I signed up for In Season at the end of last month. It is a monthly membership program that teaches wild medicinal plants. April Punsalan is the teacher/guide, you may remember me talking about her last year when I was taking her awesome class, Botanical Medicine Movement.
Anyways, the challenge this month is cleaver juice. I have seen and nibbled on cleaves before so thought this would be easy and fun. I had really gone looking for wild mustard which I also found.
When I got home I set to work making the juice. Afterward, I poured myself a mug and drank it. It was an interesting experience. It tastes like bean sprouts to me, which I'm not too fond of, but the allergy responses were a surprise.Â
As I finished the last sip, my head started pounding, and my throat started getting itching. I know that feeling well, it is an allergy response. I used to get it every spring when people mowed their lawns. Knowing this, I made a cup of goldenrod flowers and drank it and the symptoms immediately calmed down.
This is the same reaction I have to fresh dandelions. Over time I have learned that I can work with dried dandelions without issues, at least the roots and leaves, I haven’t dried drying the flowers. This makes me wonder what they have in common and if there is a way for me to work with cleavers without issues. Next time, I'll try blending cleavers with Nettle and Goldenrod and see if that offsets the response.Â
The wild mustard, I was going to make mustard spread out of but then I couldn't stop eating the leaves so I put it in the salad we had for dinner and it was amazing.
