When we first started farming I had much difficulty telling the difference between the plants. This was especially a problem in direct seeded (seeds planted directly in the ground versus transplants) crops where the weeds would be coming up at the same time as the plants. Luckily it doesn’t take to long to figure out which plants are good to eat and which ones not.

Now I have decided to take my plant education to the next level in identifying wild medicinal plants. To help me out I went back to my herbalist friend Erin Piorier. She teaches classes locally and last night she had one at Como Lake, a beautiful urban park.

Here Erin points out Bee Balm this is an excellent anti-fungal herb and good for the kidneys. You make a tincture out of the flowers which were just about at peak last night.

Hoary Vervain is a relative of the very useful nervine, antispasmodic Blue Vervain. Both are used medicinally for relaxing tension, menstrual cramps, IBD, pms and more.

Yellow Dock if you remember correctly this was Avril’s favorite herb at her treatment. This is a great “normalizer” meaning it can be used to treat opposite symptoms like diahhrea and constipation. It is also very cooling, works broadly and gently, is a great skin rememedy, good for acid reflux and used in some anti-cancer treatments. It has a sorrel like taste in the leaves. Roots are used to make a tincture when the plant is past prime.

Motherwort very very bittter. Good for the entire life cycle of a woman, also fevers, helps you relax when tension is in your core. Erin said that if you have only 6-8 herbs in your family medicine kit this should be one of them.

Medicinal echinacea/purple cone flower notice that its leaves are a bit stringy. Erin does not use this plant much.

Butterfly weed also called pleurisy root used as an expectorant and good for whooping cough. Make a tincture from the roots in the fall.

All in all I think we saw and identified around 15 plants. I also know mullein, plantain, golden rod and yarrow confidently. As Erin said we are no longer trained to learn this helpful and useful plants–even just the ones we eat. Learning can be such an empowering thing. I intend to build up our family herb kit, but we do get sick so infrequently I am not such what I will use probably, purslane, yellow dock, motherwort, mullein (good for ear aches), plantian and yarrow.