“The oats are milky!”
You know you’re an herbalist when this statement brings great delight.
I was walking with my lovely friend and our two little dogs at Badger Park one afternoon last week when I realized we were both randomly plucking oat tops, checking to see if they’re milky. Chat chat, squeeze. Chat chat, squeeze.
“The oats are milky!” she exclaimed, and I said, “The student becomes the teacher.”
We walk together often, and I’m always plucking this and smelling that, and now, so is she!
It’s truly a joy because one of the things I hope to do with my love for herbs is share this learning with my community. And here we are. She reaches down to check the oats, or nip a leaf from a mugwort stand. Jordy comes home with a hat full of yerba santa, presenting it to me the way a different man might present a dozen roses. A few other friends hiked with me in the heat of a June afternoon, our fingertips turning red from collecting St. John’s wort flowers. Just enough to infuse into sunflower oil to use in massage for the year.
It’s important to harvest only what we need, and only a small percentage of the stand that grows. We leave plenty of flowers for the bees and also, I don’t want to clearcut any area of its wild weeds. Enough is as good as a feast, as Mary Poppins likes to say.
But, yes. The oats are milky! A client had to cancel his massage the next day so I was gifted the free time to gather oat tops. The milky stage only lasts so long, and when it’s done, it’s done. If we don’t collect and blend them with alcohol when they’re releasing the nerve-supportive latex, we don’t get to make our Avena sativa tincture for the year.
When wildcrafting: always know exactly what you’re picking. Have a plan; follow through. Don’t take more than you need. Leave enough for the pollinators, the other herbalists, and the stand in general. Before you go out and practice wildcrafting any herb or wild-growing edible, I encourage you to read this article, which includes a list of questions to ask ourselves before foraging.
The oats release their latex: it’s go time!
If you’ve ever shared with me during a time of stress, and you seemed run down, depleted, and worn out from your journey, there’s a good chance I said, “You should take some milky oats.” Oats are incredibly nourishing for our nervous systems. I love the idea of milky oat medicine as a little blankie coating the myelin sheath of our nerves. Ahhh. Soothing. Calming. Relaxing.
Through the lens of Ayurveda, the vata dosha, or constitution, runs a more dry, frazzled nervous system. One that needs the nourishing protection of herbs that ground and soothe.
Milky oats can be a wonderful ally in this case.
I experimented with taking it twice a day for weeks and weeks during a particularly stressful time in life. I felt the difference. It felt like the noise of the world that would normally have induced stress in my system was turned down to a doable volume.
Herbs provide their magic in many ways. While I was gathering the oat tops, a woman stopped and said, “May I learn what you’re picking?” I explained about the oats and showed her how the latex was present when squeezing the top, that it was a slow process as I was being very particular, checking each plant before snipping off the top foot or so. I told her I was planning to make the tops into a tincture and the straw into a tea to soothe my nerves. She said, “I like how intentionally you’re engaging in this process. Even the act of collecting looks calming.” Yes! So true.
Simply sitting with plants can be a way of embracing their medicine.
If you’d like to learn more about the medicine of oats, one of my favorite teachers, 7Song, wrote a great monograph on Avena sativa. If you’d like to discuss whether or not milky oats is the right medicine for you and your nervous system, reach out to me here to schedule an herbal consult. We’ll talk about your constitution, and focus on herbs and self-care practices that best support your well-being.
Earth Day is Tuesday, April 22. I can’t make it to this gathering, but if you’re local to Healdsburg and free on Tuesday, 4:00-5:30, the city is hosting an Earth Day Foss Creek clean-up.
But really, every day can be Earth Day. We can celebrate and appreciate the earth each time we step outside, and we can bring bags and gather trash wherever we go.
I’ve been absolutely IN LOVE with all the spring-blooming trees around town. The pink dogwood on the corner of Center and Lincoln? Gorgeous. What have you been loving?
