Last time we learned about plantain and its benefits. Today, let’s do some harvesting!
I got my plantain from my lawn. It’s easy to find, grows in abundance, and, because we don’t use chemicals of any kind, I know my plantain has grown in natural soil. NEVER harvest any herbs that may have been exposed to chemicals, including fertilizer or even environmental toxins. If you don’t know that plant’s history, leave it alone. You don’t want to be exposed to toxins through use of your herbs.
For salve making, I use the leaves from the plantain. Because it is taking over the front part of my lawn, and because it’s early in the season and these plants are very young, I pulled most of them out, roots and all. I have some plans to experiment with some herbal remedies made from those roots… but that’s another post for another time. If it works. For today, we’ll focus on those leaves.
Here’s our harvest of leaves, collected in my son’s well loved and overused wheelbarrow.
We dumped the whole harvest into a colander and set to work washing each leaf thoroughly. We separated them from the roots, which were laid aside in a separate pile.
Once they were all washed and patted dry, I set them out to dry completely. I have taken over the basement bathroom as my herbal prep room. It’s always full of plants that are in various stages of harvesting, drying, preparing… it’s perfect, as it’s cool and dry and dark. And there’s lots of space to keep all of my projects organized and out of the way of our daily life.
For now, these leaves will stay out, drying, probably until I forget about them, then remember that I have plans to use them! They have to be 1000% dry, so I usually harvest on a weekend, when I have the spare time, then wait until the next weekend to ensure they’re dry completely. Typically this isn’t an issue, as there are usually camping weekends, family weekends, errand weekends, and project weekends in between the harvest day and prep day! We’re always busy doing something around here!
Next up: preparing the salve.