Do any of you know what the herb is that produces these lovely, little purple clusters of flowers that honey bees love?Come on now . . . who's gonna be the first with the correct answer??
Wonderful
50 minutes ago
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Welcome back Mama Pea! I missed you! I know what it is because I have lots of it! I dried some this year. I've read another blogger who dries it to feed to her goats over the winter.
Hey, Jordan - I knew you would know! Goats like it fresh also. We've dried it and fed it to the poultry in the winter, too.
Enjoy your time with your mom!
Mint! Wow - everything really is early this year.
That was basically a confident guess by the way :)
Hi, Jen - Wrong. I can't believe I got you on this one! (You're so danged intelligent!) Mint . . . hmmm, can't you just imagine chickens with fresh, minty smelling breath of a winter's morning? (THAT might be worth a try. Or would the eggs take on a minty flavor? Might create problems there!)
My guess is... comfrey? I've got loads of it here and I've recently discovered all the wonderful things we can do with it :)
Comfrey? Maybe not, mine is yellow but I've seen pink in books.
Debs who no longer has chickens and never had goats (but would I have dried comfrey for them?)
You got it, Fiona! Is yours flowering yet? Mine would have flowered much sooner, I think, but I cut it all down once earlier to give to Chicken Mama for her poultry.
Rainsong - Your comfrey blossoms are yellow? I've never seen that.
I was going to say Oregano since mine looks like that, but I know you have lots of comfrey so I figured that must be it LOL!
Arrrgh - I was going to say comfrey! Late on the draw. Jordan has tons of the wonderful stuff!
Yes, it's flowering -- so pretty! The bees are loving it! I'm sure the goats will too come wintertime, though maybe I'll give them some before then... because they're not spoiled enough already :)
Hey, Erin - Your oregano is flowering?? Heck, mine's barely growing.
Hi, Susan - Yeah, that's one thing about comfrey. If you don't contain it (mine's in a raised bed), it will try to take over the world!
Hi, Fiona - I should be drying batches of ours for the poultry this winter but (sigh) that's just one more thing to do!
I've not grown comfrey. Other than critter how would you use it?
I admit that feeding it to chickens or goats did throw me off :) But now I'm remembering Beatrix Potter's story Jemima Puddle Duck where the fox encourages Jemima to gather herbs for the "omelet" he's going to cook for her, but she was really seasoning herself for him!
Hi, Katie - You can eat it like spinach if you harvest the leaves when they are small . . . they get prickly and kinda strong as they grow bigger. It's supposedly super-good for healing wounds of any kind either internal or external. When I had our daughter, it was a difficult birth so afterwards my hubby fed me lots of cooked comfrey and I did have an easy, quick recovery whether we can attribute that to the comfrey or not! It is used as a poultice externally for quick healing of cuts, abrasions, even bad bruises.
Hey, Jen - Comfrey is a very old herb that is staging a "comeback" and becoming popular with gardeners and homesteaders now. Maybe there's a comfrey-themed children's book in there somewhere!
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