This Spring at Harvest Market we take a look at liver health and its role in allergies, digestion, and skin conditions. Fortunately, nature provides a liver tonic at the right time to cleanse, outside our back doors: the humble dandelion.
Dr. Cynthia Crosser discusses liver health Thursday, May 3, 7 – 9 pm. This free talk will arm you with new understanding of liver support and detoxification. Saturday, May 5, backyard herb-walkers will meet at the store at 10:30 am, then ride over to the Longs’ homestead for a free herb walk with Emma Long, sponsored by Urban Moonshine. If you don’t use Facebook, details for both events can be found on our calendar. Look for features on liver health in-store, too. Modern commerce has made it simple to bring liver-boosting herbs into your life, whether in tincture, tea, or stir-fry form. (Please note: these resources were chosen for accuracy and sensibility. However, it is never out intent to diagnose, cure, mitigate, or treat medically defined “disease.” We hope that changes to food and lifestyle will improve dis-ease you may experience before it becomes a medical condition and seek to point out the information available.)
On Dandelion
Shared by Jovial at Urban Moonshine
You may see them as weeds, but I invite you to take a second look at dandelions from an herbalist point of view. In fact, this common weed is a welcome sign of spring for locavores and herbalists alike. First the green leaves poke through the dark wet earth, then the cheerful yellow flowers spring forward to the sunshine. The whole plant is a prized springtime edible as well as a bitter medicinal tonic. Dandelion and other bitter tasting herbs are excellent for the digestive system.
Tasting the bitter flavor sparks the digestive system and encourages the release of bile, digestive enzymes and other gastric secretions. Why is that so? Well, think about it- since the beginning of time up to around 150 years ago we foraged for much of our food, ate off the land or out of a garden. Prepackaged sweet and salty supermarket food? Not so much. That is basically a radical experiment being undertaken by our generation. What grows in the garden, wild in the woods and fields? Bitters tasting plants-bitter greens, bitter barks, bitter berries, bitter roots — our traditional diet was full of bitter foods and we have evolved accordingly. In a way human beings are built on bitters! The flavor of bitter to the taste buds equals FOOD! Time to eat! Time to digest! Bitter is literally “sexy” to our digestive system, it turns it on, juices it up and gets it ready to rock. By eating bitters around or with a meal we keep our digestive system in a state of engagement, excited and challenged. Try a bitter green salad, or chomp down on a fresh dandelion green from your yard as you walk up to the house after work or check our Urban moonshines organic digestive bitters. There are many ways to get bitter taste into our everyday diets.
The root of good health is great digestion. The stronger and healthier your digestive system, the more nutrients you will receive from your food and the less digestive drama occurs around mealtime.
Dandelion root is also known as an effective liver tonic with the ability to help the body in its detoxification process. Dandelion has a strong will and feisty spirit and will grow in the toughest conditions from a city sidewalk crack to a chemical-laden yard. That strong will to survive is telling of the role it plays in its environment. Dandelion does a spectacular job of cleaning up toxicity in both the environment it dwells in and the human body. Not to mention the joy it gives to children when they blow the white globe of seeds into the wind. How smart of the plant to make it fun for people to spread its seeds! Happy Spring.
