Foraging for Herbal Tea, Part 1

hey welcome to UK well grass so I love drinking herbal teas and I think it's even better when you can forage the ingredients for yourself so most of the teas in this video you can either drink fresh or you can dry them so preserve them throughout the year and I recommend not using a dehydrator just getting some racks and letting them air dry naturally and then storing them it preserves the nutrients a lot better than using a dehydrator so when you're making the teas I recommend that you boil the water first and then allow it to cool slightly before you add in the herbs and then infuse them for 15 to 20 minutes it's better that way because if you boil all the ingredients in with the water the nutrients can be destroyed especially vitamin C is very easily destroyed by heat it's also a good idea not to drink the same teas every day and to vary the types you're drinking because if you're drinking the same types of tea every day you can get a buildup of nutrients and that can be bad for you and also I should say I'm a forager I'm not a herbalist or not medically trained so none of the information in this video is medical advice and also the medical information that I have used in this video I've used from a few books and I will reference them in the description for this video all of this growing next to the pond is water mint very common alongside waterways like rivers streams and ponds and just any sort of damp marshy ground it tastes very similar to spearmint and you can dry it or use it fresh but it is much better just using it fresh and you can usually pick it from around May so any mints are usually good for the stomach so they can aid in indigestion and help stomach pains mints are high in vitamins A C and b6 and they're high in potassium and magnesium the leaves are oval and roughly serrated they can often have a bit of a purplish color to the leaves and they're slightly hairy as well so like all mints the leaves grow in opposing Paris that alternate down the stem to leaves opposite that way then she leaves offset that way going all the way to understand and also local mints the e stems are square this is common mullah malva sylvestris which can often be found on roadsides and waste grounds as high in vitamins C and E and you will collect the leaves and flowers in summer the leaves can be found all year but their best in summertime although these ones have been pretty well eaten by insects so the leaves can be used fresh and the flowers can be used fresh or dried mallow tea can help with sore throat or dry cough and can also aid in digestion the leaves are palmately lobed and they have a distinctive v lobe pattern there's no be as shallow ly tooth and the leaves are slightly hairy as well as the leaf stem patio is hairy as well the flowers have five petals that are a pinky purple color and they have darker purple veins and the flowers are stooped so most people in the UK are familiar with the bramble or blackberry bush rubus fruity kosis it grows on pretty much any platform in the UK the leaves make a nice refreshing tea it's best to pick them in spring or early summer when they're still a bit of a light green like this when they get older and darker green they're not as nutritious anymore they're still fine to use but these ones are better obviously when you're picking them just be careful of the thorns so you just want to pick them and air dry them on a rack until they go brittle and then just store them in a glass jar or a brown bay paper bag so bramble leaf tea is generally a good tonic for just general health benefits and it's also supposed to help with diarrhea as well as aiding cold and flu symptoms and sore throats the way you find brambles there's a good chance you'll also find goose grass or cleavers they're very common in hedgerows it's that plant that you probably used to use to stick to people as a kid there makes a nice tea and also it makes a nice refreshing water if you just infuse the leaves in water overnight and just leave in the fridge the next day it's a very nice cooling drink cleavers are traditionally a cleansing herb they used to cleanse the lymphatic system and also help with swollen glands and blubber irritation so to identify the leaves are sessile or they don't have leaf stems they just join straight onto the main stem themselves and they grow in whirls around the stem of usually around six to eight leaves per whirl this is pineapple we'd match a courier to squid iya and this makes probably my favorite herbal tea as the name suggests it tastes just like pineapple if you crush the flower heads or the leaves you get a really really strong smell of pineapple to the main medical use for this is it's a soporific it's closely related to chamomile which is pretty well known for its calming properties and a cup of this before bed pretty much going to you a good night's sleep it usually starts flowering around June and you're best off looking for it in compacted soil at walkways and especially in fields where you've got a gate so a lot of people were entering or leaving the field that is a good place to be looking for pineapple weed leaves a feather like very similar to come a mile and the flowers had like little domes did you kind of look like pineapples and they also look similar to the flowers of Daisy although they don't have the white petals that daisies have it's just the flower dome so the best parts making the tea are the flower heads and just the top part of the plant the the top leaves they have the best flavor these are linden flowers or flowers of the lime tree they usually start flowering in early June and you'll find these trees mostly in parks and occasionally in ancient woodland and it's best to pick these flowers when some of the buds are still unopened that means that they're still nice and fresh the linden tea is actually quite expensive if you buy it from health food shops you can pay 12 13 pounds like a little packet but all it is is these flowers dried so there's no need to buy it you can just pick your own in the first few weeks of June and dry enough for the whole year and you can see from the amount that grow on every tree that you can easily collect enough for the year so in terms of Health Lyndon flowers help with anxiety migraines and can help prevent omneya as well so I like to dry the flowers on racks do it inside and out of direct sunlight because direct sunlight can deteriorate the flowers quite quickly and once they dried I recommend just to keep them in a brown paper bag so Lyndon flowers are a yellowy green they each have five petals and five sepals and they also have a wing and that is to aid the distribution of the seed by wind the leaves are roughly heart-shaped they're serrated and they come to a point at the end and they're asymmetrical so one half of the heart will be a bit bigger than the other you can use the flowers or leaves of clover for making tea though the flowers are better you can use white clover here trifolium repens or red clover trifolium pratense so the flowers will start appearing from early summer and you'll find them in pretty much any grassland in the UK and most probably in your garden as well it can be used droid or fresh and they're traditionally used as a blood cleanser and also you for helping skin conditions such as acne eczema and psoriasis and also they're used for soothing coughs you can idea by it usually has free leaves and on those leaves you get little white Chevron's so that little white arrows thanks for watching UK well crafts if you haven't already you can subscribe

Channel: UK Wildcrafts

Views: 20,088

Keywords: herbal tea, foraging for herbal tea, tea, teas, herbal teas, green tea, foraging, uk foraging, foraging uk, forager, wild plants, wild foods, wild drinks, drinks, hot drinks, herbal remedies, herb, herbal, nutrients, nutritional

Id: 2hi-27yEev0

Length: 13min 39sec (819 seconds)

Published: Tue Jun 16 2020