The cupboard
Kitchen herbs & spices
Filter by element or search a plant. Traditional kitchen and folk use — four tastes, not a clinic monograph.
Water· saltSalt is cooling and barely a taste. These plants dry first, then move fluid — and water follows. They are mineral salts, not table salt: building, coating to sensitive membranes, thinning stuck mucous, supporting kidneys and the kreb-cycle minerals of muscle and nerve.
7 plants
Nettle
Urtica dioica
A green salt — the mineral broth of the hedgerow.
Stiff joints · Hollow energy · Irritable skin
Mineralize, soothe, and restore fluid
Oatstraw
Avena sativa
The mineral tea of a nervous system that has been spent.
Frayed nerves · Hollow energy · Irritable skin
Mineralize, soothe, and restore fluid
Plantain
Plantago major
The path-side leaf chewed for bee stings and brewed for raw tissue.
Irritable skin · Sore throat · Dryness
Mineralize, soothe, and restore fluid
Chickweed
Stellaria media
The cool spring mat — a water green for hot, dry, itchy skin.
Irritable skin · Dryness · Hollow energy
Mineralize, soothe, and restore fluid
Cleavers
Galium aparine
The sticky bedstraw — water’s lymph mover of the spring hedge.
Puffiness · Irritable skin · Hollow energy
Mineralize, soothe, and restore fluid
Horsetail
Equisetum arvense
A silica salt — the joint-and-tooth mineral of the ditch bank.
Stiff joints · Puffiness · Irritable skin
Mineralize, soothe, and restore fluid
Violet
Viola odorata
The heart-leaf of spring — a cool green for lymph and dry heat.
Cough · Irritable skin · Dryness
Mineralize, soothe, and restore fluid