Let's go wild for FruitsAndVeggiesMonday 🌿🌱🍃🌿

As long as I remember, I have been interested in herbs and wild herbs. When I started to "cook" in my mom's kitchen I often added not just the regular kitchen herbs to my creations but also some leaves I found on the meadow or weeds between the vegetables my mom was growing. I used them finely chopped but didn't tell anyone ... 😉 No worries! Everybody survived my experiments!

I the years I lived on my own and in a village nearby Würzburg where wild nature started tight behind the house I often used wild herbs for my cooking or collected them for teas. Unfortunately this has been stopped when I moved downt and in with the hubby. Maybe because I wouldn't use plants growing near the streets downtowns or in the park where everybody walks their gogs and maybe because he is no bikerider and therefore I didn't do so many bikestrolls like before anymore.

But this year I got inspired by a lovely steemian who uses to cook with wild herbs all the time and amazes me a lot with this. It's my friend @haphazard-hstead. Watch some of her incredibly creations here: The Haphazard Homestead Collection - Steemit Iron Chef 2018 - Act 1 - 15 Weeks of Wild Plants, Wild Mushrooms, and Homestead Harvests. Fantastic, isn't it?!! I am planning to revive my old love to wild herbs because of her.

Another good thing about this purpose is, it brings me back on my beloved bike. I have to leave the city to collect clean and healthy herbs. I went on a bike ride with the intention to collect some mint on a special spot near the river where I harvested mint in tufts a few years ago. And I wanted to find spots where I could collect dandelion flowers for dandelion honey. I absolute wanted to make some this year because as a vegan I don't eat bees honey anymore.

I don't know why - maybe because it was still to early for big mint plants and maybe because the spot has changed its face a little bit, I only found a few leaves. But I still wanted my wild herbs tea for the evening and so I looked for some other stuff I knew I could use. There were a lot of bushes with very young lightgreen blackberry leaves. Blackberry leaves a perfect addition to a herbal tea. I also collected the top of some nettles, found some blooming ground ivy, some blooming hawthorn, some ripwort and common plantain and a few stems of common horsetail (lucky me!).

Here you can see my yield:

Water Mint

It is a very old medicinal herb and was one of the holy herbs of the european druids. It's well known as medicine against cold, it can help relieve a sore throat, it is a calming and soothing herb that has been used for thousands of years to aid with upset stomach or indigestion and is also thought to relieve pain and discomfort from gas and bloating. But the main reason I like it in herbal tea is it's fresh taste.

Blackberry leaves

The leaves contain tannins that are anti-bacterial. That's why they are good to fight off bacteria in mouth. It can fix a sore throat. It cures diarrhea, boosts the immune system and can help healing wounds and helps to heal colds and flus.

Stinging Nettles

The most important benefit of the stinging nettle is detoxifies the body. It also improves metabolic efficiency, boosts immunity, increases circulation, improves energy levels, manages menstruation, minimizes menopausal symptoms and aids in skin care and there are many more good things to say about the benefits of this plant besides the fact that it stings. But I have something against the pain from that for you a little bit down below ...

Ground Ivy

It belongs to the mint family, often overseen but beautiful when blooming. You only have to bend down to the ground. Then you can see it. It's tea is good against cold and it is astringent. The fresh leaves are the best antidote against nettle stings. Just crush a few leaves between your fingers and rub it on the afflicted area. It soothes the pain very quickly.

Hawthorne 

It is very beneficial for the heart and can reduce the risk of an heart attack. It helps to maintain a healthy circulatory system and blood pressure. It is useful with fatigue, decreased energy, poor sleep habits, breathing difficulties, anxiety, nervousness, tinnitus in the ears, dizziness, and a pounding heart.

Ripwort and common plantain

Both sorts are my other secret weapon against nettle stings, ants bites or other insects bites. Crush the leaves between your fingers and rub the juice on the hurting, burning or itching spot. Another good use for the ripwort plantains tea, juice or sirup is as a medicine against cough.

Common horsetail 

This is a very old plant. It goes back to dinosaur times. It's high silica content may help strengthen bones, hair and nails, fight fungal infections, relieve bloating.

I didn't know what to expect from its taste but I planned to make some fresh tea from these leaves for that night and it turned out surprisingly delicious. It was fresh and kind of fruity - maybe because of the blackberry leaves and I drank the whole pot. I am planning to go back and collect more of the blackberry leaves to dry them for storage. I also read about fermented blackberry tea. Maybe I am going to try that too.

There were some more plants I collected that day. I wanted to use them for cooking. A perfect way to use wild herbs is making a pesto and that's ehat I did for dinner that night. I 'harvested' dandelion leaves, garlic mustard, stinging nettle, ground ivy and ground elder in order to do that.

Dandelion

Garlic Mustard

Ground Ivy

Ground elder

I will post the recipe in a following entry. Some asparagus was included too ... 😋

I hope you liked my this weeks entry to @lenasveganliving's #fruitsandveggiesmonday competition. Her own post can be found here: STEEMIT FRUITS AND VEGGIES MONDAY COMPETITION 🍒 🍌🍑🌿🍍🍓.

This is the link to the recipe for the yummy dish above: Pasta with asparagus and wild herbs pesto

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