Meet YELLOW DOCK: Common Global Weed Full of Wild Food and Herbal Medicine Gifts!

I am excited for you to get to know a very common weed that is probably growing right outside your door (or nearby park or garden). It's a close relative of French sorrel and a second cousin to rhubarb. And its roots are famous for supporting blood health.
Yellow dock, a perennial of the Polygonaceae family, is scientifically called Rumex crispus. Join me in the field today and meet it in its basal rosette and seed stage.
Culinary Uses
Tender new basal & aerial leaves, peeled flower stalk, leaf petioles: raw in salad; cooked in soup, sauté, omelet, frittata. Larger basal and aerial leaves: cooked in soup, sauté, frittata. Root: cooked in tonic beverage. Seed: cooked as grain.
Qualities
Leaf & stalk: sour, astringent & high in vitamin C; they cook down into a soft mass the consistency of spinach.
Therapeutics
Root-dug after a few hard frosts- is used as a blood tonic, cleanser and lymphatic stimulant; poop encourager (aperient, laxative); for skin issues; and liver support (which means it can help with a multitude of situations). It is also used to help build blood; often used for anemia.
The root is bitter, astringent & high in minerals, although the oxalic acid content may be an issue for long term use. Roots are usually consumed as tea, tincture or syrup.
Leaf: Fresh leaf poultice is used for neutralizing a nettle rash. “Nettle in dock out”.
May be of concern: Contains oxalic acid, just like garden sorrel, French sorrel, spinach, Swiss chard, rhubarb, almonds, chocolate, soy and more.
Habitat
Look for yellow dock in full sun to part shade in most soil types, although it prefers moist and rich soil.
Found in cultivated fields, waste ground, pasture, roadsides, gardens, and human-made sites (anthropogenic sites).
It is a native of Eurasia but now a weed of the world. It grows In USDA hardiness zones (USDA): 4-9.
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