Making Wild Thistle Juice to detox yourself and weed your garden

 I thought I'd tell you about something I love to do in Spring when the weeds start coming up all over the garden.  I'm an avid wild food forager and I love learning about new things I can eat that cost me nothing and that grow in my back yard, pesticide free. 

I've been all over the internet looking for benefits of eating this wild plant.  Of course, as with many other things that most people think of as a backyard nuisance or weed, there isn't likely to be much research done on it's usefulness. 

 However, thankfully the Native American Indians always used plants around them and there has been research done on their uses.  They used the thistles as a tea or food to treat neuralgia and overeating.  They also steamed them to shrink hemorrhoids and to treat rheumatism.  They are rich in vitamins A, B & C and contain some minerals.  Of course, I always use common sense about where plants are grown.  If they are grown in good fertile soil, they of course will have more of the good stuff in them.  If you pick your weeds in an abandoned junk yard where motor oil has spilled on the ground for 30 years.... well, you get the picture.

 Most thistles that grow around me are edible, so here is what I do with the thistles that take over my garden every spring.  If you can't beat em, eat em!

 I just take my machete and my garden gloves out to the patch where the thistles are growing.  I pull them up root and all.  If they don't cooperate, that's why the machete comes in handy...  slice them under the soil so as much of the root comes with the plant.  That way you have a better chance of the thistle to not come back.  Thistles, left to flower can release thousands of seeds in just one year.  The next year they will be all over your garden.  It is best to keep them in check.  Another reason to eat them....

 Here's my harvest of Canada Thistle. There are many different kinds of wild thistle.  Do your own research on this before eating any wild vegetation, of course.  The thistles that grow around here are sow thistle, milk thistle, canada thistle, bull thistle and many more.  These are common names for these plants, and each state or region has their own.

 I use a big bowl of some sort, but I always have more thistles than I could ever use.  You can see from the pictures my garden uses all manner of covering the ground as nature intended.  Wood chips, pine needles, leaves, straw.  Covering the ground adds benefits like nothing else. 

 The boys help me wash all the dirt off.  Most of the time I bring in catnip from the garden so they think I'm hiding catnip in between the leaves of thistle somewhere...

 The Baby inspects...  He loves running water so of course he is in any sink that is flowing.  He plays with the water and tries to bite it.  Life is so much more fun with cats.

 I use a juicer that I bought from Ebay for a fraction of what it cost new.  It was slightly used.  Probably something someone got as a gift, used it once and thought it was too much trouble.  Juicers are a bit clunky.  They take up lots of room.  They are a pain to wash.  You have to wash the bits of vegetation off the inner parts immediately or it's a nightmare to get them off.  I use a little brush that is used to clean vegetables.  That gets all the bits.  My juicer is a Jack Lelain juicer.  Sorry if I misspelled his name. I like this one because you can juice greens really easily.  Some juicers I've had in the past just spit out most greens without actually getting the juice out.  I love watching the infomercials on this juicer.  Jack was a cool guy.

Of course, if you do not have a juicer, by all means, don't omit this healthy stuff from your life!  Use your blender.  Just add a small amount of water and mix.  Then strain out the pulp.  I use cheese cloth or a jelly bag.  You can buy jelly bags anyplace you'd buy canning supplies.  They work great for all sorts of straining and you can wash and reused them. 

 I am also using some cleavers in this mix.  Cleavers are a great spring tonic for detoxifying the lymph system.  I try to change up all my vegetables to get everything during the week.  If I keep eating healthy, I can drink more wine!  It's all about give and take, you know? 

 The first drop of juice!

 Roots and all!  Don't worry, the pricklies aren't in the juice when it's finished.  If you are worried about getting those nasty needle like thingys stuck in your throat, you can strain the juice when you're finished.  Use a jelly bag or cheese cloth like a said before.  Coffee filters will do the trick, but it will take a month for all the juice to go through.  Plus, the pores in a coffee filter are too small and I'm afraid the good fiber and pupl and minerals will be strained out of your juice if used.  You want a little of the fiber left in it.

 Cali is sniffing to make sure she doesn't need this in her diet...

 And the finished product!  It's so pretty.  Tastes like wheat grass but a little wild.  You don't need much of this stuff.  It is very potent and detoxifying.  Lots of good vitamins to keep you going!  

If you don't like the taste of grass or other wild stuff, you can juice an apple with this to sweeten it up.  Or if not using a juicer, add juice to the blender instead of the water.  Whatever you have to do to get this down!  Bottoms up!

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