Spring Tonics: Dandelion Greens, Nettles, Rhubarb, and Sassafras Tea

A Spring Tonic using early spring greens may be just what you need this month!

What Is a Spring Tonic?

While the vernal equinox marks spring's moment, the first greens make it real. Early settlers believed in the tonic effects of eating spring greens: stimulating digestion, purifying blood, curing scurvy and ague, combating rheumatism, and repelling kidney stones after a long, inactive winter.

Rich in vitamins and trace minerals, these cleansing greens and roots were prepared and consumed in early spring, providing nourishment and energy after a nutrient-poor winter. Tonics also stimulated appetite, circulation, and bodily functions as settlers prepared for physical farm labor.

Let's face it—anything fresh and green tasted great after a wearisome winter of salt pork and dried beans.

Dandelion Tonic

Dandelions were so valued they were cultivated in gardens.

Use tender young leaves in salads, fresh or blanched as French and Dutch settlers favored. Or use like spinach or make soup. (Those who boiled dandelion greens often drank the "pot likker" or cooking water, loaded with water-soluble vitamins.)

Did you know? Dandelions can also be used as a relaxing body rub. See Natural Remedies for Stress and Anxiety.

Warning: Ensure dandelions haven't been chemically treated before picking. Our lawn is safe—we avoid pesticides and fertilizers.

Rhubarb Tonic

Rhubarb (pieplant) was widely regarded as a fine spring tonic for blood and digestion. Cooked/stewed rhubarb was called "spring fruit" in early cookbooks.

Note: Only eat rhubarb stalks. Leaves contain high oxalic acid levels, toxic in high doses.

Boil rhubarb as soup (with sweetener). Also delicious in preserves, puddings, and pies.

(See rhubarb recipes here.)
(See rhubarb planting guide here.)

Sassafras Tea

Early spring means Sassafras Tea time! Old-timers made this popular tonic by boiling sweet fern, sarsaparilla, wintergreen, and sassafras with water.

Image: Sassafras leaves

Or just boil sassafras root.

Sassafras saplings were pioneer trees, still common on field edges. Note: Get help with wild plant identification (e.g., Audubon Society Field Guide).

Sassafras roots are dug, dried a few days, chopped into 2-inch pieces (~1 foot root per half-gallon tea). Leaves dried too. After boiling and simmering 15 minutes, drain and sweeten with sugar. Sassafras tea remains popular.

Note: If foraging, ensure legal root digging. Consult a health professional before ingesting tonics. Sassafras can be toxic in large amounts—don't drink enormous quantities year-round!

If you make or drink spring tonics, or have questions, share below!