Kitchen Garden Forum

In either 'Food for Free' or 'Wild Food' (sorry, not sure which book) it says to use comphrey leaves like spinach in food, & use the young stems like asparagus... I haven't actually tried this yet - but can't imagine it would taste as bad fresh as it smells rotting!

I added some comphrey leaves to a bag of manure suspended in water butt last summer, transformed my salad patch - that was planted in poor soil & really suffering ... suddenly I was giving stuff away as I had too much.

Good luck

Hi Polly,
Most things pong when they are rotting but you do not make tea of the rotting leaves you kind of use fresh leaves which is not to everybody's taste and certainly not mine.
No answer as yet from Hilary and I really would be intrigued as to where her information was gathered from.

I remember reading a few years back of a woman who made comfrey tea(as a drink)for her hubby and gave him a heart attack,she hadn't got her plant indentification right and had used Digitalis(foxglove)leaves...you have been warned.....

Hi Carole,
She was probably after the life assurance money!
It sounds a very lame excuse to me!!

I also remember reading in a book published about 30 years ago about using young comfrey shoots to eat like asparagus and the leaves battered and fried - but the subsequent advice was: don't eat comfrey, as it can cause liver damage.
It's best use is as a compost plant or to make comfrey liquid to feed plants which you can safety eat!

Hi Jea,
Could you please tell me your scource of the information regarding Comfrey and Liver damage as I read something some time back now that Comfrey if eaten would damage the Kindey's but as usual I cannot remember where I read that. I know an American University did some 'Research' but again I cannot remember which University.
I would be most grateful for the info.
I can tell you that in my opinion it is terribly unpaletable however you try to ingest it.
Makes a wonderful liqid feed for plants but where we humans are concerned I to think it is a no-no for comsumption.
Comfrey ointment has great healing qualities and that is why I asked Hilary to come back with information but has obviously declined to do so.

Hi Johnboy
Have pm'd you re comfrey 'causes liver damage' - I can't remember the exact source as it was about 1978!!
Just opened today a 'bottle' (actually a plastic ex-milk container) of last year's bottled comfrey juice to feed my Dahlias and was amazed to find that it didn't smell. The smell when bottled was horrible.
Jea