Burdock is one of the most honored and respected herbs in oriental herbal tradition. Burdock of course is a weed throughout America. In Japan, burdock is called Gobo and it's a treasured food. I've talked a lot about burdock in my green book, Healing Wise, the big green herbal for everybody.
Right now as the weather is getting colder, the burdock root is getting sweeter. Now that we've had the first frost, it's time to go out and dig some burdock root. Very easy to say, dig some burdock root, but when you get out there to start digging it, you'll find that it's far easier to say than it is to do.
One of my past apprentices went home and decided to help start a community garden there at her home and she sent me photographs of some children who are working in the garden, digging out the burdock roots. And they were in holes, these were seven and eight-year-old children, and they were in holes up to their eyebrows, which is barely see their eyes peeking above the holes that they had excavated to get the burdock root out.
My daughter and I went out one year to dig some burdock root and we dug burdock root from several different places. First of all, we dug some burdock root that was growing as a weed in my gardens. Then we went out on the road and we dug some burdock root up from the hard soil on the road, and then what we didn't really dig it, we just drove to town and bought some burdock root. That was for sale at the health food store.
Then we made both the vinegars and tinctures from each of our three burdock roots. We wanted to see if there was any difference. Well, it was pretty obvious to us. There is a starch in the burdock root called Inulin and you may have heard of that because sometimes it's put in --
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