Harvesting Herbs - Wildcrafting

It is so gratifying and empowering to collect herbs in the garden, field or wood-land  area and then lovingly dry them for tea or make them into an herbal elixir, tincture, salve or other healing medicine. These simple skills should  and can be available to anyone willing to take the time to learn. Today, I will discuss harvesting techniques with you.

Harvesting of plants can be split up into a couple categories. Harvesting from your garden and wildcrafting. Harvesting from you garden is simpler than wildcrafting. Wildcrafting has a few additional requirements to consider. We will go over these before we get into the nitty gritty of how to collect herbs. If you are harvesting from your own land or garden, you can skip the legal issues and social responsibilities of wildcrafting that follow below.

Legal Issues and Social Responsibilities When Wildcrafting

Wildcrafting is the practice of harvesting plants from their natural habitat for the use of food or medicine. When wildcrafting there are a number of  things to account for. If you are harvesting on your own land there will be no legal issues but if you are harvesting on someone else’s land be sure you have permission from the private land owner or if on publicly owned land make sure you know the state or federal laws and abide by them. Often with public land it is as simple as getting a permit that can be obtained for free. Permits can be obtained from the ranger station, BLM office or parks and recreation office, depending on who is maintaining the land you wish to harvest from. They will usually want to know where you are going to harvest, what you are harvesting, how much you will be harvesting, if it is for self use or market use and do you know what you are doing.

One thing I would advise you to inquire of them is if there is going to be any new road installation, timber sales (clear-cuts specifically), power line installation or buildings/parking on the land they are managing. If there is, you may want to scout that specific area out for herbs you can use. If they are going to cover the area with roads or buildings or clear-cut the area, there are many herbs you can collect and use rather than seeing them wasted under asphalt or concrete. In clear cuts it is a bit more complicated as you would only want to take the herbs that will be not be able to continue living in an open field. This requires additional knowledge on your part.

Harvest With Respect

Wherever you are harvesting, respect for the environment is important. Making sure you do not damage the environment necessitates your knowing how the various plants interact with each other and how your removal of plants is going to affect a specific ecosystem.  If you remove plants without knowing how to do it in a careful and respectful manner the ecosystem is damaged and further availability of those plants is threatened.

Be honest with the land manager about what you are doing. Harvest conservatively, clean up your garbage and maintain the area of harvest. As herbalists we want to preserve but also manage the environment. The act of our harvesting changes the environment so it is best if we do this in a well thought out manner.

Become a permanent caretaker of weeds

Consider long-term contracts with land managers if that is possible. This will allow you to truly manage a piece of land and get a continual harvest off of it. This is most readily accomplished with private land managers. 

The Nitty Gritty of Collecting Herbs

First get your tools ready

Tools that most wildcrafters find helpful are clippers, knife, shovel, and handsaw. However, I have done a lot of collecting with sticks as a digging tool and rocks to pound off root bark. Sometimes a rock is the best tool in fact.  You also need collecting containers.

If you are collecting in warm weather and want to get back to your house with fresh plant material that is still in good shape, figure out how you will accomplish that. If you drive two hours in mid-July in a hot car or truck, how will your plant material look when you return with them. Things to consider are protecting them in coolers with ice, in boxes or large insulated containers with ice, a car air conditioner, or perhaps even processing the plant in the field.

Once you are ready to go, where will you harvest the plant?

Look for an area that has an abundance of the plant you want to harvest. Make sure the plants look healthy that you plan to harvest. Never take more than the forest or field can replenish in a reasonable amount of time, and never more than you can use. Some  surrounding influences to plants that might effect their health is:

• Power lines

• Soil quality

• Clean water

• Is there any ground contamination nearby? (Don’t harvest near the town dump or in a farmers field that uses pesticides or herbicides or grows genetically modified seed)

• Do other plants they are in community with look healthy?

• Are there a lot of pollinators around? If not, there may be insecticide use on the land.

           

Harvesting the plants

Now you are ready to actually harvest the plant. Do this in a respectful manner. What that means to you can vary from person to person. Some people ask individual plants permission or permission from a grandmother plant. Some people like myself are simply grateful for the plants. I thank spirit for everything I harvest be it a wild plant, a garden plant or a chicken. I thank the being that is giving its life so that I and others may continue to live our lives in a healthy manner. You do what works for you.  Whatever your words or thoughts are, they must be followed by actions of respect.. If you devastate the area by harming the environment while you harvest or harvest so many plants/seeds that the plant can not maintain itself there anymore, your words and thoughts were hollow shells and were not truthful. Walk your talk for your talk to have meaning. It is your actions that show the truth of your intention.

The right time to harvest

Many things effect plants and when you should harvest them. Some of these are the season, time of the day, the phase of the moon and other planetary activity, if the plant is dry, if it is flowering, budding, been pollinated or not etc. There is much to know about when it is best to harvest.

In general, the aerial plant parts are best harvested in the spring and summer, before or during flowering. They should be harvested in the morning after the dew has dried and before the full sun is upon them. Seeds are best harvested when fully ripe and dry. Roots are best harvested late in fall to early spring when the plants' energy is down in its roots.

Specific Information

I have taken some of the most basic and useful ideas for harvesting and listed them below. They are categorized by the plant parts you would be harvesting.

Flowers

• Harvest prior to pollination

• Early in the morning

• In the appropriate stage for that flower such as with many Asteraceae flowers you usually harvest them when their ray flowers are pointing straight up in the air.

• Make sure the flowers are dry. Harvest after the dew is gone.

• Don’t harvest more than 10% of the flowers in that area as you are removing their ability to make seed and create future generations.

Seeds

• Harvest at maturity generally

• Dry seed only

• Don’t harvest more than 10% of the seeds in that area as you are removing their ability to generate more plants.

• Spread the seed – In some cases spreading the seed around will help the plant. If you know how the seed naturally spreads and best grows, you can do a better job of it.

• Collect and grow your own seed for next time

Aerial leafy parts

• Harvest early morning in bud or flower stage but, this can vary. You need to know what is best for that specific plant. Each plant will vary slightly as to what part of the aerial parts you will be picking. It might be the entire aerial part of the plant in bud or flower stage. It could be just the leaves or just the flower tops. You really need to know the specific part of that plant that is used before harvesting the herbs. The dirty or scraggly and woody parts of the plant  are not harvested.

• Dry plant material only.

• Be careful not to harvest too much of any one plant in an area.

Bark

• Take bark from small limbs

• If a tree or shrub needs pruning in the fall or spring, this is a great time to harvest the bark

• Don’t take bark off the trunk unless the tree is destined to be destroyed anyway. If bark is collected from the trunk of a tree, there is a risk damaging the tree irreparably; and if collected from around the tree trunk in a complete ring, the tree will die.

• It is best to harvest bark in the spring and fall when the sap is flowing

• Harvest the inner bark. This is the medicinally active part.

            Often when collecting the bark, you will get both the outer and inner bark together and if the outer bark is not thick it is OK to use it that way in most instances. When getting bark from small limbs the outer bark is not very thick and really too hard to remove anyway.  Sometimes the outer bark is thick and you want to remove it. This is especially true of larger, older limbs. Removal of outer bark is best done when the limb has been freshly removed. Since it is easier to work with fresh bark, remove the outer bark from the desirable inner bark while still fresh and pliable. You will also need to remove the bark from the core or heartwood of the limb. I often use a hammer or rock to remove fresh bark. It will usually fall right off fairly easily. If it dries I usually have to use a knife and it becomes much harder to accomplish.

• Don’t remove more than 10% of the limbs at the very most on any one tree. If you have never pruned trees, get a lesson from someone who has fruit trees on how to prune and it will help you to be a better caretaker of the wild trees you prune.

Roots

• Annuals(not generally used)

• Biennials last only two years usually and you can harvest their roots from the fall of the first year until they start to send out spring shoots in the second year. I prefer them in the fall or winter of the first year, but if I have to will get them in the spring. They are not useful after that.

• Perennials live three or more years. You can harvest their roots from the fall through winter, until  they start to send out spring shoots.

• Good for us & the plant to harvest in the Winter. Our harvesting the root in the fall-spring gives us better potency in our herb  It is additionally healthy for the plant to harvest the roots then as it is able to set seed in the summer and spread that seed prior to our harvesting the roots.

• Thinning is a key idea here with perennials. Thin out thicker areas and leave the plants alone in areas of scarcity.  With some plants, you can take part of the lower root and replant the top part of the root. What I notice however, is that plant is never as healthy as the ones that grow without part of their roots removed. The root left grows strangely.  So, although some herbalists do this, I do not. I would rather take the whole plant than leave an unhealthy plant behind to propagate itself.

• When digging up a root, remember to fill the hole back up with earth.

Fruits

• Generally collected whole such as hawthorne, chaste tree, schisandra

• Collect when fully ripe

• Since bugs tend to like fruit, some fruits are better collected after the first frost to kill bug eggs.

           

If you want specific information on the parts of each plant to collect and when to collect it, that information  is in a chart called Harvesting and Liquid Extract Preparation Chart that can be found in my book “Herbal Medicine From the Heart of the Earth.”

http://www.herbaltransitions.com/BookStore.html

           

Are You Collecting Fresh OR Dry Plants?

Fresh Plants Require

• Immediate processing

• Immediate shipping if you are shipping them to another user

            - ice bags are necessary

            - layer the plants with paper between them and ice bags in the paper. This keep them cool. Other wise they will compost in the center of the box. It also helps keep them from crushing themselves if you wad up the paper layers.

-  holes in box help decrease composting

- next day, second day, ground shipping depends on how delicate they are

Drying Plants Require

• Dry quick, thoroughly – Consider a warm, dry attic with fans. Even a  hot southwest bedroom with fans can work. Open the screened windows for air movement or use fans. If you have a dryer that is helpful for small amounts of herbs. Be careful to protect them from light, insects and night moisture if drying the plants outside.

• Storage -  Protection from insects, heat, air and sunlight and moisture are necessary.

For details on how to dry and store herbs see the blog I will post in a couple days called "How to Dry and Store Herbs."

Additional Resources

Here are ideas for you to learn more about wildcrafting or growing and collecting garden herbs.

Join my class "Becoming An Herbalist" for in-depth information on harvesting herbs. 

Plant Lover's Guide to Wildcrafting by Krista Thie

                Available at Longevity herb Press, 1549 W. Jewett Blvd, White Salmon Wa, 98672 or on Amazon 

Edible & Medicinal Herbs Volume I (Video)

                        narrated by myself and free for you to view in one week - I will re-post it here and announce it on the blog that it is available: (two parts to it)

             Edible & Medicianl Herbs Volume II

narrated by myself and free for you to view here: (two parts to it) 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-16MMV-puqI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JSjvMvqND08

            The EcoHerbalist fieldbook by Gregory L. Tilford        

 

Get a field guide specific to your area. Take a class in botany. Go on walks with local herbalists or take herb classes in your area. In Eugene Oregon I offer a variety of different herb classes. They change from year to year. 

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http://www.herbaltransitions.com/Classes.html

Harvesting Herbal Roots

It is winter and time to think about digging up medicinal roots. This year I am in need of a variety of roots such as Elecampane, Echinacea, Valerian and Bloodroot.

When to Harvest Roots

Where I live in the Pacific NW of the United States these roots should be harvested from around the end of November to the end of February. The basic idea is to harvest them after the herbaceous plant material has died back, but before the new greens start growing again. This way you make sure all of their energy is in their roots and not involved in making leaves and flowers.

All of the roots I plan to harvest are from perennial (live more than 2 years) plants. They will all be around two - three years old when I harvest them. It is rare that annual (live 1 year) plants are used for their roots. If I was collecting roots from a biennial (live two years) plant I would need to be sure I harvested it at the end of the first year prior to it starting to grow in the second year. This is because the plant will die after the second season. The root will not be any good to harvest at that point. 

Gnarly Roots

The next thing to consider is how the years take their toll on the roots. Just as some of us people get old and gnarly, so do some plant roots. When they get old and gnarly, they become quite fibrous and they don't have much meat on them any more. This means for some plants such as Elecampane you want to harvest it at the end of the first or second year. After the second year you can still harvest it, but each year it gets woodier and there is less useful material on the root. I say, why bother. Just use a younger one. This woodiness seems to take place on most of the medicinal herbs with tap like roots. This especially happens to the larger ones. Good examples would be Elecampane and Poke root which can get really woody over time.

Echinacea, Valerian and Bloodroot are different. They don't get woody like the Elecampane does. They may get a little bit of woodiness, but nothing that is bothersome. I like to harvest them all around their 3rd year so they get big enough to be worthwhile to harvest.  If you have really good soil these herbs may be harvested at the end of the second year.

Valerian As An Example 

Let's use a well known medicinal herb like Valerian as an example of how to harvest a root. It grows great in the Pacific NW. I will be digging up a commonly grown species called Valeriana officinalis. There are other wild types of Valerian but this is what is usually grown in most gardens or on farms.

The first thing I need to do is decide how much root I will be harvesting. This depends on my use of it for the coming year. I usually tincture the fresh root and then add some dried root in towards the end of the tincturing process. I will get what I think I need to make enough tincture to last for the next couple of years. Then I need to decide when to harvest. I don't want to dig in frozen ground. I also prefer not to dig in really wet soil as the roots will be encased in a ball of mud if the ground is real wet. I pick an easy to dig day and dig up the amount I need. The tincture method I use involves tincturing fresh plant. It will go through the menstruum (alcohol & water used to extract it) twice. This means I will dig up half the root I need now  and half the root I need in about a month or two. I want 10 pounds of fresh root. So I dig up 5 pounds now for tincture and another 5 pounds in a month or two. I will also dig up another 2  pounds now t0 dry into 1/2 pound for the dry Valerian I will add later towards the end of the tincturing process.

The roots are very dirty, I shake off as much dirt as I can back into the hole I just dug.

The next thing I have to do is wash it off. Brrr. it is cold out washing roots this time of year. Valerian is hard to clean also. It holds little rocks deep inside its tendril like legs. I spray them with an outdoor hose and then take them inside where I carefully clean them in the sink. I don't want any rocks or dirt left in. Even though the alcohol I use will kill any bacteria on the root, I still don't like dirty roots and the rocks could destroy the blades in my blender.

Once clean, I need to cut the roots up. With most herbaceous plant roots, I cut everything up that is not woody. It is all useful. I need them in blender sized pieces for tincture. Many of the Valerian roots can go in whole or just cut in half if small enough. Usually, with Valerian you have to clean it so good that you already cut it up small enough for the blender while cleaning.  For the ones I am drying, I cut them up into smaller pieces. How small I cut roots depends on a few factors. If the root is easy to crush or cut up after drying I only need to cut it small enough to dry quickly. However, if a root is stone hard once it dries, I have to cut it to the size I need while it is still fresh. The ultimate use of the root is another factor in how small I cut the roots. Lastly, how difficult it is to dry is another factor. A nutritious root like comfrey tends to grow mold on it if it is not cut thinly or small and dried quickly.  With Valerian root, I just chunk up the upper part and don't worry about the small roots. They are thin and dry quickly in my food dryer or by my wood stove.

Now we move on to making the tincture and drying the roots, but that is another blog in the future. If you are seriously interested in collecting roots, I will share some photos from the echinacea  root harvesting/tincturing of my "Becoming An Herbalist" class that will take place in February. I will also share photos of some of the other various roots we harvest then as well as information on echinacea and how to make a tincture in upcoming blogs. If you want to get your hands on some herbs and learn how to be an herbalist, join us in this 9 month class.