Better eat your weedies - Teton Valley Health Care

104 YEARS
Teton Valley News - June 13, 2013 - Page B1
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T e ton
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B1 teton valley news - June 13, 2013
TVN Photos/Bridget Ryder
Cate Stillman teaching locals how to
incorporate weeds from their yards
into their diets.
Better eat your weedies
from your local environstrength. The roots of invament your immune syssive weeds can grow right
tem will recognize and
through potatoes, according
accept them even if they
to Ben Eborn, Teton County
enter through your nose.
Extension Agent. On the
Stillman travels around
other hand, sweet scicily has
the country and the world
very shallow tap roots. Thisteaching ayurvedic practle’s long roots allow it to
Cate Stillman, a local ayurvedic practitioner, yoga tices. When in Iowa, for
live not from the anemic first
instructor, and founder of Yogahealer, hosted staff example, Stillman said
layer of soil on the construcfrom Teton Valley Health Care for a workshop that she might go for a
tion site, but rather from the
Wild edible plants workshop
on how to turn invasive run, wander off the road
nutrient rich, damp layer of
Wild edible plants, both natives
plants into detoxifying into a field, pick a dandirt deeper down. This also
and invasive, can be found from
smoothies.
delion and munch it. It
makes thistle a conduit for
Dandelions
backyards to the National Forest.
only
takes
a
few
bites
to
those
nutrients.
“I like to bring people’s
Full Circle Education is hosting a
are the new
ingest
the
new
environattention to how many
“These plants, they’re pulling
Wild Edible Plants Workshop on
kale.
plants you interact with,” ment and bring her body
nutrients from down below
Saturday, June 15 from 10 a.m. to
_______________
Stillman said as an intro- in sync with her natural
the disturbed soil,” Stillman
1 p.m Join ethnobotanist Kevin
duction to the group surroundings. According
said.
Quote from
to
Stillman,
allergies
don’t
Taylor on a walk through the wild
gathered around her
Kate Stillman’s
Humans can harvest and
have to be part of life. In
lands surrounding Snowdrift Farm
kitchen counter.
sweatshirt
consume those minerals
some places, the natural
in Victor, Idaho to identify and
Stillman’s left hand low- environment doesn’t trigand
vitamins in the thistle
taste local edible plants. Cost is
ered and her right hand ger human antihistamines.
leaves.
Another advantage,
$35 per person. Sign up online at
lifted in the same proit doesn’t take long for the
tetonfullcircle.org or by emailing
portions she postulated “I want to put that in the
bulky shoots and green of
[email protected]
exists between the rise of bigger context of why we
thistle to add up to pounds.
degenerative diseases and the decrease in the might want to eat the
Rather than constantly fight
weeds growing in your
diversity of the human diet. Her
invasive weeds, Stillman has
yard,” she
sweatshirt read, “Dandelions are the
learned to work with them.
said.
new kale.” Native Americans, accord“Nature’s just going to do what it wants, so coopI don’t think of it
ing to Stillman, ate anywhere from
Stillman said that invasive weeds erate,” she said. “Do we want to spray our yard
1,200 to 1,800 plant species and knew
as an appliance,
have become a worldwide phenom- and then go and buy supplements at the store?”
how to use an additional thousand
I think of it as
enon. There are 13 pervasively invaor so for medicinal and practical
sive species—plants found around Realizing the nutritional value of the normally
health insurance.
purposes. In contrast, omnivores
the world wherever humans disturb unwelcome plants will change your attitude, StillIt can pulverize
on a standard American diet digest
earth. Stillman held up two plants man warned.
anything into a
about 30 different plants in a yearly
for comparison--thistle and sweet “If someone starts to come in and spray the weeds,
really smooth
cycle. The monotonous diet creates
sicily. The rough, husky leaves of you’re like no, that’s my liver,” she said.
texture.
a disconnect with the environment
the
familiar invasive plant dwarfed
_______________
that some also blame on the rise of
the delicate, salad-like foliage of The workshop then moved outside to a section of
allergies.
Kate Stillman
the native. The root system of the Stillman’s yard where Mother Nature eventually
regarding
her
two plants holds the answer to the covered the disturbed earth with lots of those
“Their body becomes your body so
Vitamix
blender
question. Thistle sends its roots hardy, liver-nurturing weeds. She bent down
to speak,” Stillman said.
deep into the earth with amazing and plucked from a patch of green, low growth,
You are what you eat. If you eat foods
Bridget Ryder
TVN staff
ho said musk thistle and lambs quarter were good-for-nothing weeds?
Getting beyond the plants’ prickly
appearance and noxious reputation could lead
to better health.
W
Weedies continued on B11
104 YEARS
Weedies
Teton Valley News - June 13, 2013 - Page B11
continued from B1_____________________________________________________________________________________________________
When she stood up, she introduced her audience to
alfalfa. Typically considered horse food, according to
Stillman, it’s also usually the first ingredient in green
smoothie mixes. Stillman continued with the plant’s
horse association.
“I’m just gonna harvest it like a horse. I’m not going to
harvest it all the way down,” she said and then moved
to another variety of green patch. “This is thistle. All
I do is pick the most tender leaves.”
Stillman suggested keeping the lawn watered to keep
the leaves tender. Plants also should be harvested
young, before they’ve gone to seed, to get the most
nutrients and the best taste.
spinach and high in calcium.
Besides vitamins, greens, even invasive ones, bring Stillman took the group back inside for a culinary demanother benefit to the body. The chlorophyll they onstration and pulled out her blender-like appliance.
use for photosynthesis, moves oxygen into the blood “I don’t think of it as an appliance, I think of it as health
of human beings. More oxygen means more energy insurance,” Stillman said. “It can pulverize anything
and helps balance the nervous system, but oxygen into a really smooth texture.”
may not be as abundant as it once was.
The Vitamix can make even thistle go down gently.
“Scientists say that now there’s less oxygen available Stillman threw apples, bananas, celery, thistle, and
than when Christ walked the earth.” Stillman said.
sweet sicily into the first batch. For the next round
Lamb’s quarter is another rampantly common invasive of smoothies, she combined grapefruit and pineapple
species, but Stillman said the fuzzy plant is similar to with the greens and for the final batch, she added
mint and honey as well. Stillman didn’t hesitate to
“celebrate international shipping” while teaching local
foraging. The samples made the rounds.
“It tastes like freshly mowed lawn,” Ann Loyola, the
hospital’s public relations and marketing director,
described the second smoothie.
“Taste is relative and taste changes,” Stillman said.
The celery and grapefruit also came through with
the fresh-mowed-lawn flavor of the three smoothies,
which had increased progressively in both sweetness
and their crowd- pleasing qualities. Stillman said that
the taster’s relative impression of bitterness reflected
his or her diet—the sweeter the diet the more bitter
each smoothie seemed. The greens are inherently
bitter, she said, but a palate can learn to get used to
it. For those trying raw greens in smoothies for the
first time, Stillman suggested starting small—just one
dandelion leaf. It’s a technique she said she uses with
children, as well.
But if you pick a bag full of greens and eat them, don’t
worry. In the high desert climate they will likely dry out
instead of rotting, which means instead of a smoothie
you’ll have a tea, plus, they were free in the first place.
Stillman will be hosting a YogiDetox June 15-22 in
which she will coach participants through a week of
green smoothies (weeds not required) and yoga to
better health. For more information visit her website
yogahealer.com.
Cate Stillman blends up a detoxifying smoothie made of invasive weeds.
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