If you've ever entered the woods as a child, you are likely already very familiar and intimate with Burdock.   Burdock is the plant that produces those pesky burrs that act like Velcro and stick to your clothing.  
Technically, Velcro acts like burrs because interestingly enough, the inventor of Velcro directly was inspired by the burrs of a burdock plant.  The
seeds are designed this way to attach to deer or other animals passing by so that the seeds can hitchhike a ride and be spread throughout the forest.

It is one of the first plants that you'll see vigorously growing as Spring approaches.  It is a tenacious grower and the leaves can get quite massive reminiscent of Jurassic foliage.  And as the saying goes: "As above, so below," meaning that they also have massive growth underground as well.  They have a massive taproot in both diameter and in depth.   To further anchor itself it, the taproot has horizontal roots that prevent it from being easily pulled out of the ground like you would a carrot.  In fact, it might be one of the more difficult plants to unearth!

To the left is an image of new Spring growth that just happens to be in one of my vegetable gardening beds.  I did not nor will I approve of this kind of hostile take over by this invasive juggernaut in my raised beds.   This plant requires a full out excavation of its root system that would make a paleontologist envious.  This is because the plant will keep growing back if I don't remove 100% of the root system.   This could be a good thing, just not in my beds!

The Burdock plant is both edible and medicinal, so that stubborn regrowth is great in that regard.  The taproot of young burdock plants can be harvested and eaten as a root vegetable.  It is quite popular in Asian cuisine.  Immature flower stalks can also be harvested in late spring, before flowers appear.  Their taste resembles that of artichoke.  The stalks are thoroughly peeled, and either eaten raw, or boiled in salt water.  Leaves are also eaten in spring in Japan when a plant is young and leaves are soft.

In Europe, burdock root was used as a bittering agent in beer before the widespread adoption of hops for this purpose. In the UK there is a popular Dandelion & Burdock soft drink.   Similarly, Burdock and Dandelion are often paired together in teas as well.   The pictures in this article depict my rocessing of the burdock for the purpose of
making tea.              

In permaculture design, the waste of one process is often an input of another.   In this case, I am not only removing "weeds" from my vegetable garden, but those weeds also happen to be edible / medicinal.  Why not process them and preserve them for powerful tea?
People take burdock to increase urine flow, kill germs, reduce fever, and "purify" blood.  It is also used to treat colds, joint pain, gout, bladder infections, liver disease, and high blood pressure.   Topically, burdock is applied to the skin for acne, psoriasis, and eczema.                

As discussed earlier, the roots can be very challenging to dig up.  If you plan on using for medicinal or edible purposes, it is best to dig them up in the early spring.   You might be tempted to dig only so deep as to get a firm grip on the root system and pull it out as you would a carrot.  This would be a mistake.   Similar to how a lizards tail is
designed to break off in order for it to survive, so to will the burdock's root easily break off, leaving you defeated.

If the burdock plant is in your own yard, it is best to carefully conduct a thorough excavation of the dig site and expose as much of the root that you are hoping to extract.   You really don't want burdock to grow into it's full mammoth size and then produce those annoying burrs.  At least, I don't.  It is so invasive that there will surely be more next spring to harvest.

Once you've collected a few burdock roots, you'll want to thoroughly rinse off all the dirt you can.  At this point you can use a vegetable peeler to remove the "skin" of the roots.   This will remove any remaining dirt.   Go ahead and discard these dirty peelings as you do not want them to get intermingled with the peelings of your finished product.

Continue to peel all your burdock roots until there is nothing but a pile of shavings left over.    It's very easy to accidentally knick your finger with the vegetable peeler, so be careful as you you get towards the end!  In no time at all you'll have a nice pile of burdock root shavings. The next step is to preserve them by dehydrating them.

Dehydration is perhaps one of my favorite preservation techniques.  Personally, I chose to invest in a top-tier Excalibur Dehydrator because not only do I preserve plant medicines, but I also use it for preserving the abundance of my garden harvests and also for when I find amazing grocery store specials on produce (if you've never tried dehydrated pineapple, you don't know what you're missing).   I dehydrated this burdock root on the lowest heat "living foods" setting and ran it overnight (approx. 6-8 hours).  It is now ready to be steeped for tea!

If you don't have the budget (or the electricity) for an Excalibur Dehydrator, you can certainly use the direct power of that big ol' fireball in the sky! The All-American SunOven can cook food as well as dehydrate with the unlimited power of the Sun.