I am not good at remembering plant names. I can remember all 140 head of our goats’ names, their parents, their grandparents, their great grandparents and so on, but I can’t remember plant names. I suppose I don’t find most plants interesting, but goats I find fascinating. Now, I’ve found one particular plant that I find very interesting. It’s chicory and I ignorantly called it the Blue Bell weed for a long time.

During my history buff days as a very young and blooming historian, I read about chicory being used as a substitute for coffee during the the Civil War. It’s root was ground up and used in place of coffee. Though, I bet it was a bit of a disappointment since it was caffeine free. Anyone looking for a zip to wake them up in the morning wouldn’t have found it there. They didn’t have a picture of the plant, so I didn’t have a clue what it looked like, and pretty much didn’t care until goats got involved.

I’ve only heard chicory pronounced as “chick-er-ree” and to remember this plant I had to make up a silly name and go around saying “chick, chick, chicory”, which I’m sure some people hearing me say this to remember the plant, will think that’s it’s real name and then later, if anyone asks them, they will say, “Why, that’s the chick, chick, chicory plant. Everyone knows that.” And, then years later, through the eon of time, someone will write an article or book on chicory and classify it as the chick chick chicory plant. That’s the way a lot of things get started.

Anyway, I digress. When Lee found a solid patch of chicory where the goats had been blocked off from, he mentioned he was going to have to get the brush hog out and cut it down. I protested and told him I had been watching the goats eat that blue bell weed for a couple of years now all throughout the farm, and they loved it. I didn’t know what it was, but I called it blue bell then. It was stemmy and had the prettiest bluish lilac blooms to it. It could easily get three foot tall if left alone on our place.

Curious, Lee looked it up and found pictures of it. Doggone, if it wasn’t an herb! Not a weed or a flower, but a perennial herb. And, it was chicory that people still made coffee from and ate the leaves for salad. It was health wise very beneficiary. And, not only to us, but for livestock. It had been around for three hundred years in Europe and they thought it got mixed in with the hay from the livestock brought over to the good ol’ USA, but that was a guess. About thirty or so years ago New Zealand got interested in it for feed for livestock.

Why? The animals did super when fed pure chicory or a mixture of chicory with other grasses and legumes. They had better weight gains with chicory than with alfalfa. Unheard of, chicory was studied and found be very nutritious and 5% or less of tannins improved the utilization of protein. Over 5% of tannins and any plant becomes bitter and the protein just passes on through the animal, not helping the animal in any way. Five percent and less greatly increased protein utilization. And, the tannins along with some other mysterious sounding names that I cannot pronounce or spell made chicory a natural dewormer.

People who encouraged chicory in their fields found their animals looking great and not having to worm near as much. And, on top of that, there is probiotics in the plant. So, no wonder the dairy farmers were excited about chicory. Their cows looked great, produced much more milk, and the only drawback was if you feed the cow over 60-70% chicory in it’s feed, they thought it left a taste in the milk. Coffee? Also, chicory not only made good grazing, but did well in silage. They didn’t think it made much of a hay though. But, I’m sure someone will figure that one out on how to do it.

I know if our goats get near chicory, they really chow down. They love it. Our chicory grows wild all over the farm, but I want to encourage it more. Now, New Zealand produces different types of chicory and the last place I saw the seed it was offered at $45 per five pound. It’s small seed and could be frost seeded in February during the thawing and freezing of the ground, but that seems a bit costly to be throwing seed around. So, most people plant it either in the spring or the fall if they are way down south.

We had a bunch of chicory that I saw last night in an area the goats usually don’t get to go and I had decided that the next day they would be let into that field. This morning, it was gone. The deer love it too and people who grow patches of browse for the deer usually include chicory. So, you snooze, you loose. I should have been faster in getting the goats into that field. But, the chicory will be back next year. It seems very tough and does well during droughts because of it’s long root.

So, don’t forget to add that pretty perennail herb, good ol’ chick chick chicory, to your goat fields.