Stinging Nettle & Dandelion: Their Paired Nutrients
I always find it incredibly important to discuss, the nourishment that wild plants offer our bodies as we begin to turn the corner into fall and winter. Most of us plant people have spent the summers outside in the fresh air, soaking up vitamin D from the Sun, eating nutrient-dense foods direct from the gardens, and the benefits that come from this are far beyond the physical body. We get peak health, and performance when we live in this way, in sync with nature. How does it continue through winter though? Enter the best herbs for digestion, and the power of stinging nettle tincture and dandelion tincture.
The depletion that is inevitable when we slip into the darker time of year has to do with the vitality that we lose through the practices of tending a garden, hiking through the forest, even just sipping your morning coffee in the sunrise outside. All of this is SIMPLE in the summer for us in the northern climates, but they get a bit more challenging when the temps dip below zero or hover around there. Each practice of the summer, is vital to your body and health, and truly does give you a lot to take into winter, and the lack that will inevitably occur as the seasons change is just as true. As the Earth turns the corner of summer into fall, let’s dive into these vital herbs found everywhere for everyone.
Stinging Nettle & Dandelions
What I find to be the most potent, and powerful place to continue the summer time nourishment is through stinging nettle tincture and dandelion tincture. With these two plants you, you are not only harnessing the power of summer through pure and available phytonutrients, but there is a huge assistance of the digestive system through strengthening your liver, encouraging detox, and this leads to overall vitality. This does not mean I neglect my nutrition with nutrient dense winter foods. However, it does lead me to rely upon fresh plants versus leaning on the store for greens that came from other far away places during the time of year when they do not grow near me. This has never made sense to eat this way, plus, cooling salad greens in the dead of winter is quite backwards to what our bodies need…
This is where seasonal living and seasonal movements of your nutritional intake, especially those of us who live in the North, are really helpful because you are still maintaining the levels of nourishment through the extracts while also eating the foods that are very available to you like animal fats and proteins, raw dairy, and if you’re lucky, fresh eggs, if you have chickens, you’re very fortunate all of this is our winter foods, right? For you to be drinking bone broth and asking for nourishment from root vegetables and squash that are in your storage then adding stinging nettle tinctures, and dandelion tinctures to enhance this winter time way of eating with the seasons.
The best herbs for digestion…
I always find myself focusing heavily on digestion, and that is because this is the root of most sicknesses, how optimized or stressed your digestive system is. This system begins in the mouth and travels through your esophagus, into your stomach, where there are opening and closing apparatuses on either side, then there are stomach acids. Enzymes throughout, all are designed to break down our food and make it available to the small intestine to then assimilate these nutrients into the body. As most of you know now, there are massive colonies of bacteria and yeast which really are what is taking the digested food, consuming it and then releasing the final product that infuses your body with nourishment.
When the microbiome ingests the mostly digested food in the small intestine, their waste product becomes what is assimilated into the body, taken up through the bloodstream through the small intestine into your bloodstream to then be sent throughout your body to create that which you are, a vital and vibrantly healthy human being. Nourishing the gut is microbiome, is just as important as what you put into your mouth.
The phytonutrients are nourishing our microbiome, the digestible starches that are contained within these 2 plants. Are feeding our microbiome, and they are having great and effective action on strengthening our vital organs for detoxification and digestion. They’re really these are the perfect triad. Of optimizing digestive substance digestive action in your body, which is why I say they are the best herbs for digestion.
The best herbs for digestion are herbs like stinging nettles and dandelions, while there are tons of other herbs that are very powerful in increasing the effectiveness of your digestive system. Known as are known as digestive bitter herbs, the two simple and powerful herbs I am focusing on here, stinging nettle tincture and dandelion tincture, are my regular go to plants, because of the nutrition that they hold, the starches that they have within them, and the effects on the detoxification organs that are built into our bodies, these two herbs have everything we need to optimize the process that I just described above.
Nettle and Dandelion Nutrients…
Here at the farmacy gardens, when I do tours, I always find it wonderfully hilarious and it makes me giddy, when I get to show people the vast amount of dandelions that I have growing throughout the gardens, along with stinging nettles, they wonder people wonder why I would ever have plants like dandelions that are more commonly sprayed incessantly with glyphosate and other herbicides, and why I would have something as pesky, is stinging nettles in my farmacy offerings. The general consensus knows stinging nettles, because they usually have encountered the formic acid, which gives the sting, and a pretty good welt along with it(if you really roll in a patch of them on accident, they’re going to spike your adrenaline, like nothing you have ever experienced!), and dandelions just take over their perfectly green lawns… what a pain these plants are, and here they grow in abundance.
There are dozens of uses for both of these plants, and the yare a vital component of the farmacy collection of tinctures and teas. Nettles are so densely concentrated in nourishment, that if you were in a survival situation in the forest, and you simply found a patch of nettles, you would be able to have fully functioning system, fully vital brain capacity, and your muscles would be nourished and working at an optimum level just by consuming some nettle, broth in it.
If this is one reason I tend to carry my jet boil no matter where I go hiking, or packing on the horses, it is because of nettles. The Sting of the formic acid that is contained in the barbs of the nettles is neutralized under pressure and processing, and heat, especially, so if you were in the woods and you found a patch, which is pretty easy to do when there is running water nearby, just boil some nettles in that water, and after just 4 or 5 minutes, consume the plant material, and then you drink the broth. You are then pumping your body full of nutrients, enzymes, fibers fats and proteins.
Dandelions are similar in there. Nutrient profile, they don’t have the protein content or the fatty acid content that I really admire coming from the stinging nettles, but dandelions are that much more, concentrated in calcium, magnesium, lots of other trace minerals, and they have a huge amount of digestible starch in their leaf. Each of these key nutrients found here are perfectly bioavailable to our bodies, and also a key food to our gut microbiome. Dandelions are included in most of my blends, that come from the faramcy gardens, just because of the nourishment and the starches, thus leading to a fully healed gut and the capacity for the digestive system to work optimally.
Nutrients of the best herbs for digestion…
I want to touch on the detoxification medley, that occurs with dandelion tincture and stinging nettle tincture before I jump right into the nutrients, because the action of these two plants when it comes to optimizing your ability to detox, is also a component as to why they are so effective in adding to the nourishment of our bodies. Nettles are highly concentrated in a substance called chlorophyll, and I’m sure many of you know that offering from the local health food stores for detox, it’s also known as a powerful antioxidant, one that will help to regulate the balance of your bodily systems on all levels while dramatically reducing inflammation. Nettles being so highly concentrated in it, especially the stinging nettle tincture becomes even more powerful, just because the concentration of chlorophyll.
I really know that the effect this extract has on, even allergies is due to this high concentration of chlorophyll, because when it comes to an allergic response, for example, the person experiencing the allergy is generally in a state of complete a toxic overload. Many facets, from environmental toxins, eating conventional food, eating boxed food, eating food like substances on a regular basis., sugar, alcohol, stress and yes, the immense pressure of this modern life the toxic load of this body is overpowering to the detoxification systems happening, sometimes at all. Nettles with their chlorophyll are going to help reduce this toxic load dramatically, though of course this person needs to address their lifestyle choices too!
With just chlorophyll floating through your bloodstream, it binds with these toxic substances to bring them to the liver, to be broken down by your digestive system, and it’s created through your: so it’s a magical detoxification process that comes from dandy. Art from stinging nettles tincture, especially And this is a super huge thing benefit to having the stinging nettle tincture in your home above carry.
Then we come to dandelion tincture, and the way I grow the herbs in the farmacy gardens is designed to bring the most powerful herbs right to your mouth. I don’t grow in straight rows, but I attempt to mimic the forest floors… it is a rather chaotic garden, and the plants that come out of here are incredibly potent in their chemical compounds and vibrancy. When herbs, especially medicinal herbs are grown in the same way they would grow in the wild, the concentration of digestive bitter chemicals, nutrients and starches that are in the dandelion root for example, is 10 fold what you would expect to glean from a conventional row crop farm.
When I compare dandelions specifically, to ones grown in a conventional setting of rows, to ones that are growing in the wild, the plants that come out of the farmacy gardens, here, act just as they would when coming from the forest. When they are pulled out of the ground and they are dripping with sap in a matter of seconds, this is the digestible starch which feeds your microbiome.
Compared to conventional settings, the roots get somewhat sappy, but it takes much longer, and the sap that comes from them is much more liquid vs the forest and forest like garden settings where the sap is incredibly vicious and sticky. This also leads me to know that the digestive the bitter components of the dandelion in a setting like the forest or our pharmacy gardens that are there growing as the forest would are that much more powerful in all ways.
Dandelions are known in Traditional herbal medicine to be an alterative, meaning that they cleanse the blood. But really, what they are doing is strengthening the digestive and detox capacity of the liver, they act as a liver tonic.
When your detoxification processes are happening efficiently, with the support that they need in a modern life because of all the chemical exposure that this existence entails, your are experiencing much more out of the nourishment that you are taking in through food. Because the detoxification processes are happening much more efficiently, you are able to uptake that many more nutrients from your foods. Which thus, creates a healthy system, vital organs, a fully functioning brain and body as a whole.
Nutrient Profiles of these two powerful plants…
The mineral and vitamin list of our Stinging nettles and dandelion are dense. When Nettles are grown tall they contains Fatty Acids in the plentiful seed tassels. Protein toughens the greens at this growing stage but makes the plant that much more nutrient dense. The minerals and trace mineral profile, alongside water- and fat-soluble vitamins. Nettles, on their own, stagger the content of any tablet, or capsule multi-vitamin supplements in the health food store. Again… I would much rather see nutrients coming from a pure place instead of bleached, dried out compounds that aren’t at all reliable. These herbs truly are the best herbs for digestion, because they are also nutrient RICH, this is what I want to see you thriving off of.
Nettles contain the following vitamins, minerals, and other key nutrients…
Protein, Fiber, Fatty Acids, Calcium, Phosphorus, Potassium, Magnesium, Iron, Sodium, Zinc, Phenolic Acids, Flavonoids, Antioxidants, Curcuminoids, Vitamin A, Vitamin C, Vitamin K, Several B Vitamins, Vitamin E
Nutrient Profile of Dandelions
Fiber, Vitamin A, Vitamin C, Vitamin K, Vitamin D, Calcium, Iron, Potassium, Folate, Protein, Fatty Acids, Carbohydrates
Vinegar as a menstruum…
Most of the bitter remedies that are formulated here at Enchantment Creek are made with Vinegar instead of the usual Alcohol. Vinegar is excellent in its ability to extract nutrients, and active chemicals from plants, this is key to the effectiveness of the bitter blends that come out of the farmacy gardens. Along with the high dose of vitamins, minerals, and enzymes that Vinegar can extract, there comes the bitter chemicals as well. Our extra potent Vitamin Vinegar Bitters are made from these FRESH plants of early springtime, And into the flowering stage when it comes to stinging nettles, the pharmacy garden is a place that has become a powerhouse of medicinal herbs native to the rocky mountain bio region. And the digestive bitter blends we offer, are some of the top sellers of the apothecary shelves.
Using vinegar as the extraction method with bitter plants gives your body the best source of vitamins and minerals, while also nourishing your digestive processes This high dose of minerals, and vitamins that come straight from the plants, while your digestion is encouraged to function optimally/ All in all, a win for a highly nourished body, mind and spirit, which will always lead to your productivity too. As a modern human being, optimized your longevity and vitality living through this life being the driving force of your communities and your families.
This natural health world is made to seem so Dang complicated, and what I keep being disillusioned to is the complexity of what we think is health is only leading us to remove our power further and further from ourselves. When we hone in the simplicity of simply eating nourishing food that comes from an Organic biodynamic, regenerative, chemical free source any of those options when we then optimize our system with vital flowing, chemical free waters, and then add some powerful plant extracts.
What you are creating is a body that don’t need these complex systems that include many, many chemical ingestions and other interventions that you simply won’t need anymore. With the one devotion you ascribed to, taking your health into your own hands. If ANYTHING, that is what I want to see you do as your herbalist and vibrational healing guide, I want to see you honing in the power that you have. In your body to heal you, your family and your community. Because I know from my experience when I see my clients diligently following the this new path, as I have followed through my adult life, the toxin free natural way of living on this planet, even as a modern human, YOU become vitally well, and thus you are untouchable. So here’s to your health!
