This is the time baby cleavers shoot up from the winter earth. You may know this plant by its school ground name: sticky willy/sticky weed. As it gets older it forms sticky hairs that cling to you & when we were kids we’d be in stitches about how long a pal could walk round with some sticky willy stuck to their back.
Properties
Circulation
Cleavers lowers blood pressure, perhaps through it’s diuretic action.
Digestion
Cleavers improves digestion and stimulates the flow of bile from the liver.
Skin
Its cleansing properties are helpful for chronic skin conditions such as eczema, acne, boils, psoriasis, rosacea.
It can help to resolve measles & chicken pox.
Urinary System
As a diuretic, cleavers aids the elimination of fluid toxins via the kidneys.
Cleavers are traditionally used as a tea for a ‘cleansing spring tonic’. cooling heat & clearing toxins.
It is used to treat kidney stones & urinary tract infections, cystitis & irritable bladder.
Immunity
As a lymphatic tonic, cleavers enhances lymphatic circulation, aiding the body in cleansing and immune work, purifying the blood.
Cleavers is used to treat lymphatic congestion, swollen lymph glands, glandular fever, ME, tonsillitis. It may have anti-tumour activity.
It clears and resolves inflammation so is helpful for arthritis & gout.
Cleavers promotes immune function & reduces fevers.
Externally
Cleavers can be used in skin washes for skin disorders, cuts, scrapes & as a hair rinse for dandruff.
All notes on the properties of cleaver taken from:
The Complete Herbal Tutor by Anne McIntyre (revised & expanded edition)
Foraging Tips
Don’t harvest cleavers from the side of roads, rail tracks, park fences or close to cultivated fields & fruit orchards unless you’re sure they’re organically cultivated. The herbs will most likely be affected by chemical contamination through vehicle emissions, herbicides, pesticides, creosote. Also take care when you are harvesting near/ or in water. There may be chemical run off from up stream.
Recipes
The way I take cleavers is the most simple way, the way you see in the attached photo :)
Cold Decoction
Collect your cleavers, get home, give them a good rinse, pop them into a bowl & leave in water over night…or a couple of nights. You’ll see the water turning a darker yellowy colour. This is good! It means the goodness from the cleavers is in the water.
What I usually do is take out the cleavers, pop them in another bowl. Sift the water to ensure you have no debris in there. Add the water back into the bowl with the cleavers & whizz with a hand blender.
Once I’m done whizzing, I squeeze some fresh lemon in there.
Recently, I’ve been adding my cleaver juice in with my green powder mix which contains stuff like Spirulina & Wheatgerm. I take my juice in a morning before I eat my porridge :)
Herbal Vinegar
A herbal vinegar is just herbs infused in vinegar, usually unpasteurised apple cider vinegar. Lidl actually sell a decent organic apple cider vinegar that doesn’t cost the earth. But, even Lidl can’t compete with the cost of making apple cider vinegar yourself, nowts as good as free is it.
So, cleavers herbal vinegar.
Collect your cleavers, get home, give them a good wash & make sure they’re thoroughly dry. Leave them out over night on some kitchen roll. The next day, chop them up roughly, pop them into a sterilised jar. I recycle all my old condiment jars & these are great, no need to buy new fancy ones. Then cover the herbs in the apple cider vinegar. Leave for about a week to let the plant infuse with the vinegar.
You can use herbal vinegar by taking 1-2tbsp daily OR use it on salad dressings & other types of cooking. Next month I’m going to share an old recipe for a Spring Tonic Herbal Vinegar using several Spring plants.
I hope you enjoy this plant as much as I do.
Spring Blessings,
Hannah-May