Good tidings to you all on this blessed Beltane! I wasn’t planning on sending a newsletter out today but it’s a day worthy of something special. So here it is, straight from my heart to your inbox. Beltane marks the mid point between spring and summer, and was traditionally filled with celebrations of fertility and fire across numerous cultures. It is one of the cross quarter days where the veil between realms is believed to be thin, thus making it an especially perfect time to connect with your inner fairy. Writing this now reminds me of a 70s folk-horror film, The Wickerman, that takes place on a remote Scottish island during Beltane. Highly recommend watching it even just for the cool May Day style inspo (beware not to watch the Nicholas Cage remake - it’s just plain bad!).
I’m currently at the mid point of a different season in my own life. I am half way through a 10 week internship program at a herbal farm in Southern Oregon. I’ve been down here with 6 others, living on the farm and working with the plants. I applied this past fall, unsure of what this year would look like for me (still unsure, in case you’re wondering) but knew that I was craving more hands on experience with herbal medicine and a chance to really ground myself. My herbal training from years past, great as it was, had a bit of disconnect due to the fact that it was held over zoom, so I’ve been feeling like I have some gaps to fill. To me, the power of herbalism has so much to do with being in relationship with the plants we are using as medicine, and that means getting to know them just like you would a new acquaintance. Here on the farm, one of the first plants we started fostering a relationship with was the springtime classic, dandelion.
Our farm manager, Mark, said something about dandelion when we first arrived that struck me as profound. He was commenting on how it is found practically everywhere, and is such an incredibly prolific “weed”. You try to get rid of it and more just comes up. He takes this as a sign of just how needed its medicine is for the collective. Things that we need tend to show up for us, and try as we might to ignore the signs, time and time they will pop up again. Until, with any luck, we finally see it for what it is. I’d say it’s safe to say that many of the people out there struggling to rid their lawns of dandelion could use some of its liver supporting properties. I imagine these people as angrily and with frustration (two emotions that are associated with issues of the liver) trying to remove the dandelions, only to have more spring up. After all, isn’t life just one big cosmic joke?
Dandelion, aka Taraxacum officinale, has long been in use as a medicine. The Doctrine of Signatures, which is the theory that one can divine the medicinal uses of a plant based on specific characteristics of its appearance, point to dandelion being a herb for the solar plexus due to its yellow flower. This yellow is also indicative of an affinity for the liver, specifically bile production. Call it innate wisdom or some kind of sorcery but guess what, it’s true. Dandelion is one of our top liver supporting herbs. Good old 17th century herbalist, Nicolas Culpepper, wrote that dandelion “has an opening and cleansing quality and therefore very effective for removing obstructions of the liver, gall-bladder and spleen and diseases rising from them.” It’s great for aiding the body’s natural detoxifying mechanisms, cleansing the system, and helping digestion. The root is what is most commonly used medicinally, but the leaves and flowers are also beneficial and are excellent diuretics, helping to flush things out. They can also be eaten in salads or made into pesto, which is super nutritive and just plain fun.
Our livers sort through so much waste and work tirelessly to clean our bogged down system. That looks like clearing toxins, but also clearing out excess hormones. If you’re suffering from any hormonal complaints (hello hormonal acne), focusing on the liver is a great place to start and you probably have one of the best supporting tools to do the job in your backyard or a park near you. I’m also a huge fan of using dandelion root as a coffee substitute, and love love love a cup of Dandy Blend. When I used to work at a little organic farm store customers would always rave about Dandy Blend and I have finally ascended to their level. Hallelujah. You can totally make your own version of this coffee alternative. Or, if you’re feeling the DIY scene, you could make yourself some dandelion mead which sounds damn fine.
A favourite pairing of mine is dandelion root and burdock root, made as a decoction (this is where you simmer the herbs for at least 20 minutes or so to make a strong tea). I think of this combo as a beautifying tonic since supporting the liver also means supporting the skin and clearing acne. A fun tip I read about in Susan Weed’s book, Wise Woman Herbals, is to do a dandelion facial. This consists of soaking the flowers in water and then placing them on your face where they will then stay for ten minutes. Remove them when the time is up but don’t rinse! She didn’t share what the end result would be but I love a mystery and am going to try this asap. Another radical thing I read recently was in Scott Cunningham’s book, “Cunningham’s Encyclopedia of Magical Herbs”, which was about the root. He wrote that, “when dried, roasted and ground like coffee, is used to make a tea. This infusion will promote psychic powers. This same tea, steaming and placed beside the bed, will call spirits.” He then goes on to explain that having it planted in the northwest corner of your property will bring “favourable winds”, which I like the sound of.
Dandelions are wind pollinated plants, so they don’t rely on insects to spread their seed, although the bees love them anyways. I love how dandelion seeds can just travel on a breeze and I think back to when I was a child and would blow on each puffy seed head I’d find to make a wish, and in turn, helping to spread the special flower that much further. Kids just get it! Here’s a cool and dramatic time lapse video I found on the evolution of the flower to seed.
A couple of weeks ago the farm crew and us interns dug up the dandelion plants in one of the fields here. We’d shake the dirt off as best as we could, put them in piles and then load them onto a trailer where they would then driven over to a washing station. They went through a washing system first, and then we did the final wash by hand with hoses to get any remaining dirt off. Once that process was complete, the dandelions, still in their whole form, were delivered to the lab to be made into a fresh, full plant tincture. It’s a really high quality extract and can be found here if you’re interested.
Tonight in celebration of Beltane, my new housemates and I will be having a big fire, drinking some May wine which is currently in the fridge infusing (I added dandelion flowers into the mix!), and picking some hawthorn flowers and leaves for future medicine making. I’m going to end this s’letter here and bid you adieu with a song named after a flower that is currently blooming in the garden down here and that I have been loving.
Thank you endlessly for reading, sharing, and connecting. Be well!
so nice to see peeks of herb farm life + dreaming of your may wine <3