Benefits of comfrey

Comfrey

Although the FDA doesn't recommend this plant for consumption, based on the assumption that if you eat about 3 truckloads at one time, it could become harmful and cause liver damage, it still is one amazing herb! If you aren't careful it can be a nuisance in the garden, it spreads by root, and reproduces by beautiful small purple, blue, or white flowers, it stands off the ground up to 5 feet tall and one plant can be 5 feet wide!

There are 4 kinds of comfrey, common comfrey, Russian comfrey, symphytum tuberosum, symphytum asperum.

Russian comfrey doesn't spread as well as common comfrey, so if you want a comfrey plant that doesn't take over the garden, Russian comfrey would probably be best for you. Today I'll be talking about common comfrey!

The long velvet/Velcro leaves are a tasty treat to almost any of our animal friends, and isn't too bad for a salad if you needed more lettuce! The leaves are good for making a salve that can speed the process of many wounds healing, use with caution on broken bones! If the bone needs to be surgically set then don't apply until it's been set, because it speeds bone growth which found cause the bone to heal just how it is.

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The roots, although more difficult to harvest, and less tasty, are no joke! They grow long and wide, I've dug up networks up to 6 feet outward! Roots can be used to make a tea which can help with joint pain, ulcers, menstrual cramps, muscle cramps, stomach pain, and many other ailments! The tea made by the root is actually flavorless! It tastes almost just like water!

To make comfrey root tea, just remove the black skin and boil them in water fir at least 10 minutes. Removing the skin may be a bit difficult because the root leaves a slimy residue on your knife or potatoes peeler, but usually it rinses right off! Harvesting root can be difficult because they break very easy, so where a carrot is sturdy and you typically pull the entire carrot out of the ground, comfrey root will only give you a little piece!

The beautiful purple flowers are also edible, but I wouldn't waste any time trying to just collect the flowers, but if you really wanted to, I recommend cutting the stalks and shaking the flowers off into a box, fairly simple as they shed their flowers while being harvested to assure they remain.

Comfrey can grow almost anywhere, here in Indiana it starts growing in early spring and stays into the fall pretty much until the first snow! It can grow in direct sunlight, or full shade! I still am not sure where it does best because mine always grow well, especially during their second year because through the winter, even though there are no leaves to be seen, the roots spread and grow preparing themselves to double, triple, or even quadruple themselves come spring! This summer I planted lots along the outside of the horse fence, come spring I'm hoping to see them inside the pasture for the horses to enjoy!

Planting comfrey is so easy! Especially if you have a fresh root! This summer I experimented to see just how big a piece of comfrey root needed to be to grow a plant, I was told no shorter than an inch, but I had to dig one up as it grew where it didn't belong, so I had over a gallon of root to play with AFTER I made some tea with the majority! I got plants to grow from root pieces as small as a 1/4 inch by 1/2 inch! And some even smaller! They are relentless! Im not sure if comfrey seeds are hard to find these days as my mother brought them here and I didn't expect to be so impressed by them when she planted them, but I do know that once you get your first plant growing, you will not have to worry about going without it! My grandmother has a patch along her flower garden fence that's about 25 feet long and at least 3 or 4 feet wide, and when she doesn't have time to do anything with it she weed eats the whole thing down to the dirt, every bit! And she has to do it at least every 2 weeks! They get 3 feet tall in that amount of time! They're incredible! One spring I tried to slow them down and pull the roots up... Well... That did not work at all! I pulled and pulled all day and collected gallons of root, and I dug them up with shovels and I thought I was really doing something! Come back 2 weeks later only to find they are still about 3 feet tall every one!

Comfrey is a member of the tobacco family, and was originally called "knitbone" for it's incredible bone growth stimulant!