Recipes, Books, Chat, and Links to botanical, historical information.

Chickweed Tea
4 tablespoons raw herb (leaves and stems, chopped) = 1 tablespoon dried.
Use 1 tbsp dried herb per cup of water. Boil water, and remove from flame. Add herb and steep 10-20 minutes. Strain and serve with honey. Mild dieuretic, great spring kidney tonic. Chill and serve as iced tea. Mild, corn-like, some say spinich-like flavor. Totally delicious either way. Tea has many topical medicinal uses, too. Refer to links below for more information.

Chickweed Ointment
Oh, heck, this newsletter is supposed to be about edibles, but this ointment is so easy to make and so versatile and so safe, I want to empower you all to make your own ointment. Here's how. Bring one cup of cold-pressed extra-virgin olive oil to a low heat in a small stainless steel pot. Do NOT boil. Add as much chickweed as you can push below the surface. Let this steep for about an hour over a low, low fire to extract all the juice. Strain. Add just enough bees wax so that when it melts, a wooden spoon dipped in the mixture then removed and cooled a minute, doesn't drip off. Pour off into little ointment jars,cool and store in a dark place. If it doesn't set, reheat and add more beeswax. For safekeeping, I keep it in the refrigerator and use it for every little cut, nick, insect bite, itchy skin, pimple, etc. To learn more about chickweed ointment and what it's good for, go to
http://www.herbsfirst.com/discriptions/chickoint.html

Drying Chickweed
Place freshly harvested chickweed (leaves and stems) on a tray. Turn matted batch over at least twice daily, or fluff up a chopped batch, until thoroughly dry. Store in a jar. Personally, since it freezes so beautifully, I prefer to chop mine and freeze as shown in the slide show.

Chickweed and Shrimp Quiche (pictured on slide show)
To this basic quiche recipe, you can truly add any succulent green, any meat that cooks quickly, leftovers, whatever you want. The secret to the taste of this one is the beer. Everyone in our family would literally walk a mile for a slice. As simple as it is to make, this is some fine-tasting cuisine. Be sure and try it.

1 pie crust (home-made is best, but store-bought will do)
1 tbsp. cooking oil or butter
1 large onion, diced
1 lb. raw peeled shrimp (any seafood, tofu, cooked ham, chicken, or tempeh will all do)
1 cup chopped chickweed (any greens will do, but chickweed adds a sweet corn flavor)
1/2 bottle of beer (not a canned or light beer, and I prefer bottled Budweiser for cooking)
Salt, pepper and seasonings to taste. (I like celery salt, but whatever you like will do.)
5 eggs, scrambled, and a 6th egg handy just in case you need it.

Wilt onion in oil until about half wilted, then add shrimp and saute til they turn half-pink. Add chickweed and stir around for about 1 minute. Add the beer and seasonings and stir well. Cut off the heat. Add 5 lightly beaten eggs, stir well, taste for seasoning. Add a little more beer and an extra egg as needed to fill out the pie shell. Turn into an unbaked pie shell. Place on cookie sheet and bake 35-45 minutes at 375°. During the last 5 minutes, baste top of pie crust with milk. It makes the crust come out a shiny gold.

Pie Crust
Don't have time to make home made pie crusts? Or, it's too darned messy! Well, the truth is that home-made crusts are so much flakier than the store bought ones, it's worth the effort and the mess, especially since you can make up several at once, and freeze them! Here's how:

Per pie crust: 1 cup all-purpose flour, 1/2 stick real butter (softened), 1 tsp salt, 1/2 cup COLD water.
For 6 pie crusts, just use a big bowl and 6 times the ingredients.
Put butter in big bowl and leave out to soften, or microwave until it's squishy, but not melted.
Add flour and salt, and use 2 forks to cut the dry ingredients into the butter til it's all flaky.
Make a hole in the middle, add about half the COLD water, and stir to moisten with a wooden spoon.
Keep adding water, and begin mixing gently with your hands until the dough forms a non-sticky ball. (Don't over-knead, or your crust will turn to shoe-leather. Handle as little as possible to get the flakiest crust.)
Break up the big ball into however many pie shells you intended to make, pat into pancakes, squares, or balls, and freeze. Whenever you want to make a pie, pull one out of the freezer a few hours earlier, roll it out between two pieces of wax paper into whatever shape you want, and slap it in a pan. No mess. One great thing about making your own crusts is you're not stuck with a 9" circle! You can make folded over meat pies, line muffin tins for small pies, use rectangular pans, etc. Throw some dried, powdered chickweed or other herbs right into the crust for a gourmet touch.

Chickweed Links
Here are some interesting on-line pages with botanical information, history, cultivation, medicinal uses and lots more. These will help you more carefully identify and use the plant.

Medicinal info:
http://www.yourskin.co.uk/plant-remedies/chickweed.htm
http://www.botanical.com/botanical/mgmh/c/chickw60.html
http://www.herbalmanac.com/chickweed
http://www.herballegacy.com/id519.htm
Botanical, Historical, Growth Habits and Medicinal Properties:
http://www.taoherbfarm.com/herbs/herbs/chickweed.htm
http://www.magdalin.com/herbal/plants_pages/c/chickwd.htm
http://www.wildmanstevebrill.com/Plants.Folder/Chickweed.html
http://www.mycustompak.com/healthNotes/Herb/Chickweed.htm#Botany
http://www.cloudnet.com/~djeans/FlwPlant/Chickweed.htm
Pictures of Seedlings and Flowers of Common Chickweed:
http://www.ipm.ucdavis.edu/PMG/WEEDS/chickweed.html
Pictures and info on Common Chickweed:
http://www.ppws.vt.edu/scott/weed_id/steme.htm
Pencil sketch and good info on Common Chickweed:
http://www.wildmanstevebrill.com/Plants.Folder/Chickweed.html
Pictures and info on Mouse-Eared Chickweed:
http://www.ppws.vt.edu/scott/weed_id/cervu.htm