Wild (Greens) For Life
Foraging for wild foods is so easy and inspiring in the
springtime. Even in the temperate regions of the Northeastern United States
where we live, it is simply amazing. There’s so much wild food! Everywhere I
look things are yellow and green.
And this past week, as I officially wrapped up our Kapha season Juice
Fast Soul Feast with a follow up letter to our participants, I relived why this
work (and this LIFE) means so much to me. We have so much to learn, to glean
from the natural world. We can invite the un-official but much more meaningful
Green Party into our hearts during the spring by consuming green foods picked
with our own two hands from our perennial back yards.
We can take our shoes off and walk on the earth again,
removing the rubber soles that shield us from truly interacting with this vast
Mother and her subtle healing, grounding energies.
We can honor the energy of winter and early spring, now gone
by and yet accumulated, with a gentle detoxifying flush through the green
juices of the plants around us.
Today, to do just this, I woke up and went to the natural
spring near our home. I drank the water that has been living underneath the
earth, within the tree roots, the slug beds, the rock homes. I picked
wintergreen leaves and pine needles and brought them home for morning tea. I
plucked sorrel and chickweed, horsetail sprigs and fiddleheads to add to my
dawn-time green juice. And while I sipped it all, I was infused with a sense of
hope and purpose, rootedness and yet ascension. There is so much here to enjoy –
free of cost, fully accessible. There is so much right here to behold.
I invite you back out into your fields and onto your
mountaintops. I invite you back into the green party of your heart. I invite
you to lay down in the grass again – no matter the weather – and imagine the
weight of your own body upheld by the timelessness of the earth beneath you.
Listen to what the Mother has to say in her embrace. Listen to how you can
contribute – just by being you, nothing more and nothing less.
A recipe to enjoy, while detoxing your body and intoxicating
your soul:
Siri’s Green Tara Wild Lemonade
1 handful bunch of wild local greens – this could be
dandelion greens, valerian shoots, pine needles, sorrel, chickweed, unsprayed
lawn grass, edible tree leaves, wintergreen, arugula, over-wintered spinach,
fiddlehead ferns, raspberry leaves, wild strawberry leaves, violets with
greens, red clover greens, nettle, mullein, plantain, lemonbalm, motherwort…get
creative BUT make sure you know your wild greens! Do NOT use any greens that you’re
unsure of or do not know the correct identification of.
5-10 stalks celery
1 green apple (use organic, leave peels on but remove seeds)
1 cucumber (use organic, leave peels on)
1 lemon (use organic, and leave the peels on)
Put everything through a masticating juicer.
OR put all ingredients through a blender with a half cup of
water. If using a blender, blend well and strain using cheesecloth, a nutmilk
bag or a paint strainer. Sip throughout your morning. To get maximum
detoxification results from this, make this juice upon arising, then set aside
while you first drink 2 quarts fresh spring water with a little lemon in it.
THEN, sip your juice on an empty stomach throughout the morning. If you tend to
be a very cold person in the springtime, you can add trikatu three spice
Ayurvedic herbal formula OR cayenne pepper OR ground ginger to your juice and
stir or shake every once in a while.
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