Staying hydrated with a gift from the forest
Aloha Steemit Family!!!!
If it's spring time in your area, look for the tender, new shoots on your spruce trees for food.
When we look at our spruce tree, we see a buffet!!!
"Full of vitamin C, spruce tip tea is an essential tonic for spring after a long winter of vitamin-deficient foods in a sustainable, local diet. Indigenous people traditionally used conifer tips to alleviate lung congestion and to soothe sore throats."
Source: https://myselfreliance.com/spruce-tips-versatile-super-healthy-traditional-wild-edible/
I love to just chew on them! They have a hint of sourness and bitterness and the characteristic resinous spruce flavor.
In the photo below, I'm charging them in the sun. On the left is living spring water. On the right is an apple cider vinegar infusion.
I use the vinegar for a hair rinse and the water to spritz on my face and body and drink as I work/play in the sun.
Here's a video on how to eat spruce trees.
An an article on how to identify them here: https://www.extension.iastate.edu/news/2005/nov/061401.htm
Enjoy!!!! Lemme know if you find some!!!
Aloha,
Pachee and Family
P.S. We always offer something to our plant family when we receive their gifts. Today we gave this Spruce lady a nice ring of compost. And a lot of compliments too!!!
Steepshot
mmmm!! i can feel how energizing and nutritious that is! thanks for the inspiration! we don't have spruce around here, but many pines and cedars- perhaps to be used similarly!? xoxoxo!!
same here I need to look into that, pine in general is so high in C. The Native Americans used it in the colder areas to help their body acclimate to the weather during winter as well
Good to know about the acclimating aspect- do u know the details on that? I’m curious to know more about this method :)
Well according to some old stories, the native Americans in the NE used white pine, and others to increase their body's tolerance to the colder weather by eating it raw. I have a friend 3/4 Mohawk who told me that he was taught that if you eat the pine needles from fall into the winter it would help in resistance of your body temperature to the cold weather. He also said that if I were to be hiking during the winter, I should trail nibble it constantly and it would increase energy and body temp. I guess it makes sense with the consistent dose of vitamin C while walking. I do know that the spring shoots are very high in C and A not to mention the minerals and plenty of antioxidants.
I love it. It really kept me going all day (and it gets hot as hell and dry AF here) 😊 so I believe it!!!
Holy hot Batman not so dry though just went and cleaned out rabbit poop all morningstill have one more stall to do went and picked some yellow pine shoots... did your water suggestion... Great idea!
Yesss!!! Totally. Sun-infused cedar and pine water sounds amazing!!! I'm gonna try it too. Pretty much every conifer needle round here's gonna get a soak in my drinking jar :)