Comfrey • knitBone • on a waaayback friend who trekked a long distance from Alaska to get this freehand piece on his arm. We first became friends when I bartended at Alice’s Champagne Palace in Homer and he worked the kitchen and we would chainsmoke and talk and talk and talk and many and any years later that doesn’t change much because a conversation about the multitudes of Comfrey is a longwinded world all its own. Such an underplayed and subtle looking plant, with a wild cousin called hounds tongue and there’s a weird detail there because they are both in the borage family and have some similarities but are quite different and complex and in their own lanes and deserve not to be lumped into one category. My personal experience and knowledge with the ‘garden’ variety of Comfrey is that it is traditionally called knitBone for its ability to spark rapid healing with sore joints, sprains, bruises and broken bones through the means as a poultice. I would suggest that this is not an isolated treatment either and requires other knowledge around bone setting and wound cleaning but the potency of its inflammation reduction and deep cell stimulation is remarkable. Additionally, Comfrey, mixed with any manure for mulching, will enhance the nutrient density of your soils so much that you’ll be able to grow just about anything in otherwise lacking spaces. I saw this in person when another old friend of mine used this folk remedy to repair these despairing elms in her desert garden out in Kirby, Wyoming and 3 months later the elms were as tall as her house.
Meanwhile, my client here, has his own personal affinity and appreciation for Comfrey, and it means a lot that he ventured so far to receive this medicine.
tattoo in the wilds / appreciation photo from G. Chadwick / out in Vedauwoo!
