, spice up a frittata or scramble.
Comfrey (Symphytum officianale), a member of the borage family, is a fast-growing, leafy perennial. The Latin name is from the Greek symphis, which means “growing together of bones” or “knit together.” Comfrey has appeared in the Materia Medica since the Middle Ages and some references to the plant date back as far as 50 AD. True to its Latin name, comfrey was applied externally as a poultice for bruises, sprains and fractures. It was taken internally for a variety of medical aliments ranging from broken bones and gastric ulcers to the treatment of female disorders.
Comfrey contains allantoin, a substance commonly used in the cosmetic industry. Allantoin promotes granulation and cell formation which aids in healing at the cellular level. It has both anti-inflammatory and keratinolytic effects and is useful in the treatment of skin conditions following post radiation in cancer patients. It is now formulated synthetically. Comfrey also contains pyrrolizidine alkaloids(PAs), a known hepatotoxic agent. Overuse of substances containing PAs can lead to severe liver damage and for that reason Australia placed Comfrey on thePoison Advisory List in 1984. Germany and Canada followed suit and in 2001, theFDA asked major manufacturers to remove comfrey from their standard list of ingredients.*
(*It should be noted that the studies that led to this decision involved isolating PAs and injecting them at high concentrations into rats. Since a chemical in isolation behaves differently than when present in a whole plant, rats are different than humans, and it is unclear whether common comfrey (S. officinale) or Russian comfrey (S.uplandicum) was used, there is dissension among herbalists regarding this decision and whether comfrey is indeed toxic. We err on the side of caution and recommend avoiding comfrey for internal use particularly in the case of preexisting liver conditions, and if considering internal use we recommend researching this matter for yourself so you have all the facts.)
Remember when I said that my reasons for growing comfrey were not altruistic? Well, it turns out that I am a bit of a rebel at heart. I’ve done extensive reading on comfrey and concluded that when used externally, comfrey is a useful and beneficial herb. As it turns out, I was correct.
Last summer, my husband and I were moving one of my failure-to-thrive beehives. We’d had a delayed and wet spring, and one of my more aggressive hives appeared sickly. I decided to isolate them on a friend’s property away from my healthy hives. After a month of quarantine and a good dose of sunshine, they bounced back and were ready to return to the bee yard. Moving is very stressful to bees. We usually try and move them as near to or after sunset in order to give all the foragers a chance to return to the hive. A rumble or two of thunder is usually enough to send them scurrying back home. I knew the forecast of an impending storm would further aggravate the aggressive nature of this particular hive. I pulled on my Bug Baffler, a protective mesh shirt and a long gloves, but I confess, in my hurry to beat the storm, I opted to forgo my protective pants.
As a beekeeper, stings are to be expected, especially in times of high stress. I got stung on the tender flesh of my inner thigh, not just once, but twice. Normally, I get a localised reaction from a sting, swelling and then itching for 2-3 days. But sensitive areas like the face or inner thigh can be painful and I expected a fair amount of swelling and itching.
I quickly took stock of my herbs and remembered the comfrey leaves I was in the process of drying. Recalling comfrey’s anti-inflammatory effects when applied externally, I decided to make a quick poultice from the steeped comfrey leaves.
Comfrey leaves should be harvested right before the flower blooms and be used dried or fresh. Steep fresh chopped leaves in water that has been brought to a boil for 20-30minutes. Strain with a kitchen strainer. I prefer to use a French Press for my herbal teas or tisanes.
Wrap the steeped leaves in cheesecloth, muslin or felt to make a poultice and apply externally. Do NOT apply to broken skin or open wounds. Reapply every 10-15 minutes over the next hour, as needed. Much to my surprise, I had instant relief from the comfrey poultice (more on poultices here)! I then soaked a cotton ball with comfrey and taped it on the sting overnight, and the swelling was gone the next morning.
The tea can be stored in the refrigerator for up to 6 months for cool, soothing use. Do not take internally.Use comfrey for no more than 10 days in a row. Do not use comfrey in the presence of active liver disease or in conjunction with medications that impair liver function.
Comfrey is also useful inorganic gardening due to its rich nitrogen content. When mulched, the fast-growing leaves make a great compost activator. The leaves are so fast-growing that I can harvest comfrey leaves and within a week they have already grown back by half to their pre-cut size. Needless to say, I am definitely comfortable with comfrey.
This hardy perennial grows quickly and easily, has beautiful flowers, and best of all, it can provide a completely free nutrient-rich source of fertiliser which can be used all season long.All plants need three important macronutrients in order to grow and thrive; these are nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium, often labeled as NPK on fertiliser mixes.
● Nitrogen is crucial for healthy growth and helps plants produce green leafy foliage.
● Phosphorus encourages vigorous growth and helps protect plants from diseases and pests.
● Potassium promotes fruit and flower production in perennials and mature fruiting annuals such as tomatoes and peppers.
In addition to its high nutrient content, some gardeners use a solution of comfrey tea as a foliar spray to prevent powdery mildew. Application on the leaves of plants can help to prevent the spores from germinating.
A word of warning, however: it smells horrendous! So be prepared to hold your nose.
To make the fertiliser tea, start by collecting a bucket full of the large, fuzzy leaves. I suggest you wear gloves when you harvest them, as thehairs can be a bit irritating to your skin.
When the leaves are at least 2 feet tall, use a garden knife or shears to cut them down to a couple of inches above the soil. Harvest the outer leaves first so the plant can continue growing.
Snip the stems off from the leaves you’ve harvested – it’s the greens you want.
Next, place them in a bin or a bucket, pushing them down firmly. I usually use a simple 5-gallon bucket.You can put a couple of large rocks or bricks on top to weigh them down, and then fill the bucket with water.You can chop or shred the leaves to speed up the process.
Make sure to always cover the bucket. This will keep away pesky insects, prevent dilution from rainwater, and most importantly, keep your whole garden from stinking!
Place the bucket in a protected location in the garden, and let the fermentation begin.
To make a very strong tea, leave the bucket to steep for a long time.Recommendations are from anywhere in a 3- to 6-week range. Once leaves have broken down into a slurry paste, you will know that the tea is ready.
In a pinch, any amount of time will give you something useful. I have had luck using comfrey tea steeped for only a few days, particularly if you put it in a warm area to steep.
Just sniff around for that telltale stinky aroma, which is a good sign that the leaves are breaking down and the nutrients are being released.
The final product will be a greenish brown liquid and some very nasty, mushy leaves.
Once you are ready to use the liquid feed, scoop or strain out the decomposing leafy gunk from the bottom of the bucket.
Throw this leafy goo into your compost pile, or use it to side-dress other crops such as potatoes and tomatoes.
Before use, you need to dilute the tea with water, as it can be very strong, and end up burning the plants. How much you dilute it can range widely depending on how strong the concoction is.
The darker the liquid, the more you should dilute it. I have seen recommendations for dilution ranging anywhere from 1:2 to 1:15 parts tea towater.
If you have steeped it for a full 6 weeks and you have a full 5-gallon bucket of liquid, I would recommend a 1:10 ratio, but if you only steeped for a few weeks, 1:4 would likely be fine.
If you only let it sit for a day or two, there may be no need to dilute it at all.
Once the concentration is diluted, you are ready to feed your garden!
Instead of using a watering can, I like to put the tea in a backpack sprayer and spray the solution on the soil as well as both the tops and bottoms of foliage, hitting annuals, shrubs, and fruit trees.
● Do not use comfrey tea fertiliser on seedlings or very young plants. If you use it to feed younger crops, dilute the concentration significantly.
● Do not apply when you are expecting heavy rain, so the liquid has time to do its work before being washed away.
● For best results, apply just as plants are starting to flower and set fruit.
You can also try a quick-steep method, which is similar to how you might make tea for drinking. Just pour boiling water over comfrey leaves and let the concoction sit for up to 24 hours. Strain out the foliage and dilute by half prior to using.
Or you can try continuous batch brewing, using a bucket with a nozzle at the bottom. This method involves continually adding water and leaves to the bucket so that the fertiliser can be used on demand.
Every time you want to use some, just lift the nozzle to pour out the desired amount, and then top off the whole thing with more water and leaves to keep it marinating.
Another technique is to drill holes in the bottom of a bucket and place a second bucket underneath it.
Pack foliage in the inner bucket, weigh it down, and cover. After a few weeks, it will decompose into a black goopy mass. Collect the drippings in the bucket below and dilute to about 1:15 parts tea to water.
One of the best things about this herb is how quickly it grows. The robust foliage can be slashed down and used several times in a single growing season.
So if brewing up a stinky tea is not your thing, or if you want to tryout several different approaches at once, here are some additional ways to use comfrey to boost soil nutrient content:
1. Use the leaves as mulch. Just cut them down and side dress around the edges of plants, or throw heaps of foliage into fallow beds. Either dig them into the soil or layer with dried leaves or straw.
2. Leaves can also help your compost heap kick into gear. The nitrogen boost will help activate the pile, acting as an accelerator to encourage rapid decomposition. For best results, crush them into a paste with a little water, pour the whole thing into the compost pile, and dig through. Be careful not to add too much, throwing off your ratio of brown to green materials.
3. Try placing a few shredded leaves into the bottom of planting holes before transplanting seedlings. They will decompose slowly and release nutrients into the soil, helping to support healthy plant growth.
Comfrey is truly one of my all-time favourite plants. I absolutely love the fact that I can make my own fertiliser while continuously recycling nutrients and organic material back into my garden.
Jillian Ashley is a medical herbalist, permaculture expert and founder of The Nohm Collective
When the first lime green velcro like leaves of cleavers emerge from the soil and the worms begin to surface we know that the earliest days of spring are upon us! These are tell-tale signs along with the usual suspects of violet, chickweed, dandelion & clover that it is time to shake off cozy hibernation and bring the hearth to rest as father sun has changed his axis in the sky and is bringing in the heat to greet us.
There are a few rituals I have cultivated in the kitchen and the garden that I have held over the years to bring a smoother and more fruitful transition to these times. Coming out of a slower and more stagnant season in what feels like a never ending cold that reaches my bones can be tough and so I have put together recipes for you that have really nourished my inner and outer landscapes as the season changes. These holistic practices can bring sunshine and vitality into your body and into the garden with easeful steps and mindful preparation.
Cleavers, violet and chickweed are all allies when it comes to waking up the earth from her slumber, and us from ours. Our bodily systems can benefit from a boost to move energy, circulate blood and support the lymphatic system. All of these systems working together can assist us in moving toxins and sluggishness out of our orbit as we greet the spring sun.
- Handfuls of cleavers, violet and chickweed chopped fine
- 1 cup of olive oil
- 28 grams beeswax
- ½ tsp rose geranium essential oil *optional
- Mason jar
- Garden shears or scissors
- Chopstick
- Knife + cutting board
- Double boiler or crock pot
- Marker and Tape for labelling, or a label maker if you have one
Harvest fresh herbs and set them out to wilt on a screen in the sun or in a dehydrator to remove some of the water content. This can happen overnight in a dehydrator, your oven with the light on, or over the course of a couple days outside in the sun.
Fetch herbs, finely chop and add to a crockpot or stove top double boiler on medium /high heat. A mason jar can be used sitting in a crockpot or small pot surrounded by water if you don’t have a glass bowl to set on top of your small pot. Pour your oil over the herbs, keep temp on low heat, stirring to submerge your herbs with a chopstick, and allow herbs to infuse into your oil base for a couple hours or overnight. When infused strain through a mesh strainer and return oil to your double boiler method of choice. Oil strains best when slightly warm. Reheat on medium and slowly add beeswax and your essential oil, stirring with a bamboo or metal chopstick until beeswax is melted.
Pour your salve mix into sterilised containers. Label your salve with the ingredients and date. Store right side up, as salves can melt in extreme heat.Keep around to encourage movement in the body as we reawaken with the spring sun! As well as itches from bug bites whilst outside tending to your garden.
My life changed and this seasonal shift became more fruitful when I realised pesto could take on so many forms amongst the variety of herbs, greens, nuts, seeds and oils! I make a dent in my freezer every spring as weeds begin to take over my yard, the kitchen witch inside of me gets giddy and goes to work! This recipe is twofold 1) Making a master concentrate of wild weeds can give you access to their benefits all year long when blended and frozen into manageable amounts. 2) making a full on pesto with wild weeds and complimentary ingredients gives you a week or so of daily vita-mineral greens, experiencing the benefits by consuming at least a tablespoon a day. From personal experience I could eat a whole bowl of this stuff. What I find is that I don’t need the cheese when the flavour and aroma of all of these herbs come together.
If wild and weedy pesto sweeps you off your feet, my recommendation is to gather as much wild edible weeds as you can whilst in season and to make up a large batch of pesto, freezing in small usable portions, so that you can enjoy it throughout the year. Sometimes I will even measure out 2-4 cups of fresh weeds and pulse with a little oil or water to puree them and then freeze into portions so that I can switch up my pesto ingredients as the mood strikes.
- 2 cups of assorted wild edible greens; fresh cleavers, dead nettle, dandelion, violet leaf, stinging nettle and/or chickweed
- 2 cups fresh coriander, arugula or basil is optional if you’d like to cut the herbs with something more familiar, or if you are low on your access to wild herbs for this recipe. If you opt out gather 4cups of the above wild edible herbs.
- ⅔ cup extra virgin olive oil
- ¼ - ½ cup of almonds, pine nuts, walnuts or cashews
*soak raw unsalted cashews or walnuts the night before and rinse before use
- Salt and pepper to taste
- 3 cloves of garlic
- Zest of one lemon or tsp of raw apple cider vinegar
- Parmesan cheese or nutritional yeast optional
- 2 tsp coconut aminos or honey
*Optional sweetener, I like aminos for the sweet and savoury component or I will use honey. A little sweetness brings out a lot of flavour in the herbs
- Mason jar or tupperware, glass preferable
- Garden shears
- Spatula
- Knife + cutting board
- Food processor
- Marker and Tape for labelling, or a label maker if you have one
Uses: Salad dressing, when thinned with water or vinegar, sauce for pasta or tossing roasted or steamed vegetables, a snack on toast, crackers or by the spoonful, spice up a frittata or scramble.
Comfrey (Symphytum officianale), a member of the borage family, is a fast-growing, leafy perennial. The Latin name is from the Greek symphis, which means “growing together of bones” or “knit together.” Comfrey has appeared in the Materia Medica since the Middle Ages and some references to the plant date back as far as 50 AD. True to its Latin name, comfrey was applied externally as a poultice for bruises, sprains and fractures. It was taken internally for a variety of medical aliments ranging from broken bones and gastric ulcers to the treatment of female disorders.
Comfrey contains allantoin, a substance commonly used in the cosmetic industry. Allantoin promotes granulation and cell formation which aids in healing at the cellular level. It has both anti-inflammatory and keratinolytic effects and is useful in the treatment of skin conditions following post radiation in cancer patients. It is now formulated synthetically. Comfrey also contains pyrrolizidine alkaloids(PAs), a known hepatotoxic agent. Overuse of substances containing PAs can lead to severe liver damage and for that reason Australia placed Comfrey on thePoison Advisory List in 1984. Germany and Canada followed suit and in 2001, theFDA asked major manufacturers to remove comfrey from their standard list of ingredients.*
(*It should be noted that the studies that led to this decision involved isolating PAs and injecting them at high concentrations into rats. Since a chemical in isolation behaves differently than when present in a whole plant, rats are different than humans, and it is unclear whether common comfrey (S. officinale) or Russian comfrey (S.uplandicum) was used, there is dissension among herbalists regarding this decision and whether comfrey is indeed toxic. We err on the side of caution and recommend avoiding comfrey for internal use particularly in the case of preexisting liver conditions, and if considering internal use we recommend researching this matter for yourself so you have all the facts.)
Remember when I said that my reasons for growing comfrey were not altruistic? Well, it turns out that I am a bit of a rebel at heart. I’ve done extensive reading on comfrey and concluded that when used externally, comfrey is a useful and beneficial herb. As it turns out, I was correct.
Last summer, my husband and I were moving one of my failure-to-thrive beehives. We’d had a delayed and wet spring, and one of my more aggressive hives appeared sickly. I decided to isolate them on a friend’s property away from my healthy hives. After a month of quarantine and a good dose of sunshine, they bounced back and were ready to return to the bee yard. Moving is very stressful to bees. We usually try and move them as near to or after sunset in order to give all the foragers a chance to return to the hive. A rumble or two of thunder is usually enough to send them scurrying back home. I knew the forecast of an impending storm would further aggravate the aggressive nature of this particular hive. I pulled on my Bug Baffler, a protective mesh shirt and a long gloves, but I confess, in my hurry to beat the storm, I opted to forgo my protective pants.
As a beekeeper, stings are to be expected, especially in times of high stress. I got stung on the tender flesh of my inner thigh, not just once, but twice. Normally, I get a localised reaction from a sting, swelling and then itching for 2-3 days. But sensitive areas like the face or inner thigh can be painful and I expected a fair amount of swelling and itching.
I quickly took stock of my herbs and remembered the comfrey leaves I was in the process of drying. Recalling comfrey’s anti-inflammatory effects when applied externally, I decided to make a quick poultice from the steeped comfrey leaves.
Comfrey leaves should be harvested right before the flower blooms and be used dried or fresh. Steep fresh chopped leaves in water that has been brought to a boil for 20-30minutes. Strain with a kitchen strainer. I prefer to use a French Press for my herbal teas or tisanes.
Wrap the steeped leaves in cheesecloth, muslin or felt to make a poultice and apply externally. Do NOT apply to broken skin or open wounds. Reapply every 10-15 minutes over the next hour, as needed. Much to my surprise, I had instant relief from the comfrey poultice (more on poultices here)! I then soaked a cotton ball with comfrey and taped it on the sting overnight, and the swelling was gone the next morning.
The tea can be stored in the refrigerator for up to 6 months for cool, soothing use. Do not take internally.Use comfrey for no more than 10 days in a row. Do not use comfrey in the presence of active liver disease or in conjunction with medications that impair liver function.
Comfrey is also useful inorganic gardening due to its rich nitrogen content. When mulched, the fast-growing leaves make a great compost activator. The leaves are so fast-growing that I can harvest comfrey leaves and within a week they have already grown back by half to their pre-cut size. Needless to say, I am definitely comfortable with comfrey.
This hardy perennial grows quickly and easily, has beautiful flowers, and best of all, it can provide a completely free nutrient-rich source of fertiliser which can be used all season long.All plants need three important macronutrients in order to grow and thrive; these are nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium, often labeled as NPK on fertiliser mixes.
● Nitrogen is crucial for healthy growth and helps plants produce green leafy foliage.
● Phosphorus encourages vigorous growth and helps protect plants from diseases and pests.
● Potassium promotes fruit and flower production in perennials and mature fruiting annuals such as tomatoes and peppers.
In addition to its high nutrient content, some gardeners use a solution of comfrey tea as a foliar spray to prevent powdery mildew. Application on the leaves of plants can help to prevent the spores from germinating.
A word of warning, however: it smells horrendous! So be prepared to hold your nose.
To make the fertiliser tea, start by collecting a bucket full of the large, fuzzy leaves. I suggest you wear gloves when you harvest them, as thehairs can be a bit irritating to your skin.
When the leaves are at least 2 feet tall, use a garden knife or shears to cut them down to a couple of inches above the soil. Harvest the outer leaves first so the plant can continue growing.
Snip the stems off from the leaves you’ve harvested – it’s the greens you want.
Next, place them in a bin or a bucket, pushing them down firmly. I usually use a simple 5-gallon bucket.You can put a couple of large rocks or bricks on top to weigh them down, and then fill the bucket with water.You can chop or shred the leaves to speed up the process.
Make sure to always cover the bucket. This will keep away pesky insects, prevent dilution from rainwater, and most importantly, keep your whole garden from stinking!
Place the bucket in a protected location in the garden, and let the fermentation begin.
To make a very strong tea, leave the bucket to steep for a long time.Recommendations are from anywhere in a 3- to 6-week range. Once leaves have broken down into a slurry paste, you will know that the tea is ready.
In a pinch, any amount of time will give you something useful. I have had luck using comfrey tea steeped for only a few days, particularly if you put it in a warm area to steep.
Just sniff around for that telltale stinky aroma, which is a good sign that the leaves are breaking down and the nutrients are being released.
The final product will be a greenish brown liquid and some very nasty, mushy leaves.
Once you are ready to use the liquid feed, scoop or strain out the decomposing leafy gunk from the bottom of the bucket.
Throw this leafy goo into your compost pile, or use it to side-dress other crops such as potatoes and tomatoes.
Before use, you need to dilute the tea with water, as it can be very strong, and end up burning the plants. How much you dilute it can range widely depending on how strong the concoction is.
The darker the liquid, the more you should dilute it. I have seen recommendations for dilution ranging anywhere from 1:2 to 1:15 parts tea towater.
If you have steeped it for a full 6 weeks and you have a full 5-gallon bucket of liquid, I would recommend a 1:10 ratio, but if you only steeped for a few weeks, 1:4 would likely be fine.
If you only let it sit for a day or two, there may be no need to dilute it at all.
Once the concentration is diluted, you are ready to feed your garden!
Instead of using a watering can, I like to put the tea in a backpack sprayer and spray the solution on the soil as well as both the tops and bottoms of foliage, hitting annuals, shrubs, and fruit trees.
● Do not use comfrey tea fertiliser on seedlings or very young plants. If you use it to feed younger crops, dilute the concentration significantly.
● Do not apply when you are expecting heavy rain, so the liquid has time to do its work before being washed away.
● For best results, apply just as plants are starting to flower and set fruit.
You can also try a quick-steep method, which is similar to how you might make tea for drinking. Just pour boiling water over comfrey leaves and let the concoction sit for up to 24 hours. Strain out the foliage and dilute by half prior to using.
Or you can try continuous batch brewing, using a bucket with a nozzle at the bottom. This method involves continually adding water and leaves to the bucket so that the fertiliser can be used on demand.
Every time you want to use some, just lift the nozzle to pour out the desired amount, and then top off the whole thing with more water and leaves to keep it marinating.
Another technique is to drill holes in the bottom of a bucket and place a second bucket underneath it.
Pack foliage in the inner bucket, weigh it down, and cover. After a few weeks, it will decompose into a black goopy mass. Collect the drippings in the bucket below and dilute to about 1:15 parts tea to water.
One of the best things about this herb is how quickly it grows. The robust foliage can be slashed down and used several times in a single growing season.
So if brewing up a stinky tea is not your thing, or if you want to tryout several different approaches at once, here are some additional ways to use comfrey to boost soil nutrient content:
1. Use the leaves as mulch. Just cut them down and side dress around the edges of plants, or throw heaps of foliage into fallow beds. Either dig them into the soil or layer with dried leaves or straw.
2. Leaves can also help your compost heap kick into gear. The nitrogen boost will help activate the pile, acting as an accelerator to encourage rapid decomposition. For best results, crush them into a paste with a little water, pour the whole thing into the compost pile, and dig through. Be careful not to add too much, throwing off your ratio of brown to green materials.
3. Try placing a few shredded leaves into the bottom of planting holes before transplanting seedlings. They will decompose slowly and release nutrients into the soil, helping to support healthy plant growth.
Comfrey is truly one of my all-time favourite plants. I absolutely love the fact that I can make my own fertiliser while continuously recycling nutrients and organic material back into my garden.
Jillian Ashley is a medical herbalist, permaculture expert and founder of The Nohm Collective
by Jillian Ashley
When the first lime green velcro like leaves of cleavers emerge from the soil and the worms begin to surface we know that the earliest days of spring are upon us! These are tell-tale signs along with the usual suspects of violet, chickweed, dandelion & clover that it is time to shake off cozy hibernation and bring the hearth to rest as father sun has changed his axis in the sky and is bringing in the heat to greet us.
There are a few rituals I have cultivated in the kitchen and the garden that I have held over the years to bring a smoother and more fruitful transition to these times. Coming out of a slower and more stagnant season in what feels like a never ending cold that reaches my bones can be tough and so I have put together recipes for you that have really nourished my inner and outer landscapes as the season changes. These holistic practices can bring sunshine and vitality into your body and into the garden with easeful steps and mindful preparation.
Cleavers, violet and chickweed are all allies when it comes to waking up the earth from her slumber, and us from ours. Our bodily systems can benefit from a boost to move energy, circulate blood and support the lymphatic system. All of these systems working together can assist us in moving toxins and sluggishness out of our orbit as we greet the spring sun.
- Handfuls of cleavers, violet and chickweed chopped fine
- 1 cup of olive oil
- 28 grams beeswax
- ½ tsp rose geranium essential oil *optional
- Mason jar
- Garden shears or scissors
- Chopstick
- Knife + cutting board
- Double boiler or crock pot
- Marker and Tape for labelling, or a label maker if you have one
Harvest fresh herbs and set them out to wilt on a screen in the sun or in a dehydrator to remove some of the water content. This can happen overnight in a dehydrator, your oven with the light on, or over the course of a couple days outside in the sun.
Fetch herbs, finely chop and add to a crockpot or stove top double boiler on medium /high heat. A mason jar can be used sitting in a crockpot or small pot surrounded by water if you don’t have a glass bowl to set on top of your small pot. Pour your oil over the herbs, keep temp on low heat, stirring to submerge your herbs with a chopstick, and allow herbs to infuse into your oil base for a couple hours or overnight. When infused strain through a mesh strainer and return oil to your double boiler method of choice. Oil strains best when slightly warm. Reheat on medium and slowly add beeswax and your essential oil, stirring with a bamboo or metal chopstick until beeswax is melted.
Pour your salve mix into sterilised containers. Label your salve with the ingredients and date. Store right side up, as salves can melt in extreme heat.Keep around to encourage movement in the body as we reawaken with the spring sun! As well as itches from bug bites whilst outside tending to your garden.
My life changed and this seasonal shift became more fruitful when I realised pesto could take on so many forms amongst the variety of herbs, greens, nuts, seeds and oils! I make a dent in my freezer every spring as weeds begin to take over my yard, the kitchen witch inside of me gets giddy and goes to work! This recipe is twofold 1) Making a master concentrate of wild weeds can give you access to their benefits all year long when blended and frozen into manageable amounts. 2) making a full on pesto with wild weeds and complimentary ingredients gives you a week or so of daily vita-mineral greens, experiencing the benefits by consuming at least a tablespoon a day. From personal experience I could eat a whole bowl of this stuff. What I find is that I don’t need the cheese when the flavour and aroma of all of these herbs come together.
If wild and weedy pesto sweeps you off your feet, my recommendation is to gather as much wild edible weeds as you can whilst in season and to make up a large batch of pesto, freezing in small usable portions, so that you can enjoy it throughout the year. Sometimes I will even measure out 2-4 cups of fresh weeds and pulse with a little oil or water to puree them and then freeze into portions so that I can switch up my pesto ingredients as the mood strikes.
- 2 cups of assorted wild edible greens; fresh cleavers, dead nettle, dandelion, violet leaf, stinging nettle and/or chickweed
- 2 cups fresh coriander, arugula or basil is optional if you’d like to cut the herbs with something more familiar, or if you are low on your access to wild herbs for this recipe. If you opt out gather 4cups of the above wild edible herbs.
- ⅔ cup extra virgin olive oil
- ¼ - ½ cup of almonds, pine nuts, walnuts or cashews
*soak raw unsalted cashews or walnuts the night before and rinse before use
- Salt and pepper to taste
- 3 cloves of garlic
- Zest of one lemon or tsp of raw apple cider vinegar
- Parmesan cheese or nutritional yeast optional
- 2 tsp coconut aminos or honey
*Optional sweetener, I like aminos for the sweet and savoury component or I will use honey. A little sweetness brings out a lot of flavour in the herbs
- Mason jar or tupperware, glass preferable
- Garden shears
- Spatula
- Knife + cutting board
- Food processor
- Marker and Tape for labelling, or a label maker if you have one
Uses: Salad dressing, when thinned with water or vinegar, sauce for pasta or tossing roasted or steamed vegetables, a snack on toast, crackers or by the spoonful, spice up a frittata or scramble.
Comfrey (Symphytum officianale), a member of the borage family, is a fast-growing, leafy perennial. The Latin name is from the Greek symphis, which means “growing together of bones” or “knit together.” Comfrey has appeared in the Materia Medica since the Middle Ages and some references to the plant date back as far as 50 AD. True to its Latin name, comfrey was applied externally as a poultice for bruises, sprains and fractures. It was taken internally for a variety of medical aliments ranging from broken bones and gastric ulcers to the treatment of female disorders.
Comfrey contains allantoin, a substance commonly used in the cosmetic industry. Allantoin promotes granulation and cell formation which aids in healing at the cellular level. It has both anti-inflammatory and keratinolytic effects and is useful in the treatment of skin conditions following post radiation in cancer patients. It is now formulated synthetically. Comfrey also contains pyrrolizidine alkaloids(PAs), a known hepatotoxic agent. Overuse of substances containing PAs can lead to severe liver damage and for that reason Australia placed Comfrey on thePoison Advisory List in 1984. Germany and Canada followed suit and in 2001, theFDA asked major manufacturers to remove comfrey from their standard list of ingredients.*
(*It should be noted that the studies that led to this decision involved isolating PAs and injecting them at high concentrations into rats. Since a chemical in isolation behaves differently than when present in a whole plant, rats are different than humans, and it is unclear whether common comfrey (S. officinale) or Russian comfrey (S.uplandicum) was used, there is dissension among herbalists regarding this decision and whether comfrey is indeed toxic. We err on the side of caution and recommend avoiding comfrey for internal use particularly in the case of preexisting liver conditions, and if considering internal use we recommend researching this matter for yourself so you have all the facts.)
Remember when I said that my reasons for growing comfrey were not altruistic? Well, it turns out that I am a bit of a rebel at heart. I’ve done extensive reading on comfrey and concluded that when used externally, comfrey is a useful and beneficial herb. As it turns out, I was correct.
Last summer, my husband and I were moving one of my failure-to-thrive beehives. We’d had a delayed and wet spring, and one of my more aggressive hives appeared sickly. I decided to isolate them on a friend’s property away from my healthy hives. After a month of quarantine and a good dose of sunshine, they bounced back and were ready to return to the bee yard. Moving is very stressful to bees. We usually try and move them as near to or after sunset in order to give all the foragers a chance to return to the hive. A rumble or two of thunder is usually enough to send them scurrying back home. I knew the forecast of an impending storm would further aggravate the aggressive nature of this particular hive. I pulled on my Bug Baffler, a protective mesh shirt and a long gloves, but I confess, in my hurry to beat the storm, I opted to forgo my protective pants.
As a beekeeper, stings are to be expected, especially in times of high stress. I got stung on the tender flesh of my inner thigh, not just once, but twice. Normally, I get a localised reaction from a sting, swelling and then itching for 2-3 days. But sensitive areas like the face or inner thigh can be painful and I expected a fair amount of swelling and itching.
I quickly took stock of my herbs and remembered the comfrey leaves I was in the process of drying. Recalling comfrey’s anti-inflammatory effects when applied externally, I decided to make a quick poultice from the steeped comfrey leaves.
Comfrey leaves should be harvested right before the flower blooms and be used dried or fresh. Steep fresh chopped leaves in water that has been brought to a boil for 20-30minutes. Strain with a kitchen strainer. I prefer to use a French Press for my herbal teas or tisanes.
Wrap the steeped leaves in cheesecloth, muslin or felt to make a poultice and apply externally. Do NOT apply to broken skin or open wounds. Reapply every 10-15 minutes over the next hour, as needed. Much to my surprise, I had instant relief from the comfrey poultice (more on poultices here)! I then soaked a cotton ball with comfrey and taped it on the sting overnight, and the swelling was gone the next morning.
The tea can be stored in the refrigerator for up to 6 months for cool, soothing use. Do not take internally.Use comfrey for no more than 10 days in a row. Do not use comfrey in the presence of active liver disease or in conjunction with medications that impair liver function.
Comfrey is also useful inorganic gardening due to its rich nitrogen content. When mulched, the fast-growing leaves make a great compost activator. The leaves are so fast-growing that I can harvest comfrey leaves and within a week they have already grown back by half to their pre-cut size. Needless to say, I am definitely comfortable with comfrey.
This hardy perennial grows quickly and easily, has beautiful flowers, and best of all, it can provide a completely free nutrient-rich source of fertiliser which can be used all season long.All plants need three important macronutrients in order to grow and thrive; these are nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium, often labeled as NPK on fertiliser mixes.
● Nitrogen is crucial for healthy growth and helps plants produce green leafy foliage.
● Phosphorus encourages vigorous growth and helps protect plants from diseases and pests.
● Potassium promotes fruit and flower production in perennials and mature fruiting annuals such as tomatoes and peppers.
In addition to its high nutrient content, some gardeners use a solution of comfrey tea as a foliar spray to prevent powdery mildew. Application on the leaves of plants can help to prevent the spores from germinating.
A word of warning, however: it smells horrendous! So be prepared to hold your nose.
To make the fertiliser tea, start by collecting a bucket full of the large, fuzzy leaves. I suggest you wear gloves when you harvest them, as thehairs can be a bit irritating to your skin.
When the leaves are at least 2 feet tall, use a garden knife or shears to cut them down to a couple of inches above the soil. Harvest the outer leaves first so the plant can continue growing.
Snip the stems off from the leaves you’ve harvested – it’s the greens you want.
Next, place them in a bin or a bucket, pushing them down firmly. I usually use a simple 5-gallon bucket.You can put a couple of large rocks or bricks on top to weigh them down, and then fill the bucket with water.You can chop or shred the leaves to speed up the process.
Make sure to always cover the bucket. This will keep away pesky insects, prevent dilution from rainwater, and most importantly, keep your whole garden from stinking!
Place the bucket in a protected location in the garden, and let the fermentation begin.
To make a very strong tea, leave the bucket to steep for a long time.Recommendations are from anywhere in a 3- to 6-week range. Once leaves have broken down into a slurry paste, you will know that the tea is ready.
In a pinch, any amount of time will give you something useful. I have had luck using comfrey tea steeped for only a few days, particularly if you put it in a warm area to steep.
Just sniff around for that telltale stinky aroma, which is a good sign that the leaves are breaking down and the nutrients are being released.
The final product will be a greenish brown liquid and some very nasty, mushy leaves.
Once you are ready to use the liquid feed, scoop or strain out the decomposing leafy gunk from the bottom of the bucket.
Throw this leafy goo into your compost pile, or use it to side-dress other crops such as potatoes and tomatoes.
Before use, you need to dilute the tea with water, as it can be very strong, and end up burning the plants. How much you dilute it can range widely depending on how strong the concoction is.
The darker the liquid, the more you should dilute it. I have seen recommendations for dilution ranging anywhere from 1:2 to 1:15 parts tea towater.
If you have steeped it for a full 6 weeks and you have a full 5-gallon bucket of liquid, I would recommend a 1:10 ratio, but if you only steeped for a few weeks, 1:4 would likely be fine.
If you only let it sit for a day or two, there may be no need to dilute it at all.
Once the concentration is diluted, you are ready to feed your garden!
Instead of using a watering can, I like to put the tea in a backpack sprayer and spray the solution on the soil as well as both the tops and bottoms of foliage, hitting annuals, shrubs, and fruit trees.
● Do not use comfrey tea fertiliser on seedlings or very young plants. If you use it to feed younger crops, dilute the concentration significantly.
● Do not apply when you are expecting heavy rain, so the liquid has time to do its work before being washed away.
● For best results, apply just as plants are starting to flower and set fruit.
You can also try a quick-steep method, which is similar to how you might make tea for drinking. Just pour boiling water over comfrey leaves and let the concoction sit for up to 24 hours. Strain out the foliage and dilute by half prior to using.
Or you can try continuous batch brewing, using a bucket with a nozzle at the bottom. This method involves continually adding water and leaves to the bucket so that the fertiliser can be used on demand.
Every time you want to use some, just lift the nozzle to pour out the desired amount, and then top off the whole thing with more water and leaves to keep it marinating.
Another technique is to drill holes in the bottom of a bucket and place a second bucket underneath it.
Pack foliage in the inner bucket, weigh it down, and cover. After a few weeks, it will decompose into a black goopy mass. Collect the drippings in the bucket below and dilute to about 1:15 parts tea to water.
One of the best things about this herb is how quickly it grows. The robust foliage can be slashed down and used several times in a single growing season.
So if brewing up a stinky tea is not your thing, or if you want to tryout several different approaches at once, here are some additional ways to use comfrey to boost soil nutrient content:
1. Use the leaves as mulch. Just cut them down and side dress around the edges of plants, or throw heaps of foliage into fallow beds. Either dig them into the soil or layer with dried leaves or straw.
2. Leaves can also help your compost heap kick into gear. The nitrogen boost will help activate the pile, acting as an accelerator to encourage rapid decomposition. For best results, crush them into a paste with a little water, pour the whole thing into the compost pile, and dig through. Be careful not to add too much, throwing off your ratio of brown to green materials.
3. Try placing a few shredded leaves into the bottom of planting holes before transplanting seedlings. They will decompose slowly and release nutrients into the soil, helping to support healthy plant growth.
Comfrey is truly one of my all-time favourite plants. I absolutely love the fact that I can make my own fertiliser while continuously recycling nutrients and organic material back into my garden.
Jillian Ashley is a medical herbalist, permaculture expert and founder of The Nohm Collective
When the first lime green velcro like leaves of cleavers emerge from the soil and the worms begin to surface we know that the earliest days of spring are upon us! These are tell-tale signs along with the usual suspects of violet, chickweed, dandelion & clover that it is time to shake off cozy hibernation and bring the hearth to rest as father sun has changed his axis in the sky and is bringing in the heat to greet us.
There are a few rituals I have cultivated in the kitchen and the garden that I have held over the years to bring a smoother and more fruitful transition to these times. Coming out of a slower and more stagnant season in what feels like a never ending cold that reaches my bones can be tough and so I have put together recipes for you that have really nourished my inner and outer landscapes as the season changes. These holistic practices can bring sunshine and vitality into your body and into the garden with easeful steps and mindful preparation.
Cleavers, violet and chickweed are all allies when it comes to waking up the earth from her slumber, and us from ours. Our bodily systems can benefit from a boost to move energy, circulate blood and support the lymphatic system. All of these systems working together can assist us in moving toxins and sluggishness out of our orbit as we greet the spring sun.
- Handfuls of cleavers, violet and chickweed chopped fine
- 1 cup of olive oil
- 28 grams beeswax
- ½ tsp rose geranium essential oil *optional
- Mason jar
- Garden shears or scissors
- Chopstick
- Knife + cutting board
- Double boiler or crock pot
- Marker and Tape for labelling, or a label maker if you have one
Harvest fresh herbs and set them out to wilt on a screen in the sun or in a dehydrator to remove some of the water content. This can happen overnight in a dehydrator, your oven with the light on, or over the course of a couple days outside in the sun.
Fetch herbs, finely chop and add to a crockpot or stove top double boiler on medium /high heat. A mason jar can be used sitting in a crockpot or small pot surrounded by water if you don’t have a glass bowl to set on top of your small pot. Pour your oil over the herbs, keep temp on low heat, stirring to submerge your herbs with a chopstick, and allow herbs to infuse into your oil base for a couple hours or overnight. When infused strain through a mesh strainer and return oil to your double boiler method of choice. Oil strains best when slightly warm. Reheat on medium and slowly add beeswax and your essential oil, stirring with a bamboo or metal chopstick until beeswax is melted.
Pour your salve mix into sterilised containers. Label your salve with the ingredients and date. Store right side up, as salves can melt in extreme heat.Keep around to encourage movement in the body as we reawaken with the spring sun! As well as itches from bug bites whilst outside tending to your garden.
My life changed and this seasonal shift became more fruitful when I realised pesto could take on so many forms amongst the variety of herbs, greens, nuts, seeds and oils! I make a dent in my freezer every spring as weeds begin to take over my yard, the kitchen witch inside of me gets giddy and goes to work! This recipe is twofold 1) Making a master concentrate of wild weeds can give you access to their benefits all year long when blended and frozen into manageable amounts. 2) making a full on pesto with wild weeds and complimentary ingredients gives you a week or so of daily vita-mineral greens, experiencing the benefits by consuming at least a tablespoon a day. From personal experience I could eat a whole bowl of this stuff. What I find is that I don’t need the cheese when the flavour and aroma of all of these herbs come together.
If wild and weedy pesto sweeps you off your feet, my recommendation is to gather as much wild edible weeds as you can whilst in season and to make up a large batch of pesto, freezing in small usable portions, so that you can enjoy it throughout the year. Sometimes I will even measure out 2-4 cups of fresh weeds and pulse with a little oil or water to puree them and then freeze into portions so that I can switch up my pesto ingredients as the mood strikes.
- 2 cups of assorted wild edible greens; fresh cleavers, dead nettle, dandelion, violet leaf, stinging nettle and/or chickweed
- 2 cups fresh coriander, arugula or basil is optional if you’d like to cut the herbs with something more familiar, or if you are low on your access to wild herbs for this recipe. If you opt out gather 4cups of the above wild edible herbs.
- ⅔ cup extra virgin olive oil
- ¼ - ½ cup of almonds, pine nuts, walnuts or cashews
*soak raw unsalted cashews or walnuts the night before and rinse before use
- Salt and pepper to taste
- 3 cloves of garlic
- Zest of one lemon or tsp of raw apple cider vinegar
- Parmesan cheese or nutritional yeast optional
- 2 tsp coconut aminos or honey
*Optional sweetener, I like aminos for the sweet and savoury component or I will use honey. A little sweetness brings out a lot of flavour in the herbs
- Mason jar or tupperware, glass preferable
- Garden shears
- Spatula
- Knife + cutting board
- Food processor
- Marker and Tape for labelling, or a label maker if you have one
Uses: Salad dressing, when thinned with water or vinegar, sauce for pasta or tossing roasted or steamed vegetables, a snack on toast, crackers or by the spoonful, spice up a frittata or scramble.
Comfrey (Symphytum officianale), a member of the borage family, is a fast-growing, leafy perennial. The Latin name is from the Greek symphis, which means “growing together of bones” or “knit together.” Comfrey has appeared in the Materia Medica since the Middle Ages and some references to the plant date back as far as 50 AD. True to its Latin name, comfrey was applied externally as a poultice for bruises, sprains and fractures. It was taken internally for a variety of medical aliments ranging from broken bones and gastric ulcers to the treatment of female disorders.
Comfrey contains allantoin, a substance commonly used in the cosmetic industry. Allantoin promotes granulation and cell formation which aids in healing at the cellular level. It has both anti-inflammatory and keratinolytic effects and is useful in the treatment of skin conditions following post radiation in cancer patients. It is now formulated synthetically. Comfrey also contains pyrrolizidine alkaloids(PAs), a known hepatotoxic agent. Overuse of substances containing PAs can lead to severe liver damage and for that reason Australia placed Comfrey on thePoison Advisory List in 1984. Germany and Canada followed suit and in 2001, theFDA asked major manufacturers to remove comfrey from their standard list of ingredients.*
(*It should be noted that the studies that led to this decision involved isolating PAs and injecting them at high concentrations into rats. Since a chemical in isolation behaves differently than when present in a whole plant, rats are different than humans, and it is unclear whether common comfrey (S. officinale) or Russian comfrey (S.uplandicum) was used, there is dissension among herbalists regarding this decision and whether comfrey is indeed toxic. We err on the side of caution and recommend avoiding comfrey for internal use particularly in the case of preexisting liver conditions, and if considering internal use we recommend researching this matter for yourself so you have all the facts.)
Remember when I said that my reasons for growing comfrey were not altruistic? Well, it turns out that I am a bit of a rebel at heart. I’ve done extensive reading on comfrey and concluded that when used externally, comfrey is a useful and beneficial herb. As it turns out, I was correct.
Last summer, my husband and I were moving one of my failure-to-thrive beehives. We’d had a delayed and wet spring, and one of my more aggressive hives appeared sickly. I decided to isolate them on a friend’s property away from my healthy hives. After a month of quarantine and a good dose of sunshine, they bounced back and were ready to return to the bee yard. Moving is very stressful to bees. We usually try and move them as near to or after sunset in order to give all the foragers a chance to return to the hive. A rumble or two of thunder is usually enough to send them scurrying back home. I knew the forecast of an impending storm would further aggravate the aggressive nature of this particular hive. I pulled on my Bug Baffler, a protective mesh shirt and a long gloves, but I confess, in my hurry to beat the storm, I opted to forgo my protective pants.
As a beekeeper, stings are to be expected, especially in times of high stress. I got stung on the tender flesh of my inner thigh, not just once, but twice. Normally, I get a localised reaction from a sting, swelling and then itching for 2-3 days. But sensitive areas like the face or inner thigh can be painful and I expected a fair amount of swelling and itching.
I quickly took stock of my herbs and remembered the comfrey leaves I was in the process of drying. Recalling comfrey’s anti-inflammatory effects when applied externally, I decided to make a quick poultice from the steeped comfrey leaves.
Comfrey leaves should be harvested right before the flower blooms and be used dried or fresh. Steep fresh chopped leaves in water that has been brought to a boil for 20-30minutes. Strain with a kitchen strainer. I prefer to use a French Press for my herbal teas or tisanes.
Wrap the steeped leaves in cheesecloth, muslin or felt to make a poultice and apply externally. Do NOT apply to broken skin or open wounds. Reapply every 10-15 minutes over the next hour, as needed. Much to my surprise, I had instant relief from the comfrey poultice (more on poultices here)! I then soaked a cotton ball with comfrey and taped it on the sting overnight, and the swelling was gone the next morning.
The tea can be stored in the refrigerator for up to 6 months for cool, soothing use. Do not take internally.Use comfrey for no more than 10 days in a row. Do not use comfrey in the presence of active liver disease or in conjunction with medications that impair liver function.
Comfrey is also useful inorganic gardening due to its rich nitrogen content. When mulched, the fast-growing leaves make a great compost activator. The leaves are so fast-growing that I can harvest comfrey leaves and within a week they have already grown back by half to their pre-cut size. Needless to say, I am definitely comfortable with comfrey.
This hardy perennial grows quickly and easily, has beautiful flowers, and best of all, it can provide a completely free nutrient-rich source of fertiliser which can be used all season long.All plants need three important macronutrients in order to grow and thrive; these are nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium, often labeled as NPK on fertiliser mixes.
● Nitrogen is crucial for healthy growth and helps plants produce green leafy foliage.
● Phosphorus encourages vigorous growth and helps protect plants from diseases and pests.
● Potassium promotes fruit and flower production in perennials and mature fruiting annuals such as tomatoes and peppers.
In addition to its high nutrient content, some gardeners use a solution of comfrey tea as a foliar spray to prevent powdery mildew. Application on the leaves of plants can help to prevent the spores from germinating.
A word of warning, however: it smells horrendous! So be prepared to hold your nose.
To make the fertiliser tea, start by collecting a bucket full of the large, fuzzy leaves. I suggest you wear gloves when you harvest them, as thehairs can be a bit irritating to your skin.
When the leaves are at least 2 feet tall, use a garden knife or shears to cut them down to a couple of inches above the soil. Harvest the outer leaves first so the plant can continue growing.
Snip the stems off from the leaves you’ve harvested – it’s the greens you want.
Next, place them in a bin or a bucket, pushing them down firmly. I usually use a simple 5-gallon bucket.You can put a couple of large rocks or bricks on top to weigh them down, and then fill the bucket with water.You can chop or shred the leaves to speed up the process.
Make sure to always cover the bucket. This will keep away pesky insects, prevent dilution from rainwater, and most importantly, keep your whole garden from stinking!
Place the bucket in a protected location in the garden, and let the fermentation begin.
To make a very strong tea, leave the bucket to steep for a long time.Recommendations are from anywhere in a 3- to 6-week range. Once leaves have broken down into a slurry paste, you will know that the tea is ready.
In a pinch, any amount of time will give you something useful. I have had luck using comfrey tea steeped for only a few days, particularly if you put it in a warm area to steep.
Just sniff around for that telltale stinky aroma, which is a good sign that the leaves are breaking down and the nutrients are being released.
The final product will be a greenish brown liquid and some very nasty, mushy leaves.
Once you are ready to use the liquid feed, scoop or strain out the decomposing leafy gunk from the bottom of the bucket.
Throw this leafy goo into your compost pile, or use it to side-dress other crops such as potatoes and tomatoes.
Before use, you need to dilute the tea with water, as it can be very strong, and end up burning the plants. How much you dilute it can range widely depending on how strong the concoction is.
The darker the liquid, the more you should dilute it. I have seen recommendations for dilution ranging anywhere from 1:2 to 1:15 parts tea towater.
If you have steeped it for a full 6 weeks and you have a full 5-gallon bucket of liquid, I would recommend a 1:10 ratio, but if you only steeped for a few weeks, 1:4 would likely be fine.
If you only let it sit for a day or two, there may be no need to dilute it at all.
Once the concentration is diluted, you are ready to feed your garden!
Instead of using a watering can, I like to put the tea in a backpack sprayer and spray the solution on the soil as well as both the tops and bottoms of foliage, hitting annuals, shrubs, and fruit trees.
● Do not use comfrey tea fertiliser on seedlings or very young plants. If you use it to feed younger crops, dilute the concentration significantly.
● Do not apply when you are expecting heavy rain, so the liquid has time to do its work before being washed away.
● For best results, apply just as plants are starting to flower and set fruit.
You can also try a quick-steep method, which is similar to how you might make tea for drinking. Just pour boiling water over comfrey leaves and let the concoction sit for up to 24 hours. Strain out the foliage and dilute by half prior to using.
Or you can try continuous batch brewing, using a bucket with a nozzle at the bottom. This method involves continually adding water and leaves to the bucket so that the fertiliser can be used on demand.
Every time you want to use some, just lift the nozzle to pour out the desired amount, and then top off the whole thing with more water and leaves to keep it marinating.
Another technique is to drill holes in the bottom of a bucket and place a second bucket underneath it.
Pack foliage in the inner bucket, weigh it down, and cover. After a few weeks, it will decompose into a black goopy mass. Collect the drippings in the bucket below and dilute to about 1:15 parts tea to water.
One of the best things about this herb is how quickly it grows. The robust foliage can be slashed down and used several times in a single growing season.
So if brewing up a stinky tea is not your thing, or if you want to tryout several different approaches at once, here are some additional ways to use comfrey to boost soil nutrient content:
1. Use the leaves as mulch. Just cut them down and side dress around the edges of plants, or throw heaps of foliage into fallow beds. Either dig them into the soil or layer with dried leaves or straw.
2. Leaves can also help your compost heap kick into gear. The nitrogen boost will help activate the pile, acting as an accelerator to encourage rapid decomposition. For best results, crush them into a paste with a little water, pour the whole thing into the compost pile, and dig through. Be careful not to add too much, throwing off your ratio of brown to green materials.
3. Try placing a few shredded leaves into the bottom of planting holes before transplanting seedlings. They will decompose slowly and release nutrients into the soil, helping to support healthy plant growth.
Comfrey is truly one of my all-time favourite plants. I absolutely love the fact that I can make my own fertiliser while continuously recycling nutrients and organic material back into my garden.
Jillian Ashley is a medical herbalist, permaculture expert and founder of The Nohm Collective
by Jillian Ashley
When the first lime green velcro like leaves of cleavers emerge from the soil and the worms begin to surface we know that the earliest days of spring are upon us! These are tell-tale signs along with the usual suspects of violet, chickweed, dandelion & clover that it is time to shake off cozy hibernation and bring the hearth to rest as father sun has changed his axis in the sky and is bringing in the heat to greet us.
There are a few rituals I have cultivated in the kitchen and the garden that I have held over the years to bring a smoother and more fruitful transition to these times. Coming out of a slower and more stagnant season in what feels like a never ending cold that reaches my bones can be tough and so I have put together recipes for you that have really nourished my inner and outer landscapes as the season changes. These holistic practices can bring sunshine and vitality into your body and into the garden with easeful steps and mindful preparation.
Cleavers, violet and chickweed are all allies when it comes to waking up the earth from her slumber, and us from ours. Our bodily systems can benefit from a boost to move energy, circulate blood and support the lymphatic system. All of these systems working together can assist us in moving toxins and sluggishness out of our orbit as we greet the spring sun.
- Handfuls of cleavers, violet and chickweed chopped fine
- 1 cup of olive oil
- 28 grams beeswax
- ½ tsp rose geranium essential oil *optional
- Mason jar
- Garden shears or scissors
- Chopstick
- Knife + cutting board
- Double boiler or crock pot
- Marker and Tape for labelling, or a label maker if you have one
Harvest fresh herbs and set them out to wilt on a screen in the sun or in a dehydrator to remove some of the water content. This can happen overnight in a dehydrator, your oven with the light on, or over the course of a couple days outside in the sun.
Fetch herbs, finely chop and add to a crockpot or stove top double boiler on medium /high heat. A mason jar can be used sitting in a crockpot or small pot surrounded by water if you don’t have a glass bowl to set on top of your small pot. Pour your oil over the herbs, keep temp on low heat, stirring to submerge your herbs with a chopstick, and allow herbs to infuse into your oil base for a couple hours or overnight. When infused strain through a mesh strainer and return oil to your double boiler method of choice. Oil strains best when slightly warm. Reheat on medium and slowly add beeswax and your essential oil, stirring with a bamboo or metal chopstick until beeswax is melted.
Pour your salve mix into sterilised containers. Label your salve with the ingredients and date. Store right side up, as salves can melt in extreme heat.Keep around to encourage movement in the body as we reawaken with the spring sun! As well as itches from bug bites whilst outside tending to your garden.
My life changed and this seasonal shift became more fruitful when I realised pesto could take on so many forms amongst the variety of herbs, greens, nuts, seeds and oils! I make a dent in my freezer every spring as weeds begin to take over my yard, the kitchen witch inside of me gets giddy and goes to work! This recipe is twofold 1) Making a master concentrate of wild weeds can give you access to their benefits all year long when blended and frozen into manageable amounts. 2) making a full on pesto with wild weeds and complimentary ingredients gives you a week or so of daily vita-mineral greens, experiencing the benefits by consuming at least a tablespoon a day. From personal experience I could eat a whole bowl of this stuff. What I find is that I don’t need the cheese when the flavour and aroma of all of these herbs come together.
If wild and weedy pesto sweeps you off your feet, my recommendation is to gather as much wild edible weeds as you can whilst in season and to make up a large batch of pesto, freezing in small usable portions, so that you can enjoy it throughout the year. Sometimes I will even measure out 2-4 cups of fresh weeds and pulse with a little oil or water to puree them and then freeze into portions so that I can switch up my pesto ingredients as the mood strikes.
- 2 cups of assorted wild edible greens; fresh cleavers, dead nettle, dandelion, violet leaf, stinging nettle and/or chickweed
- 2 cups fresh coriander, arugula or basil is optional if you’d like to cut the herbs with something more familiar, or if you are low on your access to wild herbs for this recipe. If you opt out gather 4cups of the above wild edible herbs.
- ⅔ cup extra virgin olive oil
- ¼ - ½ cup of almonds, pine nuts, walnuts or cashews
*soak raw unsalted cashews or walnuts the night before and rinse before use
- Salt and pepper to taste
- 3 cloves of garlic
- Zest of one lemon or tsp of raw apple cider vinegar
- Parmesan cheese or nutritional yeast optional
- 2 tsp coconut aminos or honey
*Optional sweetener, I like aminos for the sweet and savoury component or I will use honey. A little sweetness brings out a lot of flavour in the herbs
- Mason jar or tupperware, glass preferable
- Garden shears
- Spatula
- Knife + cutting board
- Food processor
- Marker and Tape for labelling, or a label maker if you have one
Uses: Salad dressing, when thinned with water or vinegar, sauce for pasta or tossing roasted or steamed vegetables, a snack on toast, crackers or by the spoonful, spice up a frittata or scramble.
Comfrey (Symphytum officianale), a member of the borage family, is a fast-growing, leafy perennial. The Latin name is from the Greek symphis, which means “growing together of bones” or “knit together.” Comfrey has appeared in the Materia Medica since the Middle Ages and some references to the plant date back as far as 50 AD. True to its Latin name, comfrey was applied externally as a poultice for bruises, sprains and fractures. It was taken internally for a variety of medical aliments ranging from broken bones and gastric ulcers to the treatment of female disorders.
Comfrey contains allantoin, a substance commonly used in the cosmetic industry. Allantoin promotes granulation and cell formation which aids in healing at the cellular level. It has both anti-inflammatory and keratinolytic effects and is useful in the treatment of skin conditions following post radiation in cancer patients. It is now formulated synthetically. Comfrey also contains pyrrolizidine alkaloids(PAs), a known hepatotoxic agent. Overuse of substances containing PAs can lead to severe liver damage and for that reason Australia placed Comfrey on thePoison Advisory List in 1984. Germany and Canada followed suit and in 2001, theFDA asked major manufacturers to remove comfrey from their standard list of ingredients.*
(*It should be noted that the studies that led to this decision involved isolating PAs and injecting them at high concentrations into rats. Since a chemical in isolation behaves differently than when present in a whole plant, rats are different than humans, and it is unclear whether common comfrey (S. officinale) or Russian comfrey (S.uplandicum) was used, there is dissension among herbalists regarding this decision and whether comfrey is indeed toxic. We err on the side of caution and recommend avoiding comfrey for internal use particularly in the case of preexisting liver conditions, and if considering internal use we recommend researching this matter for yourself so you have all the facts.)
Remember when I said that my reasons for growing comfrey were not altruistic? Well, it turns out that I am a bit of a rebel at heart. I’ve done extensive reading on comfrey and concluded that when used externally, comfrey is a useful and beneficial herb. As it turns out, I was correct.
Last summer, my husband and I were moving one of my failure-to-thrive beehives. We’d had a delayed and wet spring, and one of my more aggressive hives appeared sickly. I decided to isolate them on a friend’s property away from my healthy hives. After a month of quarantine and a good dose of sunshine, they bounced back and were ready to return to the bee yard. Moving is very stressful to bees. We usually try and move them as near to or after sunset in order to give all the foragers a chance to return to the hive. A rumble or two of thunder is usually enough to send them scurrying back home. I knew the forecast of an impending storm would further aggravate the aggressive nature of this particular hive. I pulled on my Bug Baffler, a protective mesh shirt and a long gloves, but I confess, in my hurry to beat the storm, I opted to forgo my protective pants.
As a beekeeper, stings are to be expected, especially in times of high stress. I got stung on the tender flesh of my inner thigh, not just once, but twice. Normally, I get a localised reaction from a sting, swelling and then itching for 2-3 days. But sensitive areas like the face or inner thigh can be painful and I expected a fair amount of swelling and itching.
I quickly took stock of my herbs and remembered the comfrey leaves I was in the process of drying. Recalling comfrey’s anti-inflammatory effects when applied externally, I decided to make a quick poultice from the steeped comfrey leaves.
Comfrey leaves should be harvested right before the flower blooms and be used dried or fresh. Steep fresh chopped leaves in water that has been brought to a boil for 20-30minutes. Strain with a kitchen strainer. I prefer to use a French Press for my herbal teas or tisanes.
Wrap the steeped leaves in cheesecloth, muslin or felt to make a poultice and apply externally. Do NOT apply to broken skin or open wounds. Reapply every 10-15 minutes over the next hour, as needed. Much to my surprise, I had instant relief from the comfrey poultice (more on poultices here)! I then soaked a cotton ball with comfrey and taped it on the sting overnight, and the swelling was gone the next morning.
The tea can be stored in the refrigerator for up to 6 months for cool, soothing use. Do not take internally.Use comfrey for no more than 10 days in a row. Do not use comfrey in the presence of active liver disease or in conjunction with medications that impair liver function.
Comfrey is also useful inorganic gardening due to its rich nitrogen content. When mulched, the fast-growing leaves make a great compost activator. The leaves are so fast-growing that I can harvest comfrey leaves and within a week they have already grown back by half to their pre-cut size. Needless to say, I am definitely comfortable with comfrey.
This hardy perennial grows quickly and easily, has beautiful flowers, and best of all, it can provide a completely free nutrient-rich source of fertiliser which can be used all season long.All plants need three important macronutrients in order to grow and thrive; these are nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium, often labeled as NPK on fertiliser mixes.
● Nitrogen is crucial for healthy growth and helps plants produce green leafy foliage.
● Phosphorus encourages vigorous growth and helps protect plants from diseases and pests.
● Potassium promotes fruit and flower production in perennials and mature fruiting annuals such as tomatoes and peppers.
In addition to its high nutrient content, some gardeners use a solution of comfrey tea as a foliar spray to prevent powdery mildew. Application on the leaves of plants can help to prevent the spores from germinating.
A word of warning, however: it smells horrendous! So be prepared to hold your nose.
To make the fertiliser tea, start by collecting a bucket full of the large, fuzzy leaves. I suggest you wear gloves when you harvest them, as thehairs can be a bit irritating to your skin.
When the leaves are at least 2 feet tall, use a garden knife or shears to cut them down to a couple of inches above the soil. Harvest the outer leaves first so the plant can continue growing.
Snip the stems off from the leaves you’ve harvested – it’s the greens you want.
Next, place them in a bin or a bucket, pushing them down firmly. I usually use a simple 5-gallon bucket.You can put a couple of large rocks or bricks on top to weigh them down, and then fill the bucket with water.You can chop or shred the leaves to speed up the process.
Make sure to always cover the bucket. This will keep away pesky insects, prevent dilution from rainwater, and most importantly, keep your whole garden from stinking!
Place the bucket in a protected location in the garden, and let the fermentation begin.
To make a very strong tea, leave the bucket to steep for a long time.Recommendations are from anywhere in a 3- to 6-week range. Once leaves have broken down into a slurry paste, you will know that the tea is ready.
In a pinch, any amount of time will give you something useful. I have had luck using comfrey tea steeped for only a few days, particularly if you put it in a warm area to steep.
Just sniff around for that telltale stinky aroma, which is a good sign that the leaves are breaking down and the nutrients are being released.
The final product will be a greenish brown liquid and some very nasty, mushy leaves.
Once you are ready to use the liquid feed, scoop or strain out the decomposing leafy gunk from the bottom of the bucket.
Throw this leafy goo into your compost pile, or use it to side-dress other crops such as potatoes and tomatoes.
Before use, you need to dilute the tea with water, as it can be very strong, and end up burning the plants. How much you dilute it can range widely depending on how strong the concoction is.
The darker the liquid, the more you should dilute it. I have seen recommendations for dilution ranging anywhere from 1:2 to 1:15 parts tea towater.
If you have steeped it for a full 6 weeks and you have a full 5-gallon bucket of liquid, I would recommend a 1:10 ratio, but if you only steeped for a few weeks, 1:4 would likely be fine.
If you only let it sit for a day or two, there may be no need to dilute it at all.
Once the concentration is diluted, you are ready to feed your garden!
Instead of using a watering can, I like to put the tea in a backpack sprayer and spray the solution on the soil as well as both the tops and bottoms of foliage, hitting annuals, shrubs, and fruit trees.
● Do not use comfrey tea fertiliser on seedlings or very young plants. If you use it to feed younger crops, dilute the concentration significantly.
● Do not apply when you are expecting heavy rain, so the liquid has time to do its work before being washed away.
● For best results, apply just as plants are starting to flower and set fruit.
You can also try a quick-steep method, which is similar to how you might make tea for drinking. Just pour boiling water over comfrey leaves and let the concoction sit for up to 24 hours. Strain out the foliage and dilute by half prior to using.
Or you can try continuous batch brewing, using a bucket with a nozzle at the bottom. This method involves continually adding water and leaves to the bucket so that the fertiliser can be used on demand.
Every time you want to use some, just lift the nozzle to pour out the desired amount, and then top off the whole thing with more water and leaves to keep it marinating.
Another technique is to drill holes in the bottom of a bucket and place a second bucket underneath it.
Pack foliage in the inner bucket, weigh it down, and cover. After a few weeks, it will decompose into a black goopy mass. Collect the drippings in the bucket below and dilute to about 1:15 parts tea to water.
One of the best things about this herb is how quickly it grows. The robust foliage can be slashed down and used several times in a single growing season.
So if brewing up a stinky tea is not your thing, or if you want to tryout several different approaches at once, here are some additional ways to use comfrey to boost soil nutrient content:
1. Use the leaves as mulch. Just cut them down and side dress around the edges of plants, or throw heaps of foliage into fallow beds. Either dig them into the soil or layer with dried leaves or straw.
2. Leaves can also help your compost heap kick into gear. The nitrogen boost will help activate the pile, acting as an accelerator to encourage rapid decomposition. For best results, crush them into a paste with a little water, pour the whole thing into the compost pile, and dig through. Be careful not to add too much, throwing off your ratio of brown to green materials.
3. Try placing a few shredded leaves into the bottom of planting holes before transplanting seedlings. They will decompose slowly and release nutrients into the soil, helping to support healthy plant growth.
Comfrey is truly one of my all-time favourite plants. I absolutely love the fact that I can make my own fertiliser while continuously recycling nutrients and organic material back into my garden.
Jillian Ashley is a medical herbalist, permaculture expert and founder of The Nohm Collective
When the first lime green velcro like leaves of cleavers emerge from the soil and the worms begin to surface we know that the earliest days of spring are upon us! These are tell-tale signs along with the usual suspects of violet, chickweed, dandelion & clover that it is time to shake off cozy hibernation and bring the hearth to rest as father sun has changed his axis in the sky and is bringing in the heat to greet us.
There are a few rituals I have cultivated in the kitchen and the garden that I have held over the years to bring a smoother and more fruitful transition to these times. Coming out of a slower and more stagnant season in what feels like a never ending cold that reaches my bones can be tough and so I have put together recipes for you that have really nourished my inner and outer landscapes as the season changes. These holistic practices can bring sunshine and vitality into your body and into the garden with easeful steps and mindful preparation.
Cleavers, violet and chickweed are all allies when it comes to waking up the earth from her slumber, and us from ours. Our bodily systems can benefit from a boost to move energy, circulate blood and support the lymphatic system. All of these systems working together can assist us in moving toxins and sluggishness out of our orbit as we greet the spring sun.
- Handfuls of cleavers, violet and chickweed chopped fine
- 1 cup of olive oil
- 28 grams beeswax
- ½ tsp rose geranium essential oil *optional
- Mason jar
- Garden shears or scissors
- Chopstick
- Knife + cutting board
- Double boiler or crock pot
- Marker and Tape for labelling, or a label maker if you have one
Harvest fresh herbs and set them out to wilt on a screen in the sun or in a dehydrator to remove some of the water content. This can happen overnight in a dehydrator, your oven with the light on, or over the course of a couple days outside in the sun.
Fetch herbs, finely chop and add to a crockpot or stove top double boiler on medium /high heat. A mason jar can be used sitting in a crockpot or small pot surrounded by water if you don’t have a glass bowl to set on top of your small pot. Pour your oil over the herbs, keep temp on low heat, stirring to submerge your herbs with a chopstick, and allow herbs to infuse into your oil base for a couple hours or overnight. When infused strain through a mesh strainer and return oil to your double boiler method of choice. Oil strains best when slightly warm. Reheat on medium and slowly add beeswax and your essential oil, stirring with a bamboo or metal chopstick until beeswax is melted.
Pour your salve mix into sterilised containers. Label your salve with the ingredients and date. Store right side up, as salves can melt in extreme heat.Keep around to encourage movement in the body as we reawaken with the spring sun! As well as itches from bug bites whilst outside tending to your garden.
My life changed and this seasonal shift became more fruitful when I realised pesto could take on so many forms amongst the variety of herbs, greens, nuts, seeds and oils! I make a dent in my freezer every spring as weeds begin to take over my yard, the kitchen witch inside of me gets giddy and goes to work! This recipe is twofold 1) Making a master concentrate of wild weeds can give you access to their benefits all year long when blended and frozen into manageable amounts. 2) making a full on pesto with wild weeds and complimentary ingredients gives you a week or so of daily vita-mineral greens, experiencing the benefits by consuming at least a tablespoon a day. From personal experience I could eat a whole bowl of this stuff. What I find is that I don’t need the cheese when the flavour and aroma of all of these herbs come together.
If wild and weedy pesto sweeps you off your feet, my recommendation is to gather as much wild edible weeds as you can whilst in season and to make up a large batch of pesto, freezing in small usable portions, so that you can enjoy it throughout the year. Sometimes I will even measure out 2-4 cups of fresh weeds and pulse with a little oil or water to puree them and then freeze into portions so that I can switch up my pesto ingredients as the mood strikes.
- 2 cups of assorted wild edible greens; fresh cleavers, dead nettle, dandelion, violet leaf, stinging nettle and/or chickweed
- 2 cups fresh coriander, arugula or basil is optional if you’d like to cut the herbs with something more familiar, or if you are low on your access to wild herbs for this recipe. If you opt out gather 4cups of the above wild edible herbs.
- ⅔ cup extra virgin olive oil
- ¼ - ½ cup of almonds, pine nuts, walnuts or cashews
*soak raw unsalted cashews or walnuts the night before and rinse before use
- Salt and pepper to taste
- 3 cloves of garlic
- Zest of one lemon or tsp of raw apple cider vinegar
- Parmesan cheese or nutritional yeast optional
- 2 tsp coconut aminos or honey
*Optional sweetener, I like aminos for the sweet and savoury component or I will use honey. A little sweetness brings out a lot of flavour in the herbs
- Mason jar or tupperware, glass preferable
- Garden shears
- Spatula
- Knife + cutting board
- Food processor
- Marker and Tape for labelling, or a label maker if you have one
Uses: Salad dressing, when thinned with water or vinegar, sauce for pasta or tossing roasted or steamed vegetables, a snack on toast, crackers or by the spoonful, spice up a frittata or scramble.
Comfrey (Symphytum officianale), a member of the borage family, is a fast-growing, leafy perennial. The Latin name is from the Greek symphis, which means “growing together of bones” or “knit together.” Comfrey has appeared in the Materia Medica since the Middle Ages and some references to the plant date back as far as 50 AD. True to its Latin name, comfrey was applied externally as a poultice for bruises, sprains and fractures. It was taken internally for a variety of medical aliments ranging from broken bones and gastric ulcers to the treatment of female disorders.
Comfrey contains allantoin, a substance commonly used in the cosmetic industry. Allantoin promotes granulation and cell formation which aids in healing at the cellular level. It has both anti-inflammatory and keratinolytic effects and is useful in the treatment of skin conditions following post radiation in cancer patients. It is now formulated synthetically. Comfrey also contains pyrrolizidine alkaloids(PAs), a known hepatotoxic agent. Overuse of substances containing PAs can lead to severe liver damage and for that reason Australia placed Comfrey on thePoison Advisory List in 1984. Germany and Canada followed suit and in 2001, theFDA asked major manufacturers to remove comfrey from their standard list of ingredients.*
(*It should be noted that the studies that led to this decision involved isolating PAs and injecting them at high concentrations into rats. Since a chemical in isolation behaves differently than when present in a whole plant, rats are different than humans, and it is unclear whether common comfrey (S. officinale) or Russian comfrey (S.uplandicum) was used, there is dissension among herbalists regarding this decision and whether comfrey is indeed toxic. We err on the side of caution and recommend avoiding comfrey for internal use particularly in the case of preexisting liver conditions, and if considering internal use we recommend researching this matter for yourself so you have all the facts.)
Remember when I said that my reasons for growing comfrey were not altruistic? Well, it turns out that I am a bit of a rebel at heart. I’ve done extensive reading on comfrey and concluded that when used externally, comfrey is a useful and beneficial herb. As it turns out, I was correct.
Last summer, my husband and I were moving one of my failure-to-thrive beehives. We’d had a delayed and wet spring, and one of my more aggressive hives appeared sickly. I decided to isolate them on a friend’s property away from my healthy hives. After a month of quarantine and a good dose of sunshine, they bounced back and were ready to return to the bee yard. Moving is very stressful to bees. We usually try and move them as near to or after sunset in order to give all the foragers a chance to return to the hive. A rumble or two of thunder is usually enough to send them scurrying back home. I knew the forecast of an impending storm would further aggravate the aggressive nature of this particular hive. I pulled on my Bug Baffler, a protective mesh shirt and a long gloves, but I confess, in my hurry to beat the storm, I opted to forgo my protective pants.
As a beekeeper, stings are to be expected, especially in times of high stress. I got stung on the tender flesh of my inner thigh, not just once, but twice. Normally, I get a localised reaction from a sting, swelling and then itching for 2-3 days. But sensitive areas like the face or inner thigh can be painful and I expected a fair amount of swelling and itching.
I quickly took stock of my herbs and remembered the comfrey leaves I was in the process of drying. Recalling comfrey’s anti-inflammatory effects when applied externally, I decided to make a quick poultice from the steeped comfrey leaves.
Comfrey leaves should be harvested right before the flower blooms and be used dried or fresh. Steep fresh chopped leaves in water that has been brought to a boil for 20-30minutes. Strain with a kitchen strainer. I prefer to use a French Press for my herbal teas or tisanes.
Wrap the steeped leaves in cheesecloth, muslin or felt to make a poultice and apply externally. Do NOT apply to broken skin or open wounds. Reapply every 10-15 minutes over the next hour, as needed. Much to my surprise, I had instant relief from the comfrey poultice (more on poultices here)! I then soaked a cotton ball with comfrey and taped it on the sting overnight, and the swelling was gone the next morning.
The tea can be stored in the refrigerator for up to 6 months for cool, soothing use. Do not take internally.Use comfrey for no more than 10 days in a row. Do not use comfrey in the presence of active liver disease or in conjunction with medications that impair liver function.
Comfrey is also useful inorganic gardening due to its rich nitrogen content. When mulched, the fast-growing leaves make a great compost activator. The leaves are so fast-growing that I can harvest comfrey leaves and within a week they have already grown back by half to their pre-cut size. Needless to say, I am definitely comfortable with comfrey.
This hardy perennial grows quickly and easily, has beautiful flowers, and best of all, it can provide a completely free nutrient-rich source of fertiliser which can be used all season long.All plants need three important macronutrients in order to grow and thrive; these are nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium, often labeled as NPK on fertiliser mixes.
● Nitrogen is crucial for healthy growth and helps plants produce green leafy foliage.
● Phosphorus encourages vigorous growth and helps protect plants from diseases and pests.
● Potassium promotes fruit and flower production in perennials and mature fruiting annuals such as tomatoes and peppers.
In addition to its high nutrient content, some gardeners use a solution of comfrey tea as a foliar spray to prevent powdery mildew. Application on the leaves of plants can help to prevent the spores from germinating.
A word of warning, however: it smells horrendous! So be prepared to hold your nose.
To make the fertiliser tea, start by collecting a bucket full of the large, fuzzy leaves. I suggest you wear gloves when you harvest them, as thehairs can be a bit irritating to your skin.
When the leaves are at least 2 feet tall, use a garden knife or shears to cut them down to a couple of inches above the soil. Harvest the outer leaves first so the plant can continue growing.
Snip the stems off from the leaves you’ve harvested – it’s the greens you want.
Next, place them in a bin or a bucket, pushing them down firmly. I usually use a simple 5-gallon bucket.You can put a couple of large rocks or bricks on top to weigh them down, and then fill the bucket with water.You can chop or shred the leaves to speed up the process.
Make sure to always cover the bucket. This will keep away pesky insects, prevent dilution from rainwater, and most importantly, keep your whole garden from stinking!
Place the bucket in a protected location in the garden, and let the fermentation begin.
To make a very strong tea, leave the bucket to steep for a long time.Recommendations are from anywhere in a 3- to 6-week range. Once leaves have broken down into a slurry paste, you will know that the tea is ready.
In a pinch, any amount of time will give you something useful. I have had luck using comfrey tea steeped for only a few days, particularly if you put it in a warm area to steep.
Just sniff around for that telltale stinky aroma, which is a good sign that the leaves are breaking down and the nutrients are being released.
The final product will be a greenish brown liquid and some very nasty, mushy leaves.
Once you are ready to use the liquid feed, scoop or strain out the decomposing leafy gunk from the bottom of the bucket.
Throw this leafy goo into your compost pile, or use it to side-dress other crops such as potatoes and tomatoes.
Before use, you need to dilute the tea with water, as it can be very strong, and end up burning the plants. How much you dilute it can range widely depending on how strong the concoction is.
The darker the liquid, the more you should dilute it. I have seen recommendations for dilution ranging anywhere from 1:2 to 1:15 parts tea towater.
If you have steeped it for a full 6 weeks and you have a full 5-gallon bucket of liquid, I would recommend a 1:10 ratio, but if you only steeped for a few weeks, 1:4 would likely be fine.
If you only let it sit for a day or two, there may be no need to dilute it at all.
Once the concentration is diluted, you are ready to feed your garden!
Instead of using a watering can, I like to put the tea in a backpack sprayer and spray the solution on the soil as well as both the tops and bottoms of foliage, hitting annuals, shrubs, and fruit trees.
● Do not use comfrey tea fertiliser on seedlings or very young plants. If you use it to feed younger crops, dilute the concentration significantly.
● Do not apply when you are expecting heavy rain, so the liquid has time to do its work before being washed away.
● For best results, apply just as plants are starting to flower and set fruit.
You can also try a quick-steep method, which is similar to how you might make tea for drinking. Just pour boiling water over comfrey leaves and let the concoction sit for up to 24 hours. Strain out the foliage and dilute by half prior to using.
Or you can try continuous batch brewing, using a bucket with a nozzle at the bottom. This method involves continually adding water and leaves to the bucket so that the fertiliser can be used on demand.
Every time you want to use some, just lift the nozzle to pour out the desired amount, and then top off the whole thing with more water and leaves to keep it marinating.
Another technique is to drill holes in the bottom of a bucket and place a second bucket underneath it.
Pack foliage in the inner bucket, weigh it down, and cover. After a few weeks, it will decompose into a black goopy mass. Collect the drippings in the bucket below and dilute to about 1:15 parts tea to water.
One of the best things about this herb is how quickly it grows. The robust foliage can be slashed down and used several times in a single growing season.
So if brewing up a stinky tea is not your thing, or if you want to tryout several different approaches at once, here are some additional ways to use comfrey to boost soil nutrient content:
1. Use the leaves as mulch. Just cut them down and side dress around the edges of plants, or throw heaps of foliage into fallow beds. Either dig them into the soil or layer with dried leaves or straw.
2. Leaves can also help your compost heap kick into gear. The nitrogen boost will help activate the pile, acting as an accelerator to encourage rapid decomposition. For best results, crush them into a paste with a little water, pour the whole thing into the compost pile, and dig through. Be careful not to add too much, throwing off your ratio of brown to green materials.
3. Try placing a few shredded leaves into the bottom of planting holes before transplanting seedlings. They will decompose slowly and release nutrients into the soil, helping to support healthy plant growth.
Comfrey is truly one of my all-time favourite plants. I absolutely love the fact that I can make my own fertiliser while continuously recycling nutrients and organic material back into my garden.
Jillian Ashley is a medical herbalist, permaculture expert and founder of The Nohm Collective
by Jillian Ashley
When the first lime green velcro like leaves of cleavers emerge from the soil and the worms begin to surface we know that the earliest days of spring are upon us! These are tell-tale signs along with the usual suspects of violet, chickweed, dandelion & clover that it is time to shake off cozy hibernation and bring the hearth to rest as father sun has changed his axis in the sky and is bringing in the heat to greet us.
There are a few rituals I have cultivated in the kitchen and the garden that I have held over the years to bring a smoother and more fruitful transition to these times. Coming out of a slower and more stagnant season in what feels like a never ending cold that reaches my bones can be tough and so I have put together recipes for you that have really nourished my inner and outer landscapes as the season changes. These holistic practices can bring sunshine and vitality into your body and into the garden with easeful steps and mindful preparation.
Cleavers, violet and chickweed are all allies when it comes to waking up the earth from her slumber, and us from ours. Our bodily systems can benefit from a boost to move energy, circulate blood and support the lymphatic system. All of these systems working together can assist us in moving toxins and sluggishness out of our orbit as we greet the spring sun.
- Handfuls of cleavers, violet and chickweed chopped fine
- 1 cup of olive oil
- 28 grams beeswax
- ½ tsp rose geranium essential oil *optional
- Mason jar
- Garden shears or scissors
- Chopstick
- Knife + cutting board
- Double boiler or crock pot
- Marker and Tape for labelling, or a label maker if you have one
Harvest fresh herbs and set them out to wilt on a screen in the sun or in a dehydrator to remove some of the water content. This can happen overnight in a dehydrator, your oven with the light on, or over the course of a couple days outside in the sun.
Fetch herbs, finely chop and add to a crockpot or stove top double boiler on medium /high heat. A mason jar can be used sitting in a crockpot or small pot surrounded by water if you don’t have a glass bowl to set on top of your small pot. Pour your oil over the herbs, keep temp on low heat, stirring to submerge your herbs with a chopstick, and allow herbs to infuse into your oil base for a couple hours or overnight. When infused strain through a mesh strainer and return oil to your double boiler method of choice. Oil strains best when slightly warm. Reheat on medium and slowly add beeswax and your essential oil, stirring with a bamboo or metal chopstick until beeswax is melted.
Pour your salve mix into sterilised containers. Label your salve with the ingredients and date. Store right side up, as salves can melt in extreme heat.Keep around to encourage movement in the body as we reawaken with the spring sun! As well as itches from bug bites whilst outside tending to your garden.
My life changed and this seasonal shift became more fruitful when I realised pesto could take on so many forms amongst the variety of herbs, greens, nuts, seeds and oils! I make a dent in my freezer every spring as weeds begin to take over my yard, the kitchen witch inside of me gets giddy and goes to work! This recipe is twofold 1) Making a master concentrate of wild weeds can give you access to their benefits all year long when blended and frozen into manageable amounts. 2) making a full on pesto with wild weeds and complimentary ingredients gives you a week or so of daily vita-mineral greens, experiencing the benefits by consuming at least a tablespoon a day. From personal experience I could eat a whole bowl of this stuff. What I find is that I don’t need the cheese when the flavour and aroma of all of these herbs come together.
If wild and weedy pesto sweeps you off your feet, my recommendation is to gather as much wild edible weeds as you can whilst in season and to make up a large batch of pesto, freezing in small usable portions, so that you can enjoy it throughout the year. Sometimes I will even measure out 2-4 cups of fresh weeds and pulse with a little oil or water to puree them and then freeze into portions so that I can switch up my pesto ingredients as the mood strikes.
- 2 cups of assorted wild edible greens; fresh cleavers, dead nettle, dandelion, violet leaf, stinging nettle and/or chickweed
- 2 cups fresh coriander, arugula or basil is optional if you’d like to cut the herbs with something more familiar, or if you are low on your access to wild herbs for this recipe. If you opt out gather 4cups of the above wild edible herbs.
- ⅔ cup extra virgin olive oil
- ¼ - ½ cup of almonds, pine nuts, walnuts or cashews
*soak raw unsalted cashews or walnuts the night before and rinse before use
- Salt and pepper to taste
- 3 cloves of garlic
- Zest of one lemon or tsp of raw apple cider vinegar
- Parmesan cheese or nutritional yeast optional
- 2 tsp coconut aminos or honey
*Optional sweetener, I like aminos for the sweet and savoury component or I will use honey. A little sweetness brings out a lot of flavour in the herbs
- Mason jar or tupperware, glass preferable
- Garden shears
- Spatula
- Knife + cutting board
- Food processor
- Marker and Tape for labelling, or a label maker if you have one
Uses: Salad dressing, when thinned with water or vinegar, sauce for pasta or tossing roasted or steamed vegetables, a snack on toast, crackers or by the spoonful, spice up a frittata or scramble.
Comfrey (Symphytum officianale), a member of the borage family, is a fast-growing, leafy perennial. The Latin name is from the Greek symphis, which means “growing together of bones” or “knit together.” Comfrey has appeared in the Materia Medica since the Middle Ages and some references to the plant date back as far as 50 AD. True to its Latin name, comfrey was applied externally as a poultice for bruises, sprains and fractures. It was taken internally for a variety of medical aliments ranging from broken bones and gastric ulcers to the treatment of female disorders.
Comfrey contains allantoin, a substance commonly used in the cosmetic industry. Allantoin promotes granulation and cell formation which aids in healing at the cellular level. It has both anti-inflammatory and keratinolytic effects and is useful in the treatment of skin conditions following post radiation in cancer patients. It is now formulated synthetically. Comfrey also contains pyrrolizidine alkaloids(PAs), a known hepatotoxic agent. Overuse of substances containing PAs can lead to severe liver damage and for that reason Australia placed Comfrey on thePoison Advisory List in 1984. Germany and Canada followed suit and in 2001, theFDA asked major manufacturers to remove comfrey from their standard list of ingredients.*
(*It should be noted that the studies that led to this decision involved isolating PAs and injecting them at high concentrations into rats. Since a chemical in isolation behaves differently than when present in a whole plant, rats are different than humans, and it is unclear whether common comfrey (S. officinale) or Russian comfrey (S.uplandicum) was used, there is dissension among herbalists regarding this decision and whether comfrey is indeed toxic. We err on the side of caution and recommend avoiding comfrey for internal use particularly in the case of preexisting liver conditions, and if considering internal use we recommend researching this matter for yourself so you have all the facts.)
Remember when I said that my reasons for growing comfrey were not altruistic? Well, it turns out that I am a bit of a rebel at heart. I’ve done extensive reading on comfrey and concluded that when used externally, comfrey is a useful and beneficial herb. As it turns out, I was correct.
Last summer, my husband and I were moving one of my failure-to-thrive beehives. We’d had a delayed and wet spring, and one of my more aggressive hives appeared sickly. I decided to isolate them on a friend’s property away from my healthy hives. After a month of quarantine and a good dose of sunshine, they bounced back and were ready to return to the bee yard. Moving is very stressful to bees. We usually try and move them as near to or after sunset in order to give all the foragers a chance to return to the hive. A rumble or two of thunder is usually enough to send them scurrying back home. I knew the forecast of an impending storm would further aggravate the aggressive nature of this particular hive. I pulled on my Bug Baffler, a protective mesh shirt and a long gloves, but I confess, in my hurry to beat the storm, I opted to forgo my protective pants.
As a beekeeper, stings are to be expected, especially in times of high stress. I got stung on the tender flesh of my inner thigh, not just once, but twice. Normally, I get a localised reaction from a sting, swelling and then itching for 2-3 days. But sensitive areas like the face or inner thigh can be painful and I expected a fair amount of swelling and itching.
I quickly took stock of my herbs and remembered the comfrey leaves I was in the process of drying. Recalling comfrey’s anti-inflammatory effects when applied externally, I decided to make a quick poultice from the steeped comfrey leaves.
Comfrey leaves should be harvested right before the flower blooms and be used dried or fresh. Steep fresh chopped leaves in water that has been brought to a boil for 20-30minutes. Strain with a kitchen strainer. I prefer to use a French Press for my herbal teas or tisanes.
Wrap the steeped leaves in cheesecloth, muslin or felt to make a poultice and apply externally. Do NOT apply to broken skin or open wounds. Reapply every 10-15 minutes over the next hour, as needed. Much to my surprise, I had instant relief from the comfrey poultice (more on poultices here)! I then soaked a cotton ball with comfrey and taped it on the sting overnight, and the swelling was gone the next morning.
The tea can be stored in the refrigerator for up to 6 months for cool, soothing use. Do not take internally.Use comfrey for no more than 10 days in a row. Do not use comfrey in the presence of active liver disease or in conjunction with medications that impair liver function.
Comfrey is also useful inorganic gardening due to its rich nitrogen content. When mulched, the fast-growing leaves make a great compost activator. The leaves are so fast-growing that I can harvest comfrey leaves and within a week they have already grown back by half to their pre-cut size. Needless to say, I am definitely comfortable with comfrey.
This hardy perennial grows quickly and easily, has beautiful flowers, and best of all, it can provide a completely free nutrient-rich source of fertiliser which can be used all season long.All plants need three important macronutrients in order to grow and thrive; these are nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium, often labeled as NPK on fertiliser mixes.
● Nitrogen is crucial for healthy growth and helps plants produce green leafy foliage.
● Phosphorus encourages vigorous growth and helps protect plants from diseases and pests.
● Potassium promotes fruit and flower production in perennials and mature fruiting annuals such as tomatoes and peppers.
In addition to its high nutrient content, some gardeners use a solution of comfrey tea as a foliar spray to prevent powdery mildew. Application on the leaves of plants can help to prevent the spores from germinating.
A word of warning, however: it smells horrendous! So be prepared to hold your nose.
To make the fertiliser tea, start by collecting a bucket full of the large, fuzzy leaves. I suggest you wear gloves when you harvest them, as thehairs can be a bit irritating to your skin.
When the leaves are at least 2 feet tall, use a garden knife or shears to cut them down to a couple of inches above the soil. Harvest the outer leaves first so the plant can continue growing.
Snip the stems off from the leaves you’ve harvested – it’s the greens you want.
Next, place them in a bin or a bucket, pushing them down firmly. I usually use a simple 5-gallon bucket.You can put a couple of large rocks or bricks on top to weigh them down, and then fill the bucket with water.You can chop or shred the leaves to speed up the process.
Make sure to always cover the bucket. This will keep away pesky insects, prevent dilution from rainwater, and most importantly, keep your whole garden from stinking!
Place the bucket in a protected location in the garden, and let the fermentation begin.
To make a very strong tea, leave the bucket to steep for a long time.Recommendations are from anywhere in a 3- to 6-week range. Once leaves have broken down into a slurry paste, you will know that the tea is ready.
In a pinch, any amount of time will give you something useful. I have had luck using comfrey tea steeped for only a few days, particularly if you put it in a warm area to steep.
Just sniff around for that telltale stinky aroma, which is a good sign that the leaves are breaking down and the nutrients are being released.
The final product will be a greenish brown liquid and some very nasty, mushy leaves.
Once you are ready to use the liquid feed, scoop or strain out the decomposing leafy gunk from the bottom of the bucket.
Throw this leafy goo into your compost pile, or use it to side-dress other crops such as potatoes and tomatoes.
Before use, you need to dilute the tea with water, as it can be very strong, and end up burning the plants. How much you dilute it can range widely depending on how strong the concoction is.
The darker the liquid, the more you should dilute it. I have seen recommendations for dilution ranging anywhere from 1:2 to 1:15 parts tea towater.
If you have steeped it for a full 6 weeks and you have a full 5-gallon bucket of liquid, I would recommend a 1:10 ratio, but if you only steeped for a few weeks, 1:4 would likely be fine.
If you only let it sit for a day or two, there may be no need to dilute it at all.
Once the concentration is diluted, you are ready to feed your garden!
Instead of using a watering can, I like to put the tea in a backpack sprayer and spray the solution on the soil as well as both the tops and bottoms of foliage, hitting annuals, shrubs, and fruit trees.
● Do not use comfrey tea fertiliser on seedlings or very young plants. If you use it to feed younger crops, dilute the concentration significantly.
● Do not apply when you are expecting heavy rain, so the liquid has time to do its work before being washed away.
● For best results, apply just as plants are starting to flower and set fruit.
You can also try a quick-steep method, which is similar to how you might make tea for drinking. Just pour boiling water over comfrey leaves and let the concoction sit for up to 24 hours. Strain out the foliage and dilute by half prior to using.
Or you can try continuous batch brewing, using a bucket with a nozzle at the bottom. This method involves continually adding water and leaves to the bucket so that the fertiliser can be used on demand.
Every time you want to use some, just lift the nozzle to pour out the desired amount, and then top off the whole thing with more water and leaves to keep it marinating.
Another technique is to drill holes in the bottom of a bucket and place a second bucket underneath it.
Pack foliage in the inner bucket, weigh it down, and cover. After a few weeks, it will decompose into a black goopy mass. Collect the drippings in the bucket below and dilute to about 1:15 parts tea to water.
One of the best things about this herb is how quickly it grows. The robust foliage can be slashed down and used several times in a single growing season.
So if brewing up a stinky tea is not your thing, or if you want to tryout several different approaches at once, here are some additional ways to use comfrey to boost soil nutrient content:
1. Use the leaves as mulch. Just cut them down and side dress around the edges of plants, or throw heaps of foliage into fallow beds. Either dig them into the soil or layer with dried leaves or straw.
2. Leaves can also help your compost heap kick into gear. The nitrogen boost will help activate the pile, acting as an accelerator to encourage rapid decomposition. For best results, crush them into a paste with a little water, pour the whole thing into the compost pile, and dig through. Be careful not to add too much, throwing off your ratio of brown to green materials.
3. Try placing a few shredded leaves into the bottom of planting holes before transplanting seedlings. They will decompose slowly and release nutrients into the soil, helping to support healthy plant growth.
Comfrey is truly one of my all-time favourite plants. I absolutely love the fact that I can make my own fertiliser while continuously recycling nutrients and organic material back into my garden.
Jillian Ashley is a medical herbalist, permaculture expert and founder of The Nohm Collective
When the first lime green velcro like leaves of cleavers emerge from the soil and the worms begin to surface we know that the earliest days of spring are upon us! These are tell-tale signs along with the usual suspects of violet, chickweed, dandelion & clover that it is time to shake off cozy hibernation and bring the hearth to rest as father sun has changed his axis in the sky and is bringing in the heat to greet us.
There are a few rituals I have cultivated in the kitchen and the garden that I have held over the years to bring a smoother and more fruitful transition to these times. Coming out of a slower and more stagnant season in what feels like a never ending cold that reaches my bones can be tough and so I have put together recipes for you that have really nourished my inner and outer landscapes as the season changes. These holistic practices can bring sunshine and vitality into your body and into the garden with easeful steps and mindful preparation.
Cleavers, violet and chickweed are all allies when it comes to waking up the earth from her slumber, and us from ours. Our bodily systems can benefit from a boost to move energy, circulate blood and support the lymphatic system. All of these systems working together can assist us in moving toxins and sluggishness out of our orbit as we greet the spring sun.
- Handfuls of cleavers, violet and chickweed chopped fine
- 1 cup of olive oil
- 28 grams beeswax
- ½ tsp rose geranium essential oil *optional
- Mason jar
- Garden shears or scissors
- Chopstick
- Knife + cutting board
- Double boiler or crock pot
- Marker and Tape for labelling, or a label maker if you have one
Harvest fresh herbs and set them out to wilt on a screen in the sun or in a dehydrator to remove some of the water content. This can happen overnight in a dehydrator, your oven with the light on, or over the course of a couple days outside in the sun.
Fetch herbs, finely chop and add to a crockpot or stove top double boiler on medium /high heat. A mason jar can be used sitting in a crockpot or small pot surrounded by water if you don’t have a glass bowl to set on top of your small pot. Pour your oil over the herbs, keep temp on low heat, stirring to submerge your herbs with a chopstick, and allow herbs to infuse into your oil base for a couple hours or overnight. When infused strain through a mesh strainer and return oil to your double boiler method of choice. Oil strains best when slightly warm. Reheat on medium and slowly add beeswax and your essential oil, stirring with a bamboo or metal chopstick until beeswax is melted.
Pour your salve mix into sterilised containers. Label your salve with the ingredients and date. Store right side up, as salves can melt in extreme heat.Keep around to encourage movement in the body as we reawaken with the spring sun! As well as itches from bug bites whilst outside tending to your garden.
My life changed and this seasonal shift became more fruitful when I realised pesto could take on so many forms amongst the variety of herbs, greens, nuts, seeds and oils! I make a dent in my freezer every spring as weeds begin to take over my yard, the kitchen witch inside of me gets giddy and goes to work! This recipe is twofold 1) Making a master concentrate of wild weeds can give you access to their benefits all year long when blended and frozen into manageable amounts. 2) making a full on pesto with wild weeds and complimentary ingredients gives you a week or so of daily vita-mineral greens, experiencing the benefits by consuming at least a tablespoon a day. From personal experience I could eat a whole bowl of this stuff. What I find is that I don’t need the cheese when the flavour and aroma of all of these herbs come together.
If wild and weedy pesto sweeps you off your feet, my recommendation is to gather as much wild edible weeds as you can whilst in season and to make up a large batch of pesto, freezing in small usable portions, so that you can enjoy it throughout the year. Sometimes I will even measure out 2-4 cups of fresh weeds and pulse with a little oil or water to puree them and then freeze into portions so that I can switch up my pesto ingredients as the mood strikes.
- 2 cups of assorted wild edible greens; fresh cleavers, dead nettle, dandelion, violet leaf, stinging nettle and/or chickweed
- 2 cups fresh coriander, arugula or basil is optional if you’d like to cut the herbs with something more familiar, or if you are low on your access to wild herbs for this recipe. If you opt out gather 4cups of the above wild edible herbs.
- ⅔ cup extra virgin olive oil
- ¼ - ½ cup of almonds, pine nuts, walnuts or cashews
*soak raw unsalted cashews or walnuts the night before and rinse before use
- Salt and pepper to taste
- 3 cloves of garlic
- Zest of one lemon or tsp of raw apple cider vinegar
- Parmesan cheese or nutritional yeast optional
- 2 tsp coconut aminos or honey
*Optional sweetener, I like aminos for the sweet and savoury component or I will use honey. A little sweetness brings out a lot of flavour in the herbs
- Mason jar or tupperware, glass preferable
- Garden shears
- Spatula
- Knife + cutting board
- Food processor
- Marker and Tape for labelling, or a label maker if you have one
Uses: Salad dressing, when thinned with water or vinegar, sauce for pasta or tossing roasted or steamed vegetables, a snack on toast, crackers or by the spoonful, spice up a frittata or scramble.
Comfrey (Symphytum officianale), a member of the borage family, is a fast-growing, leafy perennial. The Latin name is from the Greek symphis, which means “growing together of bones” or “knit together.” Comfrey has appeared in the Materia Medica since the Middle Ages and some references to the plant date back as far as 50 AD. True to its Latin name, comfrey was applied externally as a poultice for bruises, sprains and fractures. It was taken internally for a variety of medical aliments ranging from broken bones and gastric ulcers to the treatment of female disorders.
Comfrey contains allantoin, a substance commonly used in the cosmetic industry. Allantoin promotes granulation and cell formation which aids in healing at the cellular level. It has both anti-inflammatory and keratinolytic effects and is useful in the treatment of skin conditions following post radiation in cancer patients. It is now formulated synthetically. Comfrey also contains pyrrolizidine alkaloids(PAs), a known hepatotoxic agent. Overuse of substances containing PAs can lead to severe liver damage and for that reason Australia placed Comfrey on thePoison Advisory List in 1984. Germany and Canada followed suit and in 2001, theFDA asked major manufacturers to remove comfrey from their standard list of ingredients.*
(*It should be noted that the studies that led to this decision involved isolating PAs and injecting them at high concentrations into rats. Since a chemical in isolation behaves differently than when present in a whole plant, rats are different than humans, and it is unclear whether common comfrey (S. officinale) or Russian comfrey (S.uplandicum) was used, there is dissension among herbalists regarding this decision and whether comfrey is indeed toxic. We err on the side of caution and recommend avoiding comfrey for internal use particularly in the case of preexisting liver conditions, and if considering internal use we recommend researching this matter for yourself so you have all the facts.)
Remember when I said that my reasons for growing comfrey were not altruistic? Well, it turns out that I am a bit of a rebel at heart. I’ve done extensive reading on comfrey and concluded that when used externally, comfrey is a useful and beneficial herb. As it turns out, I was correct.
Last summer, my husband and I were moving one of my failure-to-thrive beehives. We’d had a delayed and wet spring, and one of my more aggressive hives appeared sickly. I decided to isolate them on a friend’s property away from my healthy hives. After a month of quarantine and a good dose of sunshine, they bounced back and were ready to return to the bee yard. Moving is very stressful to bees. We usually try and move them as near to or after sunset in order to give all the foragers a chance to return to the hive. A rumble or two of thunder is usually enough to send them scurrying back home. I knew the forecast of an impending storm would further aggravate the aggressive nature of this particular hive. I pulled on my Bug Baffler, a protective mesh shirt and a long gloves, but I confess, in my hurry to beat the storm, I opted to forgo my protective pants.
As a beekeeper, stings are to be expected, especially in times of high stress. I got stung on the tender flesh of my inner thigh, not just once, but twice. Normally, I get a localised reaction from a sting, swelling and then itching for 2-3 days. But sensitive areas like the face or inner thigh can be painful and I expected a fair amount of swelling and itching.
I quickly took stock of my herbs and remembered the comfrey leaves I was in the process of drying. Recalling comfrey’s anti-inflammatory effects when applied externally, I decided to make a quick poultice from the steeped comfrey leaves.
Comfrey leaves should be harvested right before the flower blooms and be used dried or fresh. Steep fresh chopped leaves in water that has been brought to a boil for 20-30minutes. Strain with a kitchen strainer. I prefer to use a French Press for my herbal teas or tisanes.
Wrap the steeped leaves in cheesecloth, muslin or felt to make a poultice and apply externally. Do NOT apply to broken skin or open wounds. Reapply every 10-15 minutes over the next hour, as needed. Much to my surprise, I had instant relief from the comfrey poultice (more on poultices here)! I then soaked a cotton ball with comfrey and taped it on the sting overnight, and the swelling was gone the next morning.
The tea can be stored in the refrigerator for up to 6 months for cool, soothing use. Do not take internally.Use comfrey for no more than 10 days in a row. Do not use comfrey in the presence of active liver disease or in conjunction with medications that impair liver function.
Comfrey is also useful inorganic gardening due to its rich nitrogen content. When mulched, the fast-growing leaves make a great compost activator. The leaves are so fast-growing that I can harvest comfrey leaves and within a week they have already grown back by half to their pre-cut size. Needless to say, I am definitely comfortable with comfrey.
This hardy perennial grows quickly and easily, has beautiful flowers, and best of all, it can provide a completely free nutrient-rich source of fertiliser which can be used all season long.All plants need three important macronutrients in order to grow and thrive; these are nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium, often labeled as NPK on fertiliser mixes.
● Nitrogen is crucial for healthy growth and helps plants produce green leafy foliage.
● Phosphorus encourages vigorous growth and helps protect plants from diseases and pests.
● Potassium promotes fruit and flower production in perennials and mature fruiting annuals such as tomatoes and peppers.
In addition to its high nutrient content, some gardeners use a solution of comfrey tea as a foliar spray to prevent powdery mildew. Application on the leaves of plants can help to prevent the spores from germinating.
A word of warning, however: it smells horrendous! So be prepared to hold your nose.
To make the fertiliser tea, start by collecting a bucket full of the large, fuzzy leaves. I suggest you wear gloves when you harvest them, as thehairs can be a bit irritating to your skin.
When the leaves are at least 2 feet tall, use a garden knife or shears to cut them down to a couple of inches above the soil. Harvest the outer leaves first so the plant can continue growing.
Snip the stems off from the leaves you’ve harvested – it’s the greens you want.
Next, place them in a bin or a bucket, pushing them down firmly. I usually use a simple 5-gallon bucket.You can put a couple of large rocks or bricks on top to weigh them down, and then fill the bucket with water.You can chop or shred the leaves to speed up the process.
Make sure to always cover the bucket. This will keep away pesky insects, prevent dilution from rainwater, and most importantly, keep your whole garden from stinking!
Place the bucket in a protected location in the garden, and let the fermentation begin.
To make a very strong tea, leave the bucket to steep for a long time.Recommendations are from anywhere in a 3- to 6-week range. Once leaves have broken down into a slurry paste, you will know that the tea is ready.
In a pinch, any amount of time will give you something useful. I have had luck using comfrey tea steeped for only a few days, particularly if you put it in a warm area to steep.
Just sniff around for that telltale stinky aroma, which is a good sign that the leaves are breaking down and the nutrients are being released.
The final product will be a greenish brown liquid and some very nasty, mushy leaves.
Once you are ready to use the liquid feed, scoop or strain out the decomposing leafy gunk from the bottom of the bucket.
Throw this leafy goo into your compost pile, or use it to side-dress other crops such as potatoes and tomatoes.
Before use, you need to dilute the tea with water, as it can be very strong, and end up burning the plants. How much you dilute it can range widely depending on how strong the concoction is.
The darker the liquid, the more you should dilute it. I have seen recommendations for dilution ranging anywhere from 1:2 to 1:15 parts tea towater.
If you have steeped it for a full 6 weeks and you have a full 5-gallon bucket of liquid, I would recommend a 1:10 ratio, but if you only steeped for a few weeks, 1:4 would likely be fine.
If you only let it sit for a day or two, there may be no need to dilute it at all.
Once the concentration is diluted, you are ready to feed your garden!
Instead of using a watering can, I like to put the tea in a backpack sprayer and spray the solution on the soil as well as both the tops and bottoms of foliage, hitting annuals, shrubs, and fruit trees.
● Do not use comfrey tea fertiliser on seedlings or very young plants. If you use it to feed younger crops, dilute the concentration significantly.
● Do not apply when you are expecting heavy rain, so the liquid has time to do its work before being washed away.
● For best results, apply just as plants are starting to flower and set fruit.
You can also try a quick-steep method, which is similar to how you might make tea for drinking. Just pour boiling water over comfrey leaves and let the concoction sit for up to 24 hours. Strain out the foliage and dilute by half prior to using.
Or you can try continuous batch brewing, using a bucket with a nozzle at the bottom. This method involves continually adding water and leaves to the bucket so that the fertiliser can be used on demand.
Every time you want to use some, just lift the nozzle to pour out the desired amount, and then top off the whole thing with more water and leaves to keep it marinating.
Another technique is to drill holes in the bottom of a bucket and place a second bucket underneath it.
Pack foliage in the inner bucket, weigh it down, and cover. After a few weeks, it will decompose into a black goopy mass. Collect the drippings in the bucket below and dilute to about 1:15 parts tea to water.
One of the best things about this herb is how quickly it grows. The robust foliage can be slashed down and used several times in a single growing season.
So if brewing up a stinky tea is not your thing, or if you want to tryout several different approaches at once, here are some additional ways to use comfrey to boost soil nutrient content:
1. Use the leaves as mulch. Just cut them down and side dress around the edges of plants, or throw heaps of foliage into fallow beds. Either dig them into the soil or layer with dried leaves or straw.
2. Leaves can also help your compost heap kick into gear. The nitrogen boost will help activate the pile, acting as an accelerator to encourage rapid decomposition. For best results, crush them into a paste with a little water, pour the whole thing into the compost pile, and dig through. Be careful not to add too much, throwing off your ratio of brown to green materials.
3. Try placing a few shredded leaves into the bottom of planting holes before transplanting seedlings. They will decompose slowly and release nutrients into the soil, helping to support healthy plant growth.
Comfrey is truly one of my all-time favourite plants. I absolutely love the fact that I can make my own fertiliser while continuously recycling nutrients and organic material back into my garden.
Jillian Ashley is a medical herbalist, permaculture expert and founder of The Nohm Collective