Dock – the iron rich Rumex group

With my experience raising chickens & teaching livestock care workshops in a former life, I sometimes get calls concerning rooster behavior. Recently, I visited a friend with a "rooster gone wild." In my observation of said rooster, I came to the conclusion that this was a rooster with a healthy drive to protect his girls. With a few instructions and a demonstration of putting a fowl gone afoul to sleep by holding it's head gently under it's wing, we decided to turn off the pot of boiling water and put away the axe. In the weeds that were tossed into the pen afterward was a handful of dock. Curly dock to be exact: Rumex crispus.

There's a common saying among some herbalists which describe our outlook on what to do with the weeds that most people pay big bucks to get rid of ~ "if you can’t beat them, eat them." The buckwheat family, Polygonacea, contains both edible and poisonous plants, so you really have to be careful with this plant family. From the obnoxious Japanese knotweed which squeezes out all other plants as successfully as blackberries, to sheep sorrel, a well known ingredient in the purported cancer remedy, essiac formula, this is a varied and semi large family of plants. In Hitchcock's Flora of the Pacific Northwest, there are 6 genuses listed with myriad species. This issue will focus on the Rumex genus.

Rumex acetosella, or sheep sorrel, is a low growing plant that makes it's home mostly in disturbed sites, roadsides, pastures and the like. The leaves are tart and are rich in vitamin C. We all know by now that Vitamin C is an important antioxidant. The tart taste is attributed to the plant containing oxalic acid. Plants containing this acid should not be eaten in large quantities as the acid can produce oxalate salts which interfere with calcium metabolism. There is a cousin to sheep sorrel which grows in sub alpine regions called mountain sorrel, Oxyria digyna whose leaves are also sour to the taste. The leaves of both plants are best eaten fresh in salads, sandwiches, or grazed upon during hikes or walks.

Rumex crispus, also called yellow dock by some, is commonly used in women's formulas for its iron content.

I harvest R. occidentalis, western dock, in the late fall and early spring to make my own iron rich tea blend for sale, adding with it dandelions, nettles and other iron rich herbs. I harvest this dock by a bay near my home. The very sandy soil makes for easy harvesting. The roots of this plant are a beautiful vivid orange. The leaves in the summer are usually red spotted in places. Using the old Eclectic's tradition of the doctrine of signatures, this spotting looks like red blood cells which shows that this plant "feeds" the blood, i.e., is rich in iron.

Want to know more about dock and other herbs? Sign up for Suzanne’s herb walks and workshops as they are offered in the upcoming months!