Herb of the Week: Prickly Pear

Now for something completely different...Prickly Pear.

Recently, my wife, daughter, and I made our annual spring sojourn to Arizona, land of the young springs.  There we spent time in the Sonoran Desert, a truly remarkably landscape filled with amazing fauna.  There is an abundance of exotic foods and medicines to be found there including Green Ephedra (a.k.a. Mormon Tea), Agave (source of Agave Nectar), Wild Goji bushes (Lycium species), Desert Lavender, Octotillo, Cholla cacti (whose buds are edible), Creosote bushes, and Mesquite trees (medicinal sap and seed pods can be made into a nutritious and yummy flour).

Amidst the return of old friends (meaning all my plant buddies of course!), I reconnected with the one plant from the desert that I actually knew before I got there: Prickly Pear Cactus.  While this plant is abundant beyond belief in the Sonoran Desert, it has a surprisingly wide range of distribution.  I have found this cactus in Illinois, Pennsylvania, the San Juan Islands of Washington State, and Montana.  Other folks have told me they have found it in Michigan and New Jersey as well.  In fact, it seems to thrive in any sort of rocky desert micro-climate even at decent elevations.  Well, besides being a very adaptable cactus, what other mysteries does the Prickly Pear hold?  Read on and find out!

Prickly Pear-Opuntia species

Description: A cactus with distinctive paddle-like lobes covered in 2 kinds of needles: long easy to see sharp ones and small delicate hairs that are incredibly painful and difficult to remove.  Red-purple "pear-like" fruit appear on the cacti in the summer time.

Harvesting: Prickly pear can be quite difficult to harvest, even with gloves.  A pretty decent method is to knock off a relatively young paddle (they grow out from one another) with a stick.  Then using another stick repeatedly flip the paddle on the ground breaking off needles and hair.  The same method works with the fruit as well.

Uses:
1) Fresh Poultice-The inside of the paddles (fresh or old) make an amazing skin poultice.  Paddles should be harvested as described above and then split in half and applied topically.  The fresh poultice treats cuts, scrapes, rashes, bruises, sunburns, and snakebites! 

Yes, snakebites.  Prickly pear poultices were one of the traditional remedies for snake bites including rattlesnake bites!  The poultice was applied directly on the bite.  The plant is often abundant in the same areas as rattlesnakes.  Of course, seeking modern medical help is probably a really good idea.  But snakebites can happen in remote areas far from medical help.

2) Food-Both the paddles and the fruit are edible.  The younger paddles can be sliced up and cooked, and in fact are the famous nopales of Mexican cuisine.  The sour and somewhat slimy cooked nopales are traditionally good for battling summer time extreme heat and fever.  The fruit can be eaten fresh, but is quite seedy it also clear heat and is cooling.

3) Syrup-The fruit can be harvested in quantity and boiled down into a sweet syrup.  Harvest the fruit and be sure to clean off as many needles as possible.  Then cut up the fruit and cook on a low heat (seeds and all).  Then strain the seeds and pulp out saving the beautiful purple-red syrup (no sweetener is needed and is not desirable).  This syrup can be added to cool drinks in the summer time to clear summer heat or fever and add nutrients.  However, it is more importantly used as an adjunct treatment for Diabetes!

That's right the sweet syrup has been shown to be effective in treating type 2 Diabetes by lowering blood sugar and is used as a treatment in Mexico.  If you have Diabetes and wish to try this remedy further research is recommended and be sure to work with your doctor or health care provider.

Keep your eye out for this very useful plant in unlikely areas!  Or if you're in the Desert Southwest appreciate it's abundance almost everywhere!

Nourishing Life Part 2: Spring Medicine

Spring is here!  There is a reason that ancient cultures recognized the Spring Equinox as a major turning point in the year.  Ceremonies were held to honor the time that night and day are equal.  From now on for the next few months, the abundance of sun, warmth, and light will be ever increasing.  We should feel corresponding changes in our own body and energy.  Have you been waking up earlier?  Have you had more energy recently?  Have you felt restless and the need to move more?  Welcome to Spring.

How do we nourish our bodies and harmonize with the qualities of Spring?  What feels natural at this time?  How can we harness and harvest the energy or qi of spring?  

Spring is connected with the dawn and early morning.  Spring time is like the dawn time of the year, just like winter is like the midnight of the year.  It is a good time to get up early and be present with the dawn.  Waking up and exercising gently can provide abundant energy for the whole day.  Engaging in exercises that allow our body to move are beneficial, especially exercise that emphasizes flow and smoothness.  Tai chi, qigong, flow yoga, going for walks or light runs are all beneficial.  But, beware!  We are not at the time of uber-yang energy that happens in summer time.  Don't over do it!  Doing too much, over stretching, or over extending is likely to injure our tendons and muscles!  

Eating lighter and eating spring greens should be another easy practice to incorporate.  Our ancestors were literally starving for the fresh nutrients provided by wild green foods at this time.  Dandelion leaves and nettles are particularly strengthening and nourishing to our bodies at this time.  Dandelion soothes and cleanses the liver (which can be challenged in the spring) while nettle builds and strengthens our blood and vital energy (partially by being very rich in iron, minerals, and vitamins).  There should be less heavy animal products in our diet and more vegetables.  Though, one shouldn't feel like they need to jump into all raw foods...the fruits of the summer time are still off in the future.

While it is normal to feel the abundance of energy in the morning time, it is still natural to feel a drop in energy in the afternoon and even to be tired in the evening.  However, one should not feel exhausted!  After the stillness of Winter, our restlessness in Spring can push us to do too much.  If you are feeling exhausted, have low back or knee pain, or are finding yourself prone to injuries (especially to your tendons) it would be wise to cut back activity levels some and rest more.

There are some specific practices that are designed to gather the special energies of Spring time.  Here are two simple ones:

5 Breaths at Dawn: After waking up in the morning and dressing adequately, go outside and face east as the sun rises.  With the hands relaxed at the sides gently inhale and exhale 5 times.  Imaging breathing in the energy of the east and spring into your body with each breath.  To end, gently place your right palm on top of your left palm, with your finger pointing opposite directions.  The back of your right hand should face the sky and the back of your left hand should face the ground.  Let you mind rest below the navel a couple of inches, inside the body.  This is a traditional Daoist practice.

Barefoot Dew at Dawn-In Japanese folk tradition and the macrobiotic world, the dew in spring time is supposed to contain a very nourishing quality.  Once a week, waking up early and walking barefoot in the dew is supposed to help bring in the qi of spring.  This is particularly useful for treating heat conditions such as insomnia, anxiety, red skin conditions, acne, anger, and red face.

Wander and nourish in the spring dawn.

Lengthen the tendons and move like the wind,

The body becomes smooth as the world reawakens.

Watch the flowers and the plants and allow yourself 

to bloom as they do.

Nourish life by gathering Spring Medicine!

Plant of the Week: Cottonwood

Over the winter months, we explored the value and depth of the evergreen medicines that are a part of our life.  As we are moving into spring, before we delve into the wonders of young spring greens, I feel it is appropriate to honor one more tree.  This time a deciduous tree is our focus: Black Cottonwood, also known as Balsam Poplar.  In many part of the country (or world) it is still possible to harvest the swelling buds of this tree which possess potent medicines.

Black Cottonwood
Populus Balsamfirus
The poplar species are used around the world for their medicinal properties.  While I am speaking specifically about Black Cottonwood which is prolific through out the Western United States, other varieties can be used similarly.


Description: A deciduous tree found almost always near water.  Waxy green leaves that are spade-shaped. White to gray smooth bark when young, turning into deeply furrowed bark in mature trees.  Leaves will move quite a bit in a strong breeze similar to Aspen species.

Collection: The main part used for medicine are the resinous leaf buds.  These aromatic medicinal treasures can be collected from late fall all the way until early spring.  They are best in the early spring/later winter before they leaf out.  It is often possible to collect buds after a windstorm from branches on the ground.  The buds can be dried and then stored in a brown paper bag or jar, but be sure to dry them first.

Uses:
1) Medicinal Oil: The salves can be soaked in Olive Oil (or another oil though olive oil works best) for anywhere from 2 weeks to a year.   After being strained, this oil is a powerful antiseptic for cuts, scrapes, burns, or minor wound.  It also has strong pain-killing properties especially for trauma and bruising.

2)Salve-The above oil can be made into a salve by gently heating it on a stove (or using a double-boiler) and then add 1/3 beeswax to 2/3 oil.  After the beeswax has been melted, pour into glass or metal containers.  When it cools it will re-solidify, so go easy with the beeswax.  This salves can be used the same as above, but will store easily, perhaps indefinitely and is more portable.  Great for a first aid kit.

3)Tea/Decoction-Both the buds and the inner bark of the tree can be made into a very foul-tasting bitter decoction.  Simply boil a handful or two in water for 20-30 minutes.  This intense tea can then be taken internally for coughs and colds, especially those that linger in the chest for weeks with yellow or green phlegm.  This tea will also lower fevers and treat body aches.

4)Other Uses- Buds can be used directly on wounds in the field as a messy first aid plant.  Buds, leaves, and barks can be used in medicinal baths for aches and pains.  Inner bark and cambium can actually be scraped and eaten in the spring time.  And, being able to recognize cottonwoods from some distance can be a valuable sign of water in an arid landscape.

The window for collecting cottonwood buds is rapidly closing!   Go get some now!