Horsetail
Equisetum arvense
Sterile spring stems, dried · cooling · mineral · astringent
A silica salt — the joint-and-tooth mineral of the ditch bank.
In the mouth
How it tastes
Grassy, silica-dry, a little marsh.
Traditional use
Folk infusions for brittle nails, leaking tissue, and a body that needed mineral without heat. Identify true field horsetail; some cousins are the wrong plant.
In the cup
1 tsp dried sterile stems, decocted 15 minutes or long-steeped. A short course, then a rest.
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
A pinch or a rare pot — not a daily habit.
Use Equisetum arvense, dried, short-term. Not for kidney disease. Not the marsh horsetails. Kitchen-scale only.
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
Alfalfa
Medicago sativa
A deep-rooted green salt — minerals from the clay, up into the leaf.
Hollow energy · Stiff joints · Puffiness
Mineralize, soothe, and restore fluid
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.