Being able to boost your immunity through homemade tonics is a more natural and more sustainable alternative to commercially sourced options. By including ingredients sourced from your own patch – be it your garden, beehive or pantry of homemade fare – making fire cider, an oxymel or a cough syrup can be a really rewarding process.
Yellow Dock is originally from Europe and has a wide array of medicinal uses. Traditionally it was for skin conditions (especially psoriasis), as a blood purifier, a slight laxative, cholagogue (to promote secretion of bile) and as an astringent bowel tonic. My favourite way to use it is as an iron tonic (the root) and as food (the seeds).
You can also pick the seeds in late summer and use them to make flour. You can use them as a substitute for rooibos tea as well. Once the seeds are harvested and processed, store them in an airtight jar.
Description: creeping annual ground cover herb, with tiny white flowers and oval shaped leaves; stems can reach up to 60 cm in length.
