Wild Weed Wisdom

Nurture Your 'Inner Wild' with Foraged Edible and Medicinal Plants

Tag Archives: burdock

Feeling Grounded

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Feeling Grounded

I recently posted an article about picking roots – in this case, Burdock Root – and the option of buying the same root from Japanese or Korean shops (where Burdock is known as Gobo) instead of going to the hassle of digging them up.
Truth be told, I enjoy the ease of buying Burdock, but I also really LIKE to dig them up!!
Here’s what I foraged for last autumn. That’s the best time to harvest, as the goodness gathers there in preparation for over-wintering.
I use Burdock as a grounding food and tincture, along with all it’s other supportive functions – cleansing the liver and therefore, the blood. Which keeps the skin clear and helps skin conditions such as psoriasis and eczema.

Burdock Root

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Burdock Root

Digging up wild roots in many parts of Great Britain, Europe, and North America is against the law. One must get special permission from park authorities or the land-owner, unless you are digging on your own property. This is an ethical question I sometimes struggle with: in the case when a plant is considered a nuisance, a common weed, wouldn’t it be better for a forager like myself to remove this plant and make good use of it? As opposed to prevelant ‘weed management’, where the plant is removed anyway, and often with harmful pesticides? I know of numerous instances where I respected the law, only to see that the roots I’d have loved to harvest had been dug up en masse by park authorities…

I do understand that we also can’t have everyone digging up as many roots as they like!

Pretty tricky.

Anyway, the delicious burdock roots shown in this photo came from just down the street, from the Korean “Toko” shop; where gobo (its Asian name) is sold for use in traditional Korean and Japanese dishes. If you’ve eaten vegetarian maki, you’ve probably eaten gobo (牛蒡 or ごぼう). Korean use the term “u-eong” (우엉) or “tong u-eong” (통우엉), meaning, “whole burdock”. If you have never tried this before, head over to your local shop and pick some up.

The cultivated roots of burdock can grow about one metre long and two centimetres across, though I believe the wild, first-year burdock would have more medicinal properties than a cultivated one. Burdock root is crisp with a sweet, mild, and pungent flavour and earthy smell.  Its helpful to soak it, julienned or shredded, in water for five to ten minutes to keep it from turning grayish-brown once the outer layer has been removed (remove it as one would peel a carrot).

In macrobiotic cooking, burdock root is considered  healing, warming, and calming. It helps one think more clearly and stay even-tempered. It is an excellent jet-lag remedy.

Burdock Root (Articum lappa) is great added to soups, stews, and stir-fries. I add it to my ‘almost-famous’ Boston Baked Beans dish. I will post this recipe at a later date and link it to this page. I’ll also continue to add photos of burdock in various stages of growth to help you locate your own; as well as describe all the other amazing things burdock has to offer.

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Wildcrafty Soup!

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Wildcrafty Soup!

As-Fresh-As-Can-Be Wildrcafty Soup:

  1. Gather a couple of handfuls (say, one handful per person) of ethically foraged plants, buds and flowers- we used: henbit, ground ivy, hawthorn buds, burdock leaves, dock, dandelion leaves, garlic-mustard, young cleavers and nettles – probably a few more, but I can’t remember! We meant to find some wild ramsons, but they weren’t right in our area, and we missed some bishop weed that was in the area that would have added a huge flavour.
  2. Water
  3. Salt and Pepper – or local flavouring: dried tansy leaves would have been interesting.
  4. Celery and/or carrots, cut into very small pieces – optional
  5. Potatoes – cut into small cubes optional
  6. Pre-cooked lentils  – optional – I cooked these the night before and brought them in a thermos. 1 cup of dried lentils, then pre-cooked is enough.

Get your campfire/camp-stove going, throw it all together, gather your friends and tell a story while the soup comes to a boil, then simmer until the potatoes are soft – about 20 minutes. We collected dried Beech-leaves that were rustling all around us and made a tea from them (not for pregnant women, though) and the tea was gorgeous – tasted a bit smokey, like Lapsang Suchong tea! This was part of a full, 6-hour day in the woods with Wild in the City!