Chickweed Tea: Powerful Homeopathic Healing!

If you're a gardener, you probably think of chickweed as just that - a weed. Chickweed is an extremely common, hardy plant that grows rapidly all over the world. Chickweed gets its common name from its attractiveness to birds - they love to eat the seeds and leaves alike, and chickweed seed is often used as chicken feed. While it is considered a nuisance to some, chickweed is actually an edible herb with many homeopathic healing properties. Made into a tea, chickweed can provide health benefits and cure minor ailments. It even tastes good! Here's how to make and use chickweed tea at home.

Chickweed tea can be made from either dry or fresh chickweed. There are several brands of dry chickweed tea commercially available, but you can easily make your own. To dry chickweed, simply bundle it with string and hang it in a cool, airy location to dry as you would any herb. Once it is completely dry, it can be stored just like any other dried herb. To brew chickweed tea from dry leaves or tea bags, simply place the tea bag or a tea ball filled with dried chickweed leaves in a mug, then add boiling water and allow the chickweed to steep for 3 minutes (or more, depending on your strength preference). Fresh chickweed leaves can be used to make tea in the same way, but use double the quantity and make sure to muddle or bruise the leaves before the water is added, to better extract their flavor and healing properties.

Chickweed tea is delicious to drink and has many uses as an internal medicine. It is a natural diuretic, and due to its ability to stimulate digestion and metabolism, is often used as a weight loss tool. It can help alleviate symptoms of rheumatism, fatigue and constipation. As a singer, I have used chickweed tea as a remedy for minor coughs and other respiratory illnesses - it's better than any cough syrup I've tried, and it doesn't have the unfortunate drying side effects, either.

Externally, chickweed tea is known for its soothing and healing properties. It can be used to soak dry, itchy skin or as a rinse for skin ailments like psoriasis and eczema. Some people like to mix it into their conditioner or rinse their hair with it to help prevent and treat dandruff. Though I've never tried it for this purpose, I have a friend who swears by chickweed tea to treat acne - and her skin always looks great!

Herbal teas are generally lauded for their health benefits, and chickweed tea is no exception. It is one of the most versatile herbal homeopathic remedies around, as well as one of the tastiest. It's probably growing right under your nose, too, so don't delay - give chickweed tea a try today!