Ground Ivy Tea

            A favorite remedy in times gone by, this bitter brew has been recommended for a variety of ailments – coughs, blood and kidney disorders, rheumatism, sciatica, gout, indigestion. The herbalist Nicholas Culpeper proclaimed it “a singular herb for all inward wounds” and assured that it would expel “melancholy by opening the stoppings of the spleen.”

            The tonic effects of this tea may be explained by its very high mineral content. It is also rich in vitamin C and was once used by painters to prevent lead poisoning; it is now known that vitamin C combines with lead and enables it to be excreted from the body.

            Because of its bitter taste, ground ivy is usually mixed with other herb teas, such as sage, rosemary, or chamomile. Or mix it cold with orange juice. Taken cold it is an excellent bitters to stimulate the appetite.

            At one time used in the processing of beer, ground ivy (Glechoma hederacea) is also known as gill-over-the-ground, alehoof, or gill (from the French guiller, to ferment beer).

Chicory

            Where would the coffee of France and New Orleans be without its chicory? For it is the mixture of the roasted chicory root with the coffee bean that  yields the distinctive brew of these areas. (Purist coffee lovers might call this adulteration rather than mixture).

            Chicory is a wild plant that is often brought under cultivation (more in Europe than in the United States); its delicate blue flowers close at night and then open again with clocklike regularity in the morning hours. The plant shares many of the medicinal and culinary uses of its relative the dandelion. Its tasty bitter leaves act as a stimulant to the appetite and digestion and can be eaten raw in salad or cooked as a vegetable. The leaves can also be chopped and brewed as a tea that is useful for liver ailments, gout, and rheumatism. The chicory root, ground and roasted, is used as a coffee substitute, and when combined with coffee is said to counteract its stimulating effects.