Alfalfa
Medicago sativa
Leaf; sprout as food · cooling · mineral · building
A deep-rooted green salt — minerals from the clay, up into the leaf.
In the mouth
How it tastes
Light, grassy, herbaceous. Iceberg lettuce, lentils, a whisper of lemon or sweet hay when well-dried. Mild and clean; flat or musty if the leaf is old.
Traditional use
The taproot goes far down. Folk infusions treated alfalfa as food-as-tea: tired blood, dry joints, a body that needed building without heat.
In the cup
A handful of dried leaf in a quart, long-steeped like nettle. Sprouts on the plate are the same plant as food.
Blood
Salty blood · salt
Salt 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.
Read salty bloodReached for
The promise
A careful hand
Some people, or a long pot, need extra care.
Leaf tea is milder than seed or sprout. Skip in pregnancy and nursing. Caution with warfarin — the leaf is high in vitamin K. Seeds and sprouts carry the L-canavanine worry, especially if the immune system is already loud. Not a long, high pot. Gout: purines.
Read the whole promiseSits well with
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
Red clover
Trifolium pratense
The meadow blossom in the old blood-and-skin jars.
Irritable skin · Hollow energy · Cough
Warm, move, and stimulate
Traditional kitchen and folk use only. This is not medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. If you are pregnant, nursing, on medicine, or unwell, ask a clinician before drinking anything as a remedy.