Category Archives: Herbal Medicine

Fireweed Jelly, Good Medicine

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Fireweed is a widely distributed plant that grows thoughout the Northwest and Canada. It has many uses of which my personal favorite has to be fireweed jelly. This will be our focus here.

I set out to check on the Huckleberries to see if they were ripe in the area that I harvest near Mt. Hood, but as we were driving through the forest I noticed the fireweed patches everywhere were in full bloom. I had a couple extra baskets in the jeep so we stopped and collected approx. 8 cups of flower petals for jelly.

Note that fireweed flowers are very delicate and must be processed right away as they will not last even overnight once harvested.

once harvested the flowers are put into boiling water then removed from heat and left to steep overnight. once strained I had 2 quarts of fireweed tea. From this the jelly making can begin.

To the flower tea we added 4tbls lemon juice, 2tsp butter, 7oz. pectin, 12cups sugar. Quanities can be adjusted to taste. then simmer for 5 mins while stirring, then bottle. We got 16+ half pints from this recipe.

boil the jars in a double boiler once filled for about 10 mins. then allow to cool.

Special thanks to Cindy Thijs for sharing her recipe with us.

what you will end up with is a lovely purple jelly to enjoy and share with friends.

Just to touch on the benefits of Fireweed as Medicine, Fireweed is known for the follwing benefits:

Credits to zliving for benefit information.

Pain Killer from the back yard

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Prickly Lettuce, Milk Weed, Milk Thistle, Lactica Seriola there are many names for this common plant and most of us are all too familiar with it. We pull it up, mow it down and spray it with poison and still it comes back year after year, but do we really know it?

 

Wild lettuce comes in many forms with Prickly Lettuce being one of the most common in my area. I waged war on it year after year and it proved to be a real headache, little did I know it was also the cure for that headache and many other aches and pains.

Using wild lettuce for a pain killer couldn’t be easier and it works astonishingly well.

I use it as a tincture mostly, because it has a great shelf life and is super easy to make.
Sure there are other ways to use it and even to make it more powerful, but I will start with the easiest way first.

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  1. Collect the leaves from the plant and wash them.
  2. Lightly chop then into small pieces and allow air dry.
  3. Place then in a canning jar filling 1/3 to 1/2 way to the top.
  4. Fill the jar with 100 proof vodka leaving a small amount of air at the top.
  5. Seal the jar and place in a cool place to steep for approx 4 weeks. Shake every few days. (Don’t forget to date the jar so you know when it’s done)
  6. Strain the resulting Tincture and bottle for later use.

Dosage: up to 1ml for adults. as needed for pain.

This is great for treating headache, toothache, muscle aches arthritis pain, etc…

So now you know, Leave a small patch of weeds in the garden for medicinal purposes.