It is now Fall and time to think about grounding, about the energies of the plants moving to their roots.  Fall is the best time to harvest medicinal roots to make medicines, i.e. Burdock Root, Echinacea Root and most other root medicine plants.

 Burdock Root, Articum lappa, is a large leafed, cool weather plant with sticky cockle buttons.  Some of you might have grown up with this plant and even gotten your hair caught in the cockle burrs (happened to my teacher, Rosemary one day while studying in Vermont!  Ouch!).  Burdock Root, AKA Thorny Burr, Beggar’s Buttons, Cockle Buttons, Love Leaves and Clot-Bur, grows in the northern USA, and Europe, in waste ground and along roadsides.  It needs cool temperature and good soil, as the root grows deeply into the ground. I’ve dug up the root in Vermont and it truly is quite large.

 Burdock is also known in Japanese cuisine as Gobo, and is eaten in salads, soups or as a steamed vegetable.  The Japanese use it to eliminate excess nervous energy and as an aphrodisiac. Burdock Root has a sweet taste, a somewhat spicy odor and a healthy, earthy feeling.  I find it cooling to the body.

 Burdock Root has been used medicinally as a tonic for the blood, as a liver cleanser ( a good portion of it is included in my Spring/Fall Liver Cleansing Tea), and for skin disorders such as eczema, psoriasis and acne.  It is also useful for arthritis, sciatica and is one of the main 4 ingredients in Essiac formula noted for the treatment of cancer.

 Not only is the root useful, but the leaves and seeds can be made into an infusion for the treatment of chronic indigestion.  The roots and the leaves encourage the elimination or uric aced via the kidneys.  Burdock can also be used externally for bruises and skin problems.

 I like to use Burdock Root (Gobo) in soups and as a decoction, combined with several other liver cleansing and blood purifying herbs.  It is now time for a Fall Liver Cleanse, so drinking a good root formula tea for a week, along with other simple dietary regimes, I believe, is an excellent idea as we approach winter.

 So enjoy this glorious Fall weather, get out there and plant, plant, plant.  Fall gardening is the BEST here in Central Texas.