Today we explored the wonderful plant Common Burdock! The Herb Fairy for this plant is named Arc for the scientific name “Arctium minus” and like the fairy, likes to stay low to the ground but has huge leaves for the wings!
As we read the story and discovered all the healing properties of the herb, we found that a common use for the burdock root is as an ingredient for root beer!
Instead of making the root beer myself using this recipe, I was able to find some ready made soda that we took to our Nature Adventure for everyone to try! I do want to try my hand at making my own syrup to mix into soda water for a homemade root beer and plan to use this herb blend to make it happen!
I was fortunate to find burdock in our local foraging area and brought burs for everyone to observe for their nature journaling! I also dug a few roots out so students could see the size of the leaves and the carrot like root that comes from the plant!
Did you know that burdock is the reason we have Velcro? I was fascinated to read that Velcro was invented based on the natural interlocking hooks at the ends of the burrs! Look up the 1948 patent by Swiss engineer George de Mestral!
There are also so many wonderful health benefits to this herb!
We closed our Nature Adventure with our Thanksgiving time and then spent some great Wild + Free time playing around the creek! We even found a gigantic crayfish! The shouts and screams from the kids when our friend pulled it out was so fun to hear!
And just like Arc the fairy, you might want to wear the burrs on your clothing to help spread the seed to keep the plant growing! It was fun to find the burrs sticking to our clothes as we finished our adventure for the day!
We are on a break until January but all our lessons are up on the website here! I hope to see you at our next event!
I have loved leading our adventures through the sequence of herbs found in the Herb Fairy books! If you’re reading this blog post near Thanksgiving, keep your eyes peeled on the Learning Herbs website! They run sales in the holidays on the box set of books as well as their amazing WildCraft game! Here’s the Facebook page where you can see what sales are happening!
P.S. Here is one more interesting video about burdock!
KIND + CULTIVATED 
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