Spring Tonic

 

 Spring Tonic

It looks like spring is here early judging by the buds on the dandelion (above). No doubt there will be more freeze, maybe even another snow, but the snowdrops are finishing off, winter aconites and crocus are in full bloom.Day lily shoots are peeking up. Daffodils are budding and tulips have emerged. Trees are budding. I need to go look for poplar buds this week, lest I miss them. I think I will post to see if anyone has seen them out yet. Will fiddleheads be early? Nettles and dandelions are up. I think it may be time for a first reconnaissance for spring foraging.

Yellow dock

Early spring reveals ultra microclimates in the terrain. Over here, clods of rocky snowbank persist under a coat of leaves and needles. On the sunny side of the same path new growth has pushed its way up through the same cover. Too-early dandelion leaves are dainty but frost blackened, but a new flush is starting to emerge. There is a narrow window between roots and tubers still locked into frozen soil and new growth sprouting out, rendering them stringy. I check out the yellow dock, reddened rosette sprawled like an exhausted squid, traditional root for a spring tonic.

Queen Anne's lace ghost

This is when knowing your terrain matters. You scouted out your spots last year, you sight on the stalks that you left standing as a marker. The very early emerging shoots may still be hidden under fallen leaves that you knock aside with a stick. Hi there, I tell my patch of chive tips as I move off the oak drift. My ramps aren’t up yet but I am keeping an eye out. If I look around the base of the queen anne's lace I may see early shoots of this year's crop emerging. Like burdock, it is a biennial so last year's stalk marks the area but not the individual plant. I am looking for the well developed rosettes emerging from last year's growth; i can collect the leaves or dig out a root. sweetened by winter, before it gets tough and fibrous as it supports the flowering stalk of the second year.

Gathering and Uses

Burdock ghosts

What is spring tonic? [caveat, the following is traditional lore, not medical advice] I think the first recipe I ever read included sulfur, molasses and a rusty nail. Other traditional ones seem to focus on the idea of spring cleaning the gut at the same time as the house is being opened out and aired, heavy on liver-stimulating roots such as dandelion, burdock and yellow dock. Some other roots that grow in Maine and might make their way into the mix for the sake of flavor include the aralias—nudicalis, also known as wild sarsaparilla and a standard0 for root beers, as well as A racemose, American spikenard. Their cousin ginseng, including the dwarf wild ginseng I sometimes find in the woods around here, is too rare to be harvested but its alterative properties are traditionally celebrated as an element in spring tonic and if you cultivate it or have access to some this is a good time for it.

Farther south, spicebush and sassafras would add bark or twigs to the mix for flavoring, although sassafras, like comfrey and coltsfoot has been given a big asterisk beside its recipes to warn of potential subtle poisoning from long term use.  Wintergreen leaves and the wintergreen twigs of birch, especially black birch, contain the same anti-inflammatory properties as aspirin and add a refreshing flavor to what can be a bitter root drink.

Mustard spring greens

The best spring tonic to me is the early salad. Almost anything that isn’t poisonous is edible now, even though soon leaves may be too tough or tannic or bitter. The fuzzy first tips of burdock are refreshing and only mildly bitter. The tiny new growth of dandelion, yellow dock and all of the mustards, pushing out new foliage atop the rosette that has grown and died and thawed and frozen all winter, is delectable. 

My nettle patch is poking up shoots that I can raze off easily without watching out to not brush against a stinging stalk. Is there new growth on the garlic mustard patch that grows in the waste lot nearby?

Baby nettles

 Chicory, evening primrose and wild carrots, all marking their places by last year’s stalks, may have early shoots to nip off. My thumbnail is getting black from the saps. These greens go into a tonic salad, The strong flavors can be softened with violet leaves, plantain and chickweed when they emerge (I haven’t seen them yet but they should be up in my sunny spots this week if the weather prediction is good). 

Evening Primrose

 

Like the roots, the bitterer herbs get things moving. If you have been hibernating all winter, and maybe all last year because COVID, The boost to your intestinal action may be welcome. They also are full of vitamins, C above all. Another aromatic addition rich in C is the new tips of your conifers (never yew)—pine needles, spruce and hemlock. The lemony resiny flavor is another nice direction for tonics. 

 

Bedstraw tips

I notice that my woodruff (famous Maywine additive) and its bedstraw cousins have begun to emerge. The bedstraw tips are edible now, an innocuous salad addition, or can be juiced. Tradition (not medical science) considers it a diuretic and lymphatic stimulant, clearing off the puffiness of those long winter nights.

Creeping Charlie and yarrow

I take a camera walk around my garden to finish off this story. The yarrow and creeping charlie are both showing green growth. Their sagey flavor can provide an aromatic direction to the spring tonic and, according to traditions, maybe even some therapeutic ones. Strawberry leaves are starting new growth, high in vitamin C like the fruit.

 A jaunt down the road to check out the state of poplar buds and fiddleheads turns up dead milkweed

Milkweed pod ghosts

pods, still too early for shoots, some rose hips sweetened to candy by a winter on the vine, and the tender blossoms of beaked hazel. I will be back when each of them comes into season. Elderberry, blackberry and thimbleberry brambles have not yet started to leaf out or send up shoots, both edible and teaworthy. It is too early now but the redwings came singing through too early too. 

Rose hips

 

A blue heron flies over me, blessing with its giant wings, Far above, an eagle hangs in a thermal. The bushes and marsh are noisy with mating.The seasons are changing and I am tagging after asking them, are we there yet?

Spring tonic formula:

Take a mix of bitter roots and aromatic roots/twigs/bark, simmer for 10 minutes
Pour over fresh aromatic, bitter and flaverful spring greens
Steep 10 minutes
Strain
Add maple, birch or other tree syrup (or better yet, do step one simmering in sap if it is still running).

 Caveats:

The first bright yellow abundant flower, crowding sandy roadside banks like a leafless dandelion (the frosty-backed pentangular leaves come later) is coltsfoot. It is a traditional treatment for colds and asthma, traditionally made into a syrup and candied, but it is now known to contain liver-damaging and carcinogenic compounds. Enjoy but don’t consume.

And of course don’t eat those new shoots of some Apiaceae or other unless you know for sure that’s where your Queen Anne’s lace was growing by itself. Ditto hand-like shoots, which may be bitter or poisonous members of the buttercup family. Rosettes can look very different from the leaves you are familiar with on your herbs. Be double sure of your identification and when in doubt, pass. The season is just beginning and abundance is imminent.

Beaked hazelnut in bloom