Yellow Dock

[kmcmaster]

We were able to find a wonderful stand of yellow dock the other day. We’ve chopped the root up but do we want to try and grind it up now, just let it dry, or let it dry and then grind it up. We plan on doing a tincture eventually but were not sure what needs to happen first. Also for black Walnut what part do you use?

[Dr. Patrick JonesHomestead Instructor]

For roots, I cut them into thumb-sized pieces and dry them and then toss them into the vita mix when they’re dry.

For Black walnut it’s the hulls you want.

Patrick

Don't use herbs or combine herbs with medications or use them during lactation or pregnancy without talking with your healthcare provider.

[Dr. Patrick JonesHomestead Instructor]

With the yellow dock, make sure it’s not growing in water. Roots raised wet have very little medicine (they’re actually more white than yellow). Get the stuff that’s had to work for a living. The yellower the better.

Patrick

Don't use herbs or combine herbs with medications or use them during lactation or pregnancy without talking with your healthcare provider.

[nwestwood]

So I have harvested a big stack of Yellow dock roots… It was a lot like work! The roots can have a dark, barky, kind of covering, (same with burdock and other) should I scrub off this outer part of the root? or just wash it well, chop it up, dry and grind it up and not worry about it.

I chopped them in to pinky finger are smaller slices and 2 days later they started showing a powdery mold! I had them set out on a screen in the house. I chucked all the infected pieces, burned out the food processor trying to chop up the rest, so finished hand slicing them into thin slivers, and put them in a food dryer set to 95 degrees, it looks like I need these to dry faster than they will just laying out.

Thanks,

Neal in Utah Valley

[IdahoHerbalist]

A food processor will not be your best choice for roots, even when green. Green in very small quantities would be the only way I would even think about trying them. You need a HEAVY duty food GRINDER, like for processing meat. The smaller the pieces the easier on the machine.

[Martha StanleyStudent]

Back to the question: do you have to scrub/scrape/whatever the “bark” off the root or can it just be included in the processing?

Same question for crampbark…..which I seem to remember was that the bark dilutes the medicine somewhat.

Martha

[IdahoHerbalist]

I would only scrub the yellow dock enough to get the dirt and rough stuff off.

Cramp bark I would just deal with the dilution. It would be a LOT of work to get very little in return.

[Dr. Patrick JonesHomestead Instructor]

Marthabees wrote: Back to the question: do you have to scrub/scrape/whatever the “bark” off the root or can it just be included in the processing?

Same question for crampbark…..which I seem to remember was that the bark dilutes the medicine somewhat.

Martha

With the cramp bark nobody tries to separate the inner and outer bark. You’re thinking of wild cherry bark. Wild cherry bark isn’t worth separating either unless the branches are large enough to make it easy.

Don't use herbs or combine herbs with medications or use them during lactation or pregnancy without talking with your healthcare provider.

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