PEP BB medicine.sand.drywillowbark - Dry enough willow bark for a tea, infusion, or decoction

Gathered curly willow branches from the curb in front of my neighbor's house. They had been in the sun for a week prior so the thinnest twigs were dry.  Snipped the dry pieces in a jar, and added warm water to cover. This infusion has made a wonderful rooting compound for propagating softwood and hardwood sticks. I have plenty more.

I harvested my willow bark from the neighbor's cut curly willow, I did not use a sustainable harvesting method because I was harvesting from cut branches.


*although I was grandfathered in, I am choosing to add a photo of my storage and label

Requirements updated for consistency between all Harvest, Dry, and Store BBs.  The submissions above have been grandfathered in.

Jennifer Markestad wrote:Gathered curly willow branches from the curb in front of my neighbor's house. They had been in the sun for a week prior so the thinnest twigs were dry.  Snipped the dry pieces in a jar, and added warm water to cover. This infusion has made a wonderful rooting compound for propagating softwood and hardwood sticks. I have plenty more.

Second harvest:
PEP - Natural Medicine - SAND - Harvest, dry, and store willow bark.

My neighbor's Tortured Willow lost a branch in the last storm and asked for help cleaning it up. I consider windfall as sustainably harvested, this would otherwise go to the city's yard waste program.  I cut it into manageable pieces and my 20yo fledgling loaded the SUV.

At home, I separated the branches for propagation experiments, the already dead bits for willow water rooting compound, and the thicker branches with green bark to peel for tea.

Those branches that were easily peeled were set aside for dried willow bark. Small branches, from pencil size to thumb size, were peeled using a folding knife and allowed to air dry. I used the Excalibur to dehydrate the bark, stored in quart jars until needed.

I have lots still to process.

I harvested some willow branches on my hike the other day.

Harvested some willow bark from two of the three willow trees around my house. Once I got the hang of how deep to cut, it went pretty quick and it was super satisfying how easily the bark peeled off. My plant ID app let me know that these are "white willow" trees, which I am not sure what that means but I'll keep that in mind.

This came from a beaver-chewed and then abandoned branch that I stole and used for spoonmaking, then dried the bark by the fire.

The label is pictorial rather than verbal, depicting purple willow.

Mornin',

Please find attached my submission for the willow-bark-drying BB.  The bark was air-dried in a hot room with air extraction.

Cheers,

-- Jojo