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Wild Lettuce Herb Extract
Above, Joe Hollis of Mountain Gardens identifies lactuca virosa and
discusses propagation and uses of this wild lettuce.

How to Grow Wild Lettuce.
It's much better to grow wild lettuce than it is to forage for it
because with the seeds you'll know what have, and you'll know
that the dogs haven't used your plant as a marking spot.

It's very easy to grow wild lettuce. It's a biennial. If you grow
one, next year you'll be able to grow quite a few because the
seeds disperse much like dandelions. The puff balls seed quite
easily.

  • Beds aren't necessary. Wild lettuce grows in just about
    any vacant land, but If you have dogs, be sure to have a
    growing bed that's outside of your dog's reach.

  • Finger pruning. You can encourage your wild lettuce to grow
    quickly by pruning it a big with your fingers. Pulling the tip
    off, which will cause it to bloom.

  • Be sure to cut the leaves and not the root. When you
    harvest, be sure to leave the root intact, you'll be able to
    get sprouts off it and the plant will keep growing.

  • Get a dehydrator: If you plan on growing your own wild
    lettuce, then be sure to have a dehydrator. Use a dehydrator
    to dry the leaves properly.

  • Store the seeds properly. Below are wild lettuce seeds
    that come very well packaged to ensure the highest possible
    rate of germination.
Prepping with Wild Lettuce
Get natural pain relief from wild lettuce

Preppers are going "Wild" About Wild Lettuce!
Wild lettuce is wildly popular with preppers and for good reason,
but preppers aren't growing Wild Lettuce for salads. Preppers are
making tinctures from Wild Lettuce! Wild lettuce is edible, but it's
mostly popular as a natural pain reliever that's been used in teas
and tinctures for centuries.

Wild lettuce is not illegal and it's wildly available on Amazon!
Become a kitchen witch and use wild lettuce as part of your
natural pharmacy. Below is everything a prepper needs to know
about using wild lettuce...

How to Use Wild Lettuce prepping
Long before "big pharma," there was wild lettuce (Lactuca virosa),
and other natural medicinal herbs. Native to North America, the
indigenous people widely used wild lettuce as both a food and a
ritual herb.
Shop online for organic wild lettuce on Amazon.

There are many types of wild lettuce in the Lactuca family, but
Lactuca Virosa, found in the Zazzee brand pictured right, offers
the powerful benefits Wild Lettuce that preppers want.

How will you use wild lettuce prepping?
Wild lettuce is primarily used for pain relief and better sleep.
Here are some of the many benefits of wild lettuce:
  • Dealing with joint pain, swelling and many other ailments.
    Read #1 below.
  • Treating insomnia. Read #3 below.
  • Allieviating coughs and Asthma
  • Treating urinary tract problems and menstrual problems,
  • Parkinson's Disease
  • Recreational herb. One of the most popular uses of wild
    lettuce is for recreational purposes. Read #4 below.

How to use wild lettuce:
Wild lettuce smells a bit like oregano and has a pungent taste.
There are five basic ways to use this powerful herb to reduce pain
or to help you sleep better and relax:

  • Sip it: Wild leaf lettuce is most often used as an herbal tea
    as a dietary supplement. It has a strong flavor, so you'll
    want to sweeten or dilute the "dirt and grass" flavor. If you
    have a powdered version of the product, you can also slip
    some wild lettuce into your smoothie. Be sure to sweeten
    with honey!

  • Extract it: Wild leaf extract is a very concentrated version of
    the herb used as a dietary supplement. The plant can be
    simmered in a pot with water and sugar and then reduced to
    form a thick, tar-like syrup.

  • Encapsulate it. In powdered form you can encapsulate the
    pills and swallow the herb as a supplement. Beware that
    "ulva Laactuca" is to the same as the powder you want,
    which is "Lactuca virosa."

  • Smoke it: Some inhale wild lettuce for a recreational "high"
    or hallucinogenic effect. Oddly, the hallucinogenic aspect of
    wild lettuce is on the auditory. What will you hear? It's some
    wacky tobacco that's totally legal probably because it's not
    such a well known herb. Also, it doesn't have the dangerous
    side effects of highly addictive drugs. It's weaker than
    opium. Smoking is not like rolling tobacco. You'll make
    smoking sticks from the stems, which when dried are hollow.
    "Uncle Goat" shows you how to make wild lettuce pipes.

  • Eat it: Some grow wild lettuce for salads, though this is the
    least popular way to use wild lettuce because as the plant
    matures it tends to taste bitter. Your goal then will be a
    quick harvest. Better to look for miner's lettuce. Or you can
    roll up the leaves eat and dip them in a spicy hummus or
    ranch dip. Choose the most tender leaves for salads. Boil the
    rest for your other uses.

Use Wild Lettuce cautiously and prudently. Seek organic wild leaf
lettuce and be sure to consult your medical practitioner before
using to ensure it doesn't interact with your medicines.

Preppers can use wild lettuce with some caveats:
  • Don't use wild lettuce while you're pregnant or nursing.
  • Consult your healthcare provider before using if you are
    taking prescription medications, especially central nervous
    system depressants or sedatives,
  • Ask your physician before using especially if you have
    medical condition, such as glaucoma or benign prostatic
    hyperplasia.
  • This natural product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure,
    or prevent any disease.*

Here are the best ways to use the wild lettuce herb:

#1: Wild lettuce as a pain-relieving tea.
Wild lettuce, botanical name lactuca virosa, is popular for its pain
relieving components. A woodland member of the sunflower
family, you can use dried wild lettuce as a tea.

Wild lettuce is ideal as natural pain relief tea, though for reasons
unknown it doesn't work for everyone. For tea it's important to
use an organic wild lettuce. Organic certification is particularly
important with tea, because the process of steeping the herb
causes toxins and contaminants to leech into your drink.

Make a wild lettuce tea:
Add 1-2 tablespoons of organic dried wild lettuce into 1 cup of
boiling water and steep for about 10-15 minutes ~ depending on
the desired strength. Add honey or sugar to sweeten the taste as
some find it bitter tasting.

#2: Wild lettuce extract as an herbal supplement.
Wild lettuce extract is something you can make from organic wild
lettuce leaves. This method will help you with a more
concentrated, powerful and potent pain relief.

An extract is great for assisting respiratory health with those
suffering from asthma and troublesome coughs.

Make a wild Lettuce extract:
Add 3oz into a pot of warm water (do not boil). Soak the wild
lettuce leaves for 8 hours, then sift and press the precious liquid
from the leaves. You can then boil the liquid to reduce it to the
desired concentration. A typical extract dosage is 1ml (or about
20 drops). The Wild Lettuce herb extract, picture right suggests
taking 1-3 ML three times per day. Your home made version
might be more potent, so you'll have to experiment on the
strength. You'll have a much higher concentration of the desirable
active compounds with an extract.

#3: Wild Lettuce will help insomnia.
One of the main reasons to grow wild lettuce to use prepping is
for
insomnia relief. Wild lettuce is well known to help with sleep
and is a prepper favorite to help treat insomnia, restlessness and
to promote a healthy deep sleep. Wild lettuce also may help
provide relief from headaches and migraines as the herb has
sedating qualities.

The main element of Wild Lettuce is Lacturcarium, which
resembles opium, a pain-relieving agent that was commonly used
as a sedative and pain reliever from ancient times into the 20th
century.

This herb is believed to be a sedative and is commonly blended in
teas for those suffering from insomnia or anxiety. It doesn't
disrupt the digestive system and it may be a soothing agent for
headaches, menstrual pains, coughs, muscle pain, and other
complications as well!

#4: Get Wild lettuce euphoria!
Want a natural buzz? Wild lettuce can fill the need. Certainly
there's a natural euphoria to taking wild lettuce in much the same
as opium. The problem with wild lettuce is that it's a bit
dangerous simply because it's difficult to dose. As fun as the past
time might be, there are some side-effects of wild lettuce.

Warning: Side effects may include:
  • anxiety
  • breathing problems
  • dizziness
  • drowsiness
  • hallucinations
  • heart complications (accelerated heart rate.
  • nausea
  • skin irritations
  • sweating
  • vomiting

Many of the conditions are above come from taking the herb in
the wrong amounts. In short, consult your physician or
practitioner and be a label reader if you purchase a bottle of
prepackaged herb. Keep in mind that many supplements haven't
been safety tested and there's little regulation.

#5: Grow or forage wild lettuce.
Try some before you grow it or look for it. Some people find
there's nothing special about wild lettuce. The great natural
painkiller doesn't work for them! After you try wild lettuce and
you like, then you'll know a little more to be able to grow it or
forage for it. Really, it's much easier to grow wild lettuce than it
is to find it.

How to Forage for Wild Lettuce.
Wild lettuce is relatively easy to find, but you should get a book
to help you properly identifty it. Take caution when foraging wild
lettuce. It's not easy to recognize it as a lettuce as the plant is
similar to a sowthistle. It's a weed you might find in vacant lots
or along roadsides.

How to identify wild lettuce:

  • Where to locate wild lettuce: If you live in Australia,
    Croatia or Hawaii, you'll have the best chance of finding
    natural wild lettuce. This is another reason you'll probably
    want to grow it yourself. It's also native to Central and
    Southern Europe. You will find the lettuce grows wild across
    America, and in Tennessee in particular.

  • When to harvest wild lettuce. Wild lettuce blooms
    germinates in late summer to fall. This is the most cold
    hardy of all lettuces, germinates in the fall and grows very
    nicely through the winter producing through midwinter, which
    is before the plant goes tough and bitter.

  • Characteristics of wild lettuce. Lactuca virosa wild lettuce
    can be very short at the early stages and climb rather tall.
    The larger the leaves, the more bitter it will taste, which is
    why for salads you'll want the first tender shoots.

  • Height: Up to 6 feet tall, pictured right.

  • Sap: Leaves have a milky sap that runs when leaves are
    broken. Mature plants contain high concentrations of
    this bitter and slightly rubbery sap, which when milked
    from the plant and dried is known as lactucarium. It's
    the sap that's a mild sedative and analgesic.

  • Botanical Name: Lactuca virosa, pictured right.

  • NOTE: Don't Confuse with Prickly Wild Lettuce Seeds,
    (Don't use Lactuca serriola or Ulva Lactuca)
Wild Lettuce
Wild Lettuce seed
Above are Lactuca virosa Wild Lettuce seeds properly stored.

Harvesting Wild Lettuce starts with good seeds!
Frozen seed capsules are designed as a time capsule for seeds.
Store in the freezer to protect and preserve your seeds for many
years of excellent germination rates. Seeds saved in a frozen
environment can last for decades
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Above is a tutorial on how to make Wild Lettuce extract. It's from the author
of
Lost Ways, a survival guide pictured right.

In The Lost Ways guide, you'll find forgotten secrets that helped
your ancestors survive disease, drought, famine, economic turmoil
and wars. Turn back the clock 150 years ago when there were no
refrigerators, no Internet, no electrical power for all life's
conveniences. When there were no medicines, people turned to
natural and homeopathic recipes.

Weird Stuff About Wild Lettuce.
How will you use wild lettuce? Will you use it like an opiate for
natural pain relief? How about to help you when you're sexually
active?

  • Sexual applications of Wild Lettuce. According to WebMD.
    com, wild lettuce is a medicinal cure for excessive sex drive in
    women (nymphomania). It's also a method for healing swollen
    genitals in men (priapism). The site doesn't explain how wild
    lettuce works to achieve such desired results.

Happy endings...
Make use of wild lettuce! You might not use wild lettuce to treat
coughs or urinary tract problems, but to alleviate menstrual cramps,
and other types minor pains and to promote healthy sleep, you'll
get good use of wild lettuce.

Wild lettuce, which has the botanical name, Lactuca virosa. is a
popular analgesic and a sedative that you shouldn't use while
you're pregnant or nursing. While there are many benefits to using
Wild lettuce for your health there are also adverse side effects that
could occur from ingesting the herb. Read more about the potential
toxicity of wild lettuce (Lactuca virosa) in an abstract printed in the
U .S. National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health.

Wild Lettuce is not illegal and it will help with insomnia. It's an
herb readily available on Amazon for you to try before you try
growing it.

* These products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease. For
any health or dietary matter, always consult your physician. This information is intended
for your general knowledge only and is not a substitute for professional medical advice or
treatment for specific medical conditions. Never disregard or delay in seeking medical
advice when available. As a reminder, these statements about extracts have not been
evaluated by the United States Food and Drug Administration.

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