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| Burdock |
When I was considering what to write about this week, I originally thought about Beltane. Ultimately I decided to do separate posts for the sabbats that mark the wheel of the year. Instead I am writing about burdock.
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Burdock is edible. The leaves may be cooked or eaten raw. Burdock root is medicinal and can be boiled to make an excellent liver tonic. It purifies the blood, and as such is used in many herbal blends to treat everything from acne to gout. Burdock also has magical uses. Use burdock for protection, to cleanse negativity, binding, and warding
Last year when the burdock plants began growing, I was not sure what they were. So I left one of the plants alone so it could fully mature to make identification easier. In early summer, the plant became infested with aphids. It was quite severe and the aphids were aided by ants who milked the aphids for their sugary excretions. I didn't want the aphids to move to my vegetable garden, so I left them alone where they were. A few weeks later, the aphids were all gone. What happened to the thousands of aphids? Lady bugs. The burdock had summoned allies is the form of lady bugs. They laid their eggs on the plant and when they hatched, the ravenous larva ate every aphid on the plant.
| Ant tending aphids |
| Lady Bug larvae |
the wise knowledge of the cicle of life!!!
ReplyDeleteGreat photos! I've always wondered exactly what burdock looks like. As far as I can tell, it doesn't grow easily where I live.
ReplyDeleteThat's awesome and very interesting! :)
ReplyDeleteVery cool post!! I grew up in WI and Burdock's were in the woods, our horse and sheep pastures, basically everywhere... I remember the hours we kids spent chopping and killing these plants only for them to come right back and be full of seed pods by fall... then the next chore was on... all of us kids spent hours upon hours combing the pods out of the horses manes and tails (we had over 30head at times),all of this ultimately led to my long head of hair being matted with the burs. The sheep and other farm animals were on their own... LOL
ReplyDeleteVery cool post, I always wondered what burdock looked like, it's so pretty!
ReplyDeleteI love learning about new plants/weeks both the magickal and herbal medicinal qualities. Thanks for the info.
ReplyDeleteI see Burdock in our future menus <3
ReplyDeleteI didn't know the plant was edible - I think this year I plan on leaving it alone in my community garden. Have you eaten it? What does it taste like?
ReplyDeleteI will be looking for this plant this year. Thank you!
ReplyDeletethis was really interesting cheers!!
ReplyDeleteI've never seen burdock either, so another one grateful for the pictures! This is an interesting, informative post. Thank you.
ReplyDeleteOMG I LOVE BURDOCK. I have been collecting it for years. I actually collected a lot of this, its in a jar in my closet. Every once in a while I just open the jar to smell it - because it smells great.
ReplyDeleteIt has a lot of uses magical and mundabe like:Often combined with dandelion or yellow dock, burdock root is an effective blood purifier used to treat psoriasis, eczema, oily skin, acne, boils, and gout.
As a food, burdock root is eaten as a medicinal vegetable, cooked by steaming or used as an ingredient in stir-fry. The raw burdock root is excellent when grated and marinated. Soup is prepared by boiling pieces of the fresh burdock root along with other root vegetables, shiitake mushrooms, and edible herbs (astragalus, codonopsis, etc.) until all ingredients are tender.The roots are also collected and roasted for a coffee substitute.
Magical: add some burdock to wash-water and use around your home to ward off negativity. It may also be used to purify. Protective incense and spells benefit from the addition of this common plant.
OK so I just quick copied that from some info I have saved on my computer. But this plant is very sweet. It can be a bit slimy when harvesting (or maybe thats my fault since I only harvest when its wet outside - it makes it easier to pull from the ground. :)