Around early May until mid June, the young shoots of the pine and spruce start to come out from their brownish papery shields. These bright green young shoots are edible, tender, lemony-pine like, and rich in Vitamin C.
My family and I were walking in the woods, looking for some other edible plants when we spotted a huge spruce tree that filled with these yummy tips. Many tips had just emerged, while many others were still waiting for their time.
Young spruce tips are always best collected when they just come out from their papery casings. After the tips become bigger and the colour turns deeper green, they lose the delicate citrus flavour and I will not collect them anymore. After a few taste-tests to make sure we found a good tree, we started to collect the tips.
These tips are actually the young shoots of the tree and they will turn into branches and needles once mature. So we paid careful attention not to accidentally over harvest the tips from the same branch or from the same area.
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| My son said he had to give each spruce tip a "taste test". My son wasn't in the mood to stop and watch his mommy pick the spruce tips, which seemed to take forever. He wanted to keep walking. He stared at me while I chewed my second spruce tip. "Do you want to try some? It's delicious." I handed him a tip. He shook his head. Frankly speaking, my son often hesitates to try wild edible plants although we forage all the time. Perhaps many wild plants are rather pungent or bitter for his taste. My husband and I just have to try different ways to teach him to enjoy the gift from the wild. "Are you sure? It taste like spring." I nibbled again on the tip and handed it to my son. "What does spring taste like?" He said curiously. "Kind of like lemon or some type of citrus, but with the taste of pine," I answered. He picked a green tip from the tree and took a teeny-tiny bite. "Mmm, it's so yummy!" He smiled and slowly savoured the rest of the tip. "Can I have another one?" he asked. Since I wasn't sure how many pine tips a kid should have per day, I told him he could only have one or two. Later, I saw him sneaking a few more into his mouth on the other side of the tree. Well, it's really hard to stop him when there were thousands of tips dangling on the branches in front him. So, we moved on.  Last week when we visited my in-laws, we found their spruce tree was also filled with the young tips. My son immediately picked one and introduced it to his grandma and grandpa. "It's packed with Vitamin C. You will just need to eat two pine tips to fill your need every day!" my son said, announcing his new find. Although my in-laws are not wild-edible enthusiasts, they nibbled a little. "Oh yeah, it does taste a little like citrus, " Grandpa said. "Just eat two, okay?" my boy said, with a very proud smile on his face. Thanks for stopping by. I hope you will enjoy these recipes. Spruce Tip Sea Salt  INGREDIENTS: 1/2 cup Spruce Tips 1.5 cups Sea Salt DIRECTION: 1. Rinse the spruce tips with cold water; pat dry. 2. Finely chop the pine tips with a knife. 3. Mix the sea salt with the pine tips and stir until combined. Loosely cover it with plastic wrap and allow it to completely air-dry; stirring it once every day to even out the drying. Store it in an air-tight container and it can be kept up to three months. Pine salt is good to be used on white fish, frittata, or roasted root vegetables. Spruce Tip Mayonnaise  INGREDIENTS: 1 cup Japanese Mayonnaise 10 Pine Tips 2 tablespoons Lemon Juice 1 tablespoon Honey DIRECTION:  1. Rinse the pine tips in cold water; pat dry. 2. Finely chop the pine tips. Mix it with the rest of the ingredients. Chill it before using it. Can be stored in refrigerator for two days. Spruce tip mayonnaise is delicious as vegetable dip, or served with white fish. Spruce Tip Sugar |
INGREDIENTS:
1/3 cup Spruce Tips
1.5 cup Sugar
DIRECTION:
1. Rinse the spruce tips with cold water; pat dry,
2. Finely chop the spruce tips. Mix it with the sugar. Cover the mixture loosely with plastic wrap. Allow it to completely air-dry; stirring it once everyday. Store it in an air-tight container and it can be kept up for three months.
Spruce tip sugar is perfect as an additional flavour for cookies and drinks.
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