May 2025

Seasonal Living – Spring

• Spring Into Spring – The Energetic Of Spring
• Leaves Medicine For Spring
• From Weed To Table
• Apple Cider Vinegar Medicine For Spring

If you, like me, are mindful of the natural world and your body as it transforms from season to season, you probably noticed that winter is a time of slowing down, eating hearty meals, and snuggling with a blanket in front of the wood stove.

Heavy meals and a sedentary lifestyle lead to tissue building. They slow the metabolic process in the body, promoting weight gain. In the winter, we need the extra couple of pounds to insulate our inner organs better and protect us from the cold. With less movement and sluggish digestion, toxins accumulate in the liver and the lymph system. 

The Wild Salad – From Weed To Table

I am in awe of nature. She can always anticipate what I need and crave, providing abundance. It might be that the underlying truth is that our body developed in the context of nature. Our needs are aligned with the rhythmic flow of the seasons. 

You will find that many of the edible weeds that are the first to emerge in the spring are what you need to support a gentle detox that is timely, just about now.

Here is what to look for when you are venturing outdoors to get the ingredients for your wild salad:

Dandelion

Dandelion (Taraxacum officinale) is one of the first plants to pop when the Earth thaws. It has been used for centuries as food and medicine. 

All parts of the plant are edible: the leaves, blossoms, and roots. I prefer to harvest the fresh leaves at the beginning of spring and the roots in the fall. 

Dandelion leaves are packed with nutrients. They are rich in vitamins A, C, and K, calcium, iron, and potassium.

A bitter herb, Dandelion, is cooling and drying. They are known to support digestive enzyme production, bile secretion, and the detox process in the liver.

Traditionally, Dandelion was used as a spring tonic to help clear the build-up of waste accumulated during the winter due to a heavy diet, preserved foods, and lack of movement. 

Everyone can benefit from some Dandelion on their plate, but herbalists described two patterns of people who need Dandelion the most.

On the one hand, Dandelion might be helpful for people who feel mentally dull, weak, depressed, cloudy, or have a hard time getting out of bed. Symptoms that are common for people with liver stagnation. 

On the other hand, it is beneficial for people who are irritable, frustrated, or can lash out. In many traditions, the liver is associated with anger. When the liver is stagnant, a build-up of energy needs to be released. 

Add dandelion leaves to your salad daily to improve digestive function and help release the build-up of toxins you might have accumulated during the cold months of winter.

Wild Violet

Violet (Viola sororia or Viola odorata) flowers are nourishing, cooling, and moistening.

They are rich in minerals and especially abundant in vitamins A and C, which make them beneficial for people with seasonal allergies who need to reduce the flames of inflammation.  

They’re a perfect alternative or addition for those who try nettles and find their diuretic effect too drying.

Violets are mucilants, plants that contain lubricating mucus that is soothing and cooling for irritated, inflamed tissue. To experience Violet’s moistening nature, simply chew on them.

Violet also works on the lymph node. It is a moistening alterative herb that effectively cleanses and purifies in the presence of infection. It is commonly used to cleanse impurities from the lymphatics, blood, extracellular fluids, joints,  and skin. If your lymph is congested, swollen, stiff, or painful to touch, a violet infusion can help resolve congestion. 

Matthew Wood describes the Violet person as an introvert who is often timid, perhaps socially awkward, and nervous around others.

Traditionally, Violet was used to comfort and strengthen the heart after losing a loved one.

Violets are a beautiful addition to your salad. They can be infused in water for tea or vinegar to create a spring tonic. 

Cleavers

Cleavers (Galium aparine) are considered a pesky garden weed that is sticky and will cling to your clothes, but cleavers are a nourishing herb with an affinity to the lymph, kidneys, and bladder.

Cleavers is a salty herb with cooling and drying energy. Use cleavers alongside movement for lymphatic damp stagnant conditions.

“It is a good remedy in the Spring, eaten (being first chopped small, and boiled well) in water-gruel, to cleanse the blood, and strengthen the liver, thereby to keep the body in health, and fitting it for that change of season that is coming.”

~ Nicholas Culpepper 1652

Cleavers are also an excellent skin alterative remedy for skin eruptions such as eczema, rushes and pimples.

An ultimate detox herb, physically and emotionally, cleavers removes “stuckness” or stagnation in the physical body. At the same time, it helps to remove attachments in the emotional and psychological sphere.

It can unravel sticky situations and unhealthy relationships with attachment issues and clingy behavior. It can bring about the best possible resolution and open the doors for new opportunities. Cleavers are a wonderful ally for assisting in releasing the past, letting go of what no longer serves, and stepping into a bright future with your true dreams and desires.

You can blend cleavers into pesto or in your smoothie, add them to your soup, or infuse them in vinegar. 

Chickweed

Chickweed (Stellaria media) is a weed that likes to grow on fertile soil. In my garden, it grows around the compost pile. 

A nutritious wild green chickweed offers calcium, iron, magnesium, potassium, selenium, and zinc. 

Chickweed is a hardy plant that can withstand cold weather. It can even survive the winter and is one of the first plants to pop its head as the days get longer. 

The leaves of chickweed are most tender in the spring. As the plant begins to flower, it becomes less tender, though they are still edible.

Energetically, chickweed is cooling and moistening and is used as an anti-inflammatory and demulcent wound-healing plant. It excels at calming itchy skin (externally or internally) and is commonly used in eczema, psoriasis, hives, rashes, wounds, bites, dandruff, dry skin, and mucous membrane inflammation. 

The best application of chickweed for skin irritation is a fresh poultice. You can freeze the poultice and keep it in the freezer for winter use.

Internally, chickweed can be taken as a tea or added to your salad. You can have chickweed fresh in your salad or sandwich, or blend chickweed pesto into your smoothie or juice. 

Welcoming spring by growing weeds in your backyard can become a rewarding adventure. It ties your body to the shifting seasons and provides the exact nourishment it needs.