It's time for Prickly Lettuce pain killing goo. It takes a lot of work cutting, boiling, simmering, simmering, summering, summering... But I got 360g of sticky, bitter goo from this batch. Based on how many people I gave it away to last year (some folks kindly gifted some $$$ and someone even gifted some HBD to keep things going, but mostly it was given away), I'm going to have to do at least one more this year.
I've learned a few things the last couple of years of making bigger batches.
its a really robust and forgiving process. Some videos give exact numbers, times and ratios but ignore them. Just follow the general process and you'll be right.
harvest a few kg as you need to. This batch was 20kg that a friend donated and it was a lot of effort to process quickly. I wilted this lot for ease of handling. I used about 2/3 of the 20kg.
don't worry if you have to wait a day or so before chopping up the herb. The white latex quickly turns clear in the plant with a little time but the power is still there.
fresh is better. I've tried dried and it works wwll but you've got all that extra tome and handling. The best batch I ever did was using dried that was then soaked in alcohol for a day (should have been 2 hours but I forgot about it 😁). But once again, there's all that extra time drying, soaking and not to mention the extra cost of the alcohol. Fresh works fine
take your time. It doesn't go offf easily. I only cooked mine in the daytime when the sun was out, and I got free power from the solar.
don't try to don't all at once. Once a stage is complete, store it in the fridge. It'll keep.
in later stages, use as wide mouthed container as possible. The steam gets out faster and it's easier to get the goo out of. I use big 10 and 20 litre pots for the initial stages and a saucepan for the final bit.
-don't make a resin out of it. So much gets wasted stuck to things. A thick liquid is better.
- when youve finished a batch, rinse your pans and utensils and keep the wash to kick start the next batch.
Over the years, I've recommended many people investige Prickly Lettuce and have not heard of a single disappointment. It's a wonderfully generic pain reliever that can help most people. As always though, check out your personal situation with a tiny amount, well diluted, first.
I'd love to be able to list the range of ailments that people have brought themselves relief from with this herb but that's something the TGA and friends don't like. But if you want to avail yourself of a little natural pain relief, please investigate Prickly Lettuce as a possibility for yourself.
If you want to know more about this amazing herb, either dig back through my blog here on Hive or check out my website for all the details -https://ligayagarden.online/wild-lettuce-lactuca-serriola/
