Love your tribute to pines. I once was lucky enough to live with enough pines to experience the pollen season when everything turned yellow. The abundance of it all!
Thanks, Joyce. The pollen is crazy!! It would coat our vehicles and even our windowsills sometimes, and we'd have to vacuum it up. That stuff is being sold since there are small amounts of various testosterone analogs in it, and it's so easy to collect. :-D
Only two pines here I am particularly interested in. First is the native bunya pine (Araucaria bidwilli), whose gargantuan pine seeds are magnificent eating. The second is the Australian "pine" (Casurina spp. & Allocasurina spp.), whose needles have similar uses to white pine (good for tea & steaming ricecakes). The casurinas are also an excellent emergency water source: dig up a lateral root, chop it up into 1 1/2 ft pieces and stand them on end in a suitable container and you'll have several litres of filtered water to quench your thirst!
The bunya pine sounds great. Out west in the USA there's a pinyon (piñón) pine , Pinus edulis that produces seeds large enough to be good food, and they are sold for high dollars.
Casurinas are also a weed in some states, like Florida. I've eaten casurina seeds too but not in quantities where I'm able to discern if they're toxic or not. Their small cones open up when left to dry and you can just shake the seeds out. Some of the desert Allocasurinas are used as food this way by desert aborigines.
🤣 Georgia has jack pines, yellow pines and white pine, as far as I know. Which ones do you have?? As long as you've got true pines... you could start an industry.
I think mostly Loblolly pines. White pine is north of me in the foothills of the Appalachians. The ones I have are 20-30 feet tall and all the branches are in the top 1/3.
That's a yellow pine. Super bummer that the newest needles are out of reach. That's probably the reason that not so many people are selling those online for tea, but I guarantee you can find that species sold on Ebay. 😎 Topically the resin has good use.
The solubility of ascorbic acid is greater in water and less in ethanol. So if your interest in vitamin C and the minerals is predominant, go for pine needle tea.
Some larger or less polar molecules will be better extracted with the ethanol, and for them, the tincture makes more sense. When I’m after demulcents and polar molecules, I pour the heated water over the herbs and insulate the container so there’s a longer warm steep, but not too hot.
Made the tea in a French press and sweetened with local honey. Very tasty!
Good winter drink, yaa. 👍
Love your tribute to pines. I once was lucky enough to live with enough pines to experience the pollen season when everything turned yellow. The abundance of it all!
Thanks, Joyce. The pollen is crazy!! It would coat our vehicles and even our windowsills sometimes, and we'd have to vacuum it up. That stuff is being sold since there are small amounts of various testosterone analogs in it, and it's so easy to collect. :-D
Only two pines here I am particularly interested in. First is the native bunya pine (Araucaria bidwilli), whose gargantuan pine seeds are magnificent eating. The second is the Australian "pine" (Casurina spp. & Allocasurina spp.), whose needles have similar uses to white pine (good for tea & steaming ricecakes). The casurinas are also an excellent emergency water source: dig up a lateral root, chop it up into 1 1/2 ft pieces and stand them on end in a suitable container and you'll have several litres of filtered water to quench your thirst!
cooooool! a sponge tree!
The bunya pine sounds great. Out west in the USA there's a pinyon (piñón) pine , Pinus edulis that produces seeds large enough to be good food, and they are sold for high dollars.
Casurinas are also a weed in some states, like Florida. I've eaten casurina seeds too but not in quantities where I'm able to discern if they're toxic or not. Their small cones open up when left to dry and you can just shake the seeds out. Some of the desert Allocasurinas are used as food this way by desert aborigines.
What am I doing with my Georgia pines? Mostly cursing the mess!! However, I’m open to learning alternatives.
🤣 Georgia has jack pines, yellow pines and white pine, as far as I know. Which ones do you have?? As long as you've got true pines... you could start an industry.
I think mostly Loblolly pines. White pine is north of me in the foothills of the Appalachians. The ones I have are 20-30 feet tall and all the branches are in the top 1/3.
That's a yellow pine. Super bummer that the newest needles are out of reach. That's probably the reason that not so many people are selling those online for tea, but I guarantee you can find that species sold on Ebay. 😎 Topically the resin has good use.
found a group of baby loblollies on my run today :)
There will be no speed records anymore. Being outside gets to be a whole new thing when you study what's growing.
I'm one slow kid because of touring the weeds.
no records for me, either. But I always pause my app when I stop to explore.
Will making a tincture with pine destroy the Vitamin C ? I think I read that RoseHips shouldn't be tinctured for that reason.
The solubility of ascorbic acid is greater in water and less in ethanol. So if your interest in vitamin C and the minerals is predominant, go for pine needle tea.
Some larger or less polar molecules will be better extracted with the ethanol, and for them, the tincture makes more sense. When I’m after demulcents and polar molecules, I pour the heated water over the herbs and insulate the container so there’s a longer warm steep, but not too hot.