Do not drink cleaver tea (a.k.a goosegrass or bedstraw) before bed time. Seriously. I know it sounds like a fun idea and all, like throwing them on your husband's back when you are out walking, but if you're staying in a freaking cold van in the High Country of Victoria in Winter, you do not want to get up and pee all night.
You see, cleavers are fabulous for kidney cleansing, thus, they're gonna detox you and make you PEE. I was rapt to find some along a stream when we were camping a few days ago, because I felt, like I often do when I meet a herb out a-walking, that they were put on my path for a REASON. My kidneys had been sore for days - I think just a strain on them from cold weather and not enough clothes (Australians get confused when the weather gets cold, and it takes us a while to realise more clothes help). I was looking for plantain, as I need something for my lungs AND for Jamie's sinuses post nose op, knowing it would help both things. I did find plantain, and nettle, and CLEAVERS - woo! Thus, made ourselves a beautiful herbal tea before bed, thinking, ah, this is gonna do us some good. I remembered cleavers were good for the lymph so figured it'd be part of a tonic tea. We used to drink it all the time in England. I used to love this quote from Culpepper:
It is under the dominion of the Moon. The juice of the herb and the seed together taken in wine, helpeth those bitten with an adder, by preserving the heart from the venom. It is familiarly taken in broth, to keep them lean and lank that are apt to grow fat.
Nicholas Culpeper, 1653
We used to joke that drinking it would stop Jamie getting too fat, because then I wouldn't love him. It was funny coz he is naturally a lean guy.
I'd forgotten, though, just how good cleavers were at removing excess fluid from the body - and mine responded particularly well to them.Hence constant wee wees. I nearly filled the bucket we had in the van for that purpose!
Dad used to drink nettle tea a lot for his psoriasis as that too is a blood cleanser. Cleavers would have been good added this brew, but they just didn't grow where we grew up. In fact, I'd never heard of them til I moved to the UK, although they are found around Australia. A lot of colonial towns of course have 'weeds' which are English or European plants escaped from people's gardens - nettles, yarrow, chickweed, plantain, cleavers, dandelions, sorrel and the like. I have been specifically looking for them whilst in this beautiful part of the world on our road trip. I'm going to take some home to tincture.
I feel I have a lot to learn about cleavers and the more I read, the more I think they'd be a good companion for plantain, being good for the digestion and as an astringent for skin.
This post was written a few weeks back and I just found it in my drafts. Since then, I have found more cleavers on a wild forest road where we stopped for a wee and look and the view. I adore how plants just pop up when you least expect them
Do you use cleavers? How have you prepared them?
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