In a landscape that is covered in snow and usually considered barren except for the animals there is sustenance to be procured. Our modern minds, unless trained otherwise, think only of agricultural land as holding food or drink. Wild landscapes are not the places we typically associate with harvest or bounty. Yet, for the vast majority of life on Earth, wild places were the only place to procure food or drink. In our 300,000 years on this planet we have managed to make it to almost every place that is possible to inhabit. And cold climates with snow for half of the year or longer are no exception.
For the vast majority of time our outdoor pursuit of food and drink has not been confined to only the months of warm weather. When we look through a lens into history we see that in fact our current situation is an aberration. Being able to not only sit inside all winter long, but also to gain weight while doing so would have been a highly unusal prospect for much of humanity in the past. Cold or not, most people in cold climates were outside every single day in the search for at least ingredients to make tea, if not an animal to put into the pot. Winter becomes something to dread when one spends 99 percent of ones time inside wishing for it to be over. But if given activities to partake in outside our perception can shift, and we can learn to appreciate the spectacular season of cold.
The northern hemisphere is host to a circumpolar species of trees that we call "pines". These are trees in the genus Pinus, an ancient lineage that dates back at least 130 million years. While it is tempting to label all trees that do not shed their leaves each fall as 'pines', this is factually incorrect. Pine trees, and especially the Eastern White Pine or Pinus strobus, has an identity all of its own and it is completely different from Spruces, Firs, and Cedar. The state tree of Michigan is an Eastern White Pine, and if you spend enough times in the back country of our beautiful state you will quickly begin to see why. These trees are majestic, useful to animals, and have leaves that have helped humans through hard winters for a very long time. Imagine yourself in this scenario in the past: It is midwinter, most of the grains you harvested are eaten up, the vegetables and fruits are long gone, and you have been living on a meat and fish dominant diet for quite some time. It is very filling of course but there is something lacking in this diet that becomes crucial after a time of eating in this way: Vitamin C. Day after day you start to feel a little bit weaker, maybe your gums begin to bleed, perhaps your legs swell. If this goes on for too long you will pass on to the next life. You must find a way to get this crucial vitamin.
Humans intuited the need for this vitamin long before it was ever given a name. Sailors and pirates were known to have brought sauerkraut and limes on long ocean voyages to ward off scurvy (extreme Vitamin C deficiency). The inhabitants of the colder regions of North America had an extremely easy way of dealing with scurvy: They made tea from various Coniferous tree species. White Pine is often said to have been one of the most used of these evergreen trees. Perhaps not for the content of its vitamin C, as all of our coniferous tree species have vitamin C, but probably more for the delicious flavor.
Vitamin C content of oranges pales in comparison to the potency that White Pine boasts. While the content varies from tree to tree, it can be safely assumed that the needles of White Pine contain three to five times the content of oranges or limes. This is a hefty dose of a much needed vitamin, and one that can also be obtained relatively easily by most individuals for no money at all. Imagine the drop in our collective carbon footprint if we relied on pine needles for our Vitamin C and not imported citrus fruits. We might truly begin to see a different world if we all started to live a little bit more locally.
But Vitamin C is not the only thing the Eastern White Pine has going for it. Pine trees also have Vitamin A, Arginine, Proline, and other essential amino acids. Not to mention that Pine trees have been studied for their Antioxidant, antimutagenic, and antitumor properties. Arginine is a source of Nitrous Oxide. Nitrous Oxide regulates oxygen release from red blood cells, protects the heart, stimulates the brain, and regulates inflammation. The beneficial aspects of imbibing a little conifer tea from time to time during the winter are incredible. There is almost nobody, unless allergic to pine, that should not seek out and regularly drink tea from this plant.
One thing I have often encountered when I encourage people to forage, is that foraging these things are not sustainable. Pinus strobus is listed as a species of least concern, and its populations are known to be expanding. Couple that with the fact that these trees are incredibly easy to plant and grow and you have yourself a sustainable perennial crop. I feel that it is of the utmost importance for our society to begin living a little bit more locally, and adding something as essential as local Vitamin C supplementation to ones regimen is a great place to begin.
Harvest and Preparation
White Pine is a fairly easy tree to identify, and there are no look a likes that will cause you harm in Michigan. The best identifying characteristic is that the bunches of needles that grow together on White Pine are in groups of five, while the needles on a red pine (Pinus resinosa) are in bunches of two. A quick online search, a field guide, or a local expert will assist you in easily identifying the correct tree to harvest from. Always be one hundred percent confident of any wild plant or fungi before consumption.
Once you have located a healthy specimen gathering pine needles is as easy as removing the needles from the branches. Most if not all Native American cultures that utilized this species harvested from the east and south side of the tree believing that the tree contained more of the beneficial compounds in the regions that received more sunlight. Whether or not this is true, the entirety of the tree will have plenty of Vitamin C, Arginine, Proline and other amino acids. If you want to be more traditional then by all means harvest on the southeast side of the tree. Be kind to the tree and only take as much as you need for yourself. Harvesting too many needles from the tree will only cause unnecessary harm.
There are many ways to make pine needle tea. My preferred method is to put a quart of water on the stove to boil. While the water is boiling cut a generous handful of the pine needles into little pieces to assure maximum surface area is exposed. Once the water has reached a full boil toss in the pine needles, turn off the heat and cover it for ten to twenty minutes. After the steeping has finished you can simply drink as is, or you could add some honey to sweeten it up a touch. This tea is delicious, healthy, and best of all: local. Scurvy can't even stand a chance!
Biisaandago-zhingwaak is how you say White Pine in the Anishinaabe language. Whatever it is called it’s chopped up like above!
Instead of wishing away this beautiful season, praying for warmer weather and better foraging opportunities, you can learn to appreciate the simple bounty that winter provides. This season is majestic, quiet, and has an unparalleled calmness that the other three seasons lack. With the cold comes a coming together of community, a time of introspection, and the coziness of fire. I personally love the winter and now that you know about Pine Needle tea, perhaps you will too.
Addendum
The article that you see above was originally printed in Edible Grande Traverse Magazine in February(2020). Since writing this article and having our world slide into pandemic I have been drinking ample amounts of Pine and doing ample amounts of study on White Pine. A few new things have come to light since the original publishing of this article that I would love to share with you here.
First and foremost, I feel that I must state this, although it seems obvious to me, that anything I talk about is not a cure for you should you come down with Covid-19. The reality is that while I believe in the power of plants to heal our bodies, I am a firm believer in creating a healthy body that resists illness. I’d rather have a fortress with strong defenses than a game plan for what to do once our city is destroyed, if you know what I mean! Medicinal plants such as Eastern White Pine or Cedar are allies in all times, not just the crisis times!
One of the major realizations that I had post publication of the original article was that Eastern White Pine contains ample amounts of Shikimic acid. This acid stops the flu from reproducing, and is one of the main ingredients in the drug Tamiflu. White Pine has roughly 3% Shikimic acid, and at one point there was thought that the major pharmaceutical companies might switch from using Star Anise to using the forests of Maine as their producer of the useful acid. Source
Coronavirus is not the flu, we are all well aware of that by now, but that does not mean that we cannot utilize this species in our fight to create a strong defense system for our bodies. If all that White pine had to offer was Vitamin C, it would be worth imbibing.
My next realization was that the inner bark might well be more useful as a tea than the needles themselves. Since writing this article I had heard of a different manner of preparation for this tea, and it requires no heat at all. However it does require a good sharp knife and a will to clean the resin off of that knife later on.
For this tea preparation you need to find a tree that looks as if it could sustain the loss of a little bark. I prefer to take the bark from younger trees or their branches because of ease of harvest. Simply take your knife and slice off the bark into thin strips and put your collected strips into a vessel. Our preferred container for this tea is our half gallon Mason jars. Cover with clean, fresh water and steep overnight and the next day you have an absolutely delicious alternative to the pine needle recipe. It is very refreshing, and it does not seem to go bad in any hurry (probably owing to the chemicals in the plant).
In the original article I had mentioned that one should not overconsume White Pine tea, and I must admit that I believe that I was conflating Cedar tea with Pine, as White Pine is apparently safe for daily consumption. This does not mean however that you should drink it all day every day. Anything done to excess should be avoided. I have stated resoundly from the very beginning of this crisis that sleep is your number one ally for a strong immune system. So get some rest, drink some tea and try to lessen your stress for the coming months.
These are tough times, and I am simply putting a link to amazon below because if you click through the link below and do your normal purchasing I will get a tiny percentage of what you spend. This helps me to do more research and write more articles and it costs you absolutely nothing! Thank you! Stay safe out there!
