Wild Burdock is a powerful, strong and yet gentle plant offering delicious, nourishing food and abundant healing medicine. Some consider Wild Burdock an invasive nuisance, but our family embraces burdock in and around our homestead gardens because he is so resilient, beautiful, giving and nourishing.

While Wild Burdock prefers moist loamy soils in fields and pastures, burdock’s roots are also renowned for being able to grow very deep in tough, dense, rocky soils. Digging for the whole root in those conditions can be quite a chore (though sometimes worth it for the strong medicine), so gardeners often prefer to grow burdock in well prepared beds with deep loamy soil.

Those deep roots are so strong and able to mine minerals from deep in the soil, often many feet down, where other annual or biennial veggies and root crops cannot. It is this strength and ability to gather minerals that allows burdock to offer incredibly nourishing food and healing medicine.

As a biennial, burdock gets its name from its numerous burrs that are set on its long seed stalks after flowering in its second year of life. Burdock’s burrs will cling to just about anything that touches its ripe seed heads, including animal fur and clothing. In fact burdock’s burrs is literally what inspired the invention of velcro. When you see two cling together, you’ll understand in an instant. Fun fact: Burdock’s burrs got the nickname of beggar’s buttons back in the day, because they cling so well!

Wild Burdock roots taste very earthy, mildly bitter and slightly sweet. Burdock roots are high in inulin and should be eaten cooked. They are quite crunchy until well cooked. I like to fry the roots and get them both crispy on the outside and soft inside before adding them to a meal. Chunked up and roasted is also a delicious way to prepare burdock roots. Burdock roots are also great in stews and soups cooked until soft. If you find burdock roots too bitter or the taste too earthy, you can peel the skin. However keep in mind the skin is where a lot of the good medicine and nourishment is!

Burdock is thought of as a liver ally and burdock roots and seeds are and have been renowned by many cultures around the world for clearing various skin conditions. Anecdotally I can testify to this in my own personal experience because burdock has helped me clear up a long case of eczema that kept getting worse every year. After allying with Burdock the eczema is now kept in check. I regularly drink burdock root infusion, take fresh burdock root tincture, eat burdock roots and/or eat burdock seeds. Whenever I notice an uptick in my eczema I ramp up on the burdock again and my skin is relieved within a few days at most, where before allying with burdock my flareups would last weeks.

Burdock’s heart shaped leaves are massive and fuzzy. I love the feeling of burdock leaves under my fingers because they are so soft. The leaves themselves are also medicinal and are especially great for poultices because they are so huge. Burdock leaves can be used by themselves or to help poultice other herbs.

I haven’t tried yet, but I am excited and curious to use burdock’s giant leaves wrapped around food made from rice or corn, like they do with banana leaves or corn husks for example, in Asian and South American cuisines. I think they would be an excellent local version of leaves for wrapping steamed foods in temperate climates, because banana leaves are not as easy to grow in large numbers the further north we live.

Wild Burdock (Arctium minus), who is native to Europe, is Greater Burdock’s cousin. Greater Burdock (Arctium lappa) who hails from Asia, otherwise known as Gobo (Japanese for vegetable), is popular in health food stores and fancy restaurants. While Gobo has more varieties available to grow from seed, Wild Burdock is not commonly available as seed in commerce. They both offer great food and medicine. While some prefer Gobo to Wild Burdock as food, I prefer to grow Wild Burdock because it offers excellent food and medicine, and I believe its wildness allows a greater ability to yield quality nourishment and medicine, even in tough conditions.

The Wild Burdock seeds we offer are adapted to our semi-arid climate with long, hot, dry summers. While it is true that Wild Burdock loves water, this ecotype is incredibly drought resistant.

While I plant burdock for food in our garden, I also I embrace burdock’s wildness and wild tend it outside our garden in un-irrigated spaces for medicine, food and seeds. It is these wild seeds that we offer to you.

Details

Lifecycle: Biennial
Lifespan: 2 seasons
Hardiness zones: 4-8 (USDA)
Habitats: Forest edges, roadsides, pastures, clearings
Plant size: 4 ft wide x 7 ft tall
Light: Full sun to part shade
Soil: All soil types, including compacted and infertile soils
Water: Moist soil preferred, can handle dry soils

Seed Starting

Burdock seeds require 30 days moist cold stratification. Germination may be improved with a 30 day warm-moist period beforehand or a longer stratification time. Otherwise, plant seeds in the fall as soon as they are ripe.

First year burdock’s leaf span are quite wide and can reach 3-4 feet across in rich soil. You can space burdock 3 feet across in shallow or dense soils. In deep soils it’s a common practice to grow burdock as close as 4-6 inches apart to encourage the roots to grow deeper and longer. This is how we like to grow burdock to get the most root per square foot, even if each individual plant won’t get as big as it would spaced further apart.

Cultivation

Burdock is commonly grown as an annual for harvesting roots in late summer when they are the sweetest, on through fall and winter. In winter burdock’s roots will be the most medicinal, but still make great food.

Burdock’s roots can grow 3+ feet deep and up to a few inches wide. Grown close together they can yield quite a lot of food since they are able to make the most of vertical space underground. In that way burdock can make a great companion with other above ground plants that grow much taller or vine above the reach of burdock’s leaves.

Because much digging is required to get the long roots, some gardeners will build a tall raised bed with walls that can be removed at harvest time. Then the soil can be pulled down and the long roots can be “peeled” out. I once did that with 4 pallets placed together in a square and filled with compost. I planted the seeds only a few inches apart and sure enough, I got lots of 2-3 feet roots at the end of the season that way with no digging!

Because burdock can start spreading relatively quickly from seed and its burrs can cause a nuisance to pet or livestock owners, it is worth considering whether you want to allow it to go to seed or not. However, it is simple to prevent burdock from going to seed if desired. Simply harvest the root in its first season. Or if some burdock gets left in the ground until the second season, you can easily sever the top of the plant from the root below the root crown with a shovel.

Harvest

Leaf stalks can be harvested for food anytime in the first year of a burdock’s life. Simply remove the leaf stalk at the base of the plant and cut off the leaves from the stalk. The stalk, with its “U” shape and fibers resembles a long celery stalk but is best cooked. The stalks have a fair amount of bitterness and we prefer them cut in small 1/4″ – 1/2″ segments mixed with other ingredients in our stews and chilis and cooked for long times.

Burdock’s large leaves can be harvested anytime in the first year of burdock’s lives. Use them fresh for medicine or freeze them in a stack to have on hand winter through spring when fresh burdock leaves are not available.

Burdock’s roots are harvested for food or medicine anytime late summer through mid winter. As a biennial, the roots will get woody in the second season so don’t wait that long. Roots can grow rather long, like 3+ feet in good condition, so prepare a deep bed or grow them in a raised bed. Some gardeners create very tall raised beds with sides that can be removed for easier harvesting.

Burdock is sweeter when harvested in late summer and more bitter when harvested in the winter. So the rule of thumb is to harvest the root in late summer for food and in winter or at least after a few hard frosts or freezes for better medicine. However you can’t really go wrong and you can harvest it anytime summer through winter either for food or medicine.

Propagation

Burdock is grown from seed.

Seed Saving

Burdock flowers and sets seeds in its second year. So you will need to overwinter the root. No need to lift the root from the soil to over winter (in most climates). It can handle quite cold winter temperatures, even in very wet soil. Harvest the seeds when the burs have turned brown and remove from the stalk easily. Open the burs between your fingers and you will find several dark gray seeds. You may prefer to wear gloves when handling burdock burrs because they have hairs that can irritate skin.

Seeds

Wild Bergamot

Wild Burdock

Wild Mustard Landrace

Winged Everlasting

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