New season wild herbs

[excuseme]

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I have been a bit late this year picking some new wild herbs to blitz for the girls. Today I picked "with some doggy help" some cleavers/goose grass, I also picked some nettle tips, a little bit of Hog weed and some Dandelion flowers and leaves, all blitzed together and poured over the girls dinners.
It all went down very well.

.

 

[JudyN]

Maybe I should try that - some days Jasper grazes as if he really was a small horse.

 

[excuseme]

Our lot lick their dishes clean. Only one is not too keen and that is the puppy, this is her first year of freshly picked wild herbs.

 

[Hemlock]

What a lovely thing to do for them.

We grow cleavers in the garden and they have always been very popular. We only had one that liked hogweed, but she went out of her way for it. Everyone liked chickweed, and when I cooked a venison and/or rabbit casserole for them, it was always with nettle leaves and an apple. I'd get windfall apples from the neighbours and freeze them (the apples not the neighbours) for year-round use.

 

[Flobo]

About 3 of my dogs love to graze cleavers, especially when they're just shooting up out of the ground. It always amazes me how they very specifically and carefully pick the shoots even when there is other greenery sprouting up all around it too. The Airdale I walk has picked and eaten nettles her whole life, she is quite choosy as to which leaves she'll eat too and yes it does make her very dribbly! (which is fine unless she decides to shake her head just as I'm bending over to change her lead or something)

 

[excuseme]

I have never seen a dog pick their own nettles but they have been picking the cleavers for a few weeks here. We have a couple who like Dandelion flowers and will pick those themselves, and then of course later in the year we have the black berry pickers and they all go picking up apple windfalls too. Happy girls

 

[Flobo]

Ah yes the blackberries! I've never seen a dog pick dandelion flowers, that's interesting. Nettles have a natural anti histamine effect(as well as all the other goodies they contain) and as Airdales can be prone to skin problems, (something this girl has never suffered from thankfully), myself and owner have always been of the mind that she knows what she needs.

 

[excuseme]

Do you think that we could blitz a handful of nettle tops daily to avoid hay fever ?

 

[Flobo]

@excuseme It is used as a hayfever remedy, you could make a tea from it. Someone else told me recently to try elderflowers when they are full of pollen, now I can't remember if she said to make some kind of tincture with them as opposed to tea.. I suppose with a tincture it would be easier to take... Hmm I'll do a bit of research on that over weekend.
Unless anyone else knows?

 

[excuseme]

My daughter suffers from Hay fever every year, she hates popping pills to relieve the problem. Maybe some nettle tea once a day would help her.

 

[RGC]

@excuseme It is used as a hayfever remedy, you could make a tea from it. Someone else told me recently to try elderflowers when they are full of pollen, now I can't remember if she said to make some kind of tincture with them as opposed to tea.. I suppose with a tincture it would be easier to take... Hmm I'll do a bit of research on that over weekend.
Unless anyone else knows?

Do you just whizz some in a blender and add it to boiling water? I ask because this spring I’ve developed a wheezy cough first thing which is suspected as hay fever which I’ve never had before. Sincerely yours, Hypochondriac from Herefordshire.

 

[JudyN]

Jasper loves sedge. At least, I think it's sedge - something reedy that grows as a weed in our garden. Most ends up getting munched down to ground level.

 

[excuseme]

We have some fairly large ornamental grasses in the front garden, these get quiet coarse.

The puppy "Titch" (now 11 months) often works along eating the new side growths that she can reach. The grasses are fenced off for a while from the dogs until they have grown enough to withstand too much dog attention at this time of year. They will not bother them once they are taller and tougher.
A couple of days ago someone had produced a whole poo that was made of grass only. It was not the ornamental grass from the garden.

.

 

[Flobo]

Do you just whizz some in a blender and add it to boiling water?

I'd pick fresh, throw them in a teapot and pour boiling water straight in, then let infuse for 10mins. I think it is recommended to drink at least 3 cups a day for good effect. Tree pollen, that is high at the mo, gives me a really dry throat, quite sore eyes and a runny nose which drives me mad. I never suffered from any allergies until I was in my forties!
Off to pick nettles from my garden now, after all these years I've never actually tried this remedy!