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Dandelion Sunshine Jelly

09 May

Dandelion Sunshine Jelly by Rural Spin - www.ruralspin.com.

Making jelly using dandelion flowers is a commitment, no doubt about it. But if you enjoy tedium and working with lovely flowers, this is the jelly for you! And there is a real feeling of satisfaction you get from making a delicious food from what some call a weed.

My recipe is not straight-up dandelion jelly. To me, dandelion jelly deserves to be elevated a bit to reflect what I think of as its sunshine status. I wanted to layer flavors with dandelion’s honey-like flavor so the jelly tastes more like dandelion than just jellied flower parts. Because of this, I use honey as the sweetener to accentuate the natural dandelion flavor, lemon juice and zest for brightness, and cinnamon for warmth. This is a lovely, light, tasty  jelly to serve on toasts, with cheese and crackers, or as a glaze to a baked ham.

Dandelion Sunshine Jelly ingredients: dandelion flowers, honey, cinnamon, and lemon zest.

Dandelion Sunshine Jelly ingredients: dandelion flowers, honey, cinnamon, and lemon.

INGREDIENTS

Makes 2 pints

3 to 4 cups dandelion petals

3 to 4 cups water

2 cups honey

1 tsp cinnamon

Zest from 1 lemon

1 tbls lemon juice

4 tbls low-sugar pectin

PETAL PICKING

The hardest and most time-consuming part of the process is collecting enough dandelions and plucking the petals off of them. I suggest collecting a good gallon of flowers, but make sure those flowers are from an area that has been chemical-free for several years. I’m lucky enough to live in a neighborhood where very few residents use chemicals on their lawns, and they happily gave me dandelion-picking rights.

Pick more dandelions than you think you'll need so you can pick-and-choose the best for your jelly.

Pick more dandelions than you think you’ll need so you can pick-and-choose the best for your jelly.

The petals need to be removed from the flowers as quickly as possible after picking them; the flowers close up quickly after harvest and after that happens, collecting the petals becomes much more difficult.

It is very important not to get any green parts (sepals) mixed in with the petals. The sepals will not only affect the color of your jelly, they also affect the taste, and not in a good way. Dandelions contain a milky sap, and you don’t want any of that bitterness to contaminate your jelly. It takes a long time to get just the petals off of the flowers, but if you’re going to make this jelly that is what you have to do. Make yourself a nice relaxing beverage and enjoy the peace and quiet.

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Cut the flowers in half to make it easier to remove the petals and prevent the green sepals from making their way into your jelly.

Cut the flowers in half to make it easier to remove the petals and prevent the green sepals from making their way into your jelly, which will result in a bitter taste.

Most bloggers making dandelion jelly use scissors to remove the petals. I personally find it easier to use my finger nail. It not only greatly reduces the amount of sepals that make their way into your petal pile, I find that it is quicker than clipping carefully.

To remove the petals, I first cut the entire flower in half. Then I use my thumb nail to pull only the petals off the flower. It’s pretty easy to avoid the sepals with this method, and in two or three pulls, you’re ready to move on to the next flower. And, your petal harvest quotient per flower is much higher than multiple clips. I find this to be important unless you have quadruple the amount of dandelion flowers you need, and have the luxury of only clipping the very top of each flower once.

Make sure you only remove the petals from the flower; including the green sepals into your jelly will result in a bitter taste.

Use your thumb nail to pull the petals from the flower, avoiding the green sepals.

You can stop this tedious process when you have between 3 and 4 cups of petals.

JUICE GETTIN’

There are two ways to get your dandelion juice from the petals: simmer ‘em or steep ‘em.

Simmer ‘em

To simmer them, combine your petals with an equal amount of water and simmer for 10 minutes. Strain through a jelly bag or dish towel to remove all of the dandelion liquid. Measure out 3 cups of liquid for making the jelly. If you don’t have quite enough for 3 cups, add a bit of plain water to top it off. (Make sure you squeeze the juice from the petals, too.)

At this point I like to filter the juice through a coffee filter to remove any bits and pollen that sneak through. This also makes a clearer jelly. Once you’ve done this, proceed to Jelly Makin’!

Dandelion tea oxidizes from yellow to a lovely russet color with time. This does not affect the taste of the jelly.

Dandelion tea oxidizes from yellow to this lovely russet brown color with time. This does not affect the taste of the jelly in any way, and the final product will be a lovely dark gold color.

Steep ‘em

You can also get the liquid by making a tea out of the petals. To do this, place your petals in a bowl and cover them with boiling water (use the same amount of water as you have petals). Let them steep overnight, then strain in the morning through a jelly bag or dish towel into a bowl.

As with the “Simmer ‘em” method, I suggest running your dandelion tea through a coffee filter to fully remove any petal bits and pollen. It makes for a nicer looking jelly product. And, again, if you don’t have a full 3 cups of dandelion juice, just top off with water.

A note on color: Dandelion juice will oxidize with time. Fresh juice will be yellow in color, but the longer you wait to make your jelly the color will darken to the russet color shown at left. I don’t mind this as I am adding cinnamon and honey, which darken the color.

JELLY MAKIN’

Wash your lemon and zest it. Cut the lemon in half and juice half, which will end up being about 1 tablespoon of juice. Set the zest and lemon juice aside.

Take your 3 cups of dandelion juice and pour it into a sauce pan. Bring to a simmer and add your lemon zest and lemon juice. Add the cinnamon. Continue to simmer for about 5 minutes, stirring.

Slowly add your pectin. But watch it…if you add it too fast it won’t mix in well with your juice and will be clumpy. I use a whisky to stir briskly after I put a bit of the pectin into the mixture.

After all of the pectin is incorporated  bring the mixture to a full rolling boil that can’t be stirred down. Make sure you stir constantly.

Add your honey and return the mixture to a full rolling boil. Boil hard for one minute, again stirring constantly.

Remove from heat and skim off any foam.

Immediately pour your jelly into clean, prepared pint jars. If you are canning the jelly, process the jars

in a hot water bath for 10 minutes at normal elevation, and 15 minutes at high elevation, following normal canning protocols as outlined at the National Center for Home Food Preservation.

Dandelion jelly can be eaten with cheese and crackers, on toast, or added as a glaze to meats.

Dandelion jelly can be eaten with cheese and crackers, on toast, or added as a glaze to meats, such as ham. It also makes a lovely addition to pastries and baked goods.

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10 Comments

Posted by on May 9, 2013 in Edible Plants, Food Preservation, Homesteading, Recipes

 

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Harvesting and Drying Mint

19 Aug

Mint is wonderful in the kitchen, medicine cabinet, and as a pest repellent.

Mint is one of those herbs that has a ton of uses and grows prolifically in the garden. Sometimes that prolific growth can be a nuisance (it has, in fact, take up residence in one of my raised beds and it’s definitely a battle between me and it). But like anything else in life, what can be seen as a hassle can also be take as a gift with just a slight shift in perspective: Instead of cursing your prolific mint, harvest it shamelessly and exploit it for one of its many uses! SHAMELESSLY!

There are many kinds of mint (spearmint, peppermint, chocolate mint, apple mint, pineapple mint, and others. They are all perennial, meaning they’ll come back year after year; you’ll have a never-ending supply of this tasty plant after sticking just one in your garden. But beware: if you don’t want it to spread everywhere make sure you plant your mint in an area where you won’t mind it getting a bit out of hand. However, flavored mints such as chocolate and apple are not as prolific as the straight-up peppermint and spearmint.

Mint does best in full sun to part shade with a soil that is slightly acidic, rich, and fairly moist, so if you live in a more arid environment, your mint won’t explode as it would in more ideal growing conditions. And, of course, you can grow mint in a pot for year-round fresh use provided it gets a southern exposure when indoors.

Mint not only serves as a valuable food and flavoring in the kitchen, it also has medicinal uses such as calming the stomach, assisting with gingivitis, helping relieve colds, and cooling overly warm skin, among others. It can also be used to repel pests in the home and garden, and lend a wonderful scent to washing linens when included with vinegar in the final rinse water of a wash. I’ll cover these uses in more detail in a future ‘spin.

HARVESTING

If your mint is a new planting, wait a year or two for it to establish a strong root system before you start harvesting it. You can clip fresh mint sprigs during this time for sure, but for a full-on, no-holds-barred harvest, wait until the mint is well established. With my established mint, I literally hack it back in late spring, mid summer, and again in very early fall until there is only about 6 inches of stem left; it grows back readily. Just make sure you don’t harvest too late in the fall; you want to give the plant enough time to recover before winter hits. Like any other herb, the best time to harvest mint is in the morning while the volatile oils in the plant are at their strongest.

After washing my mint, I lay it on a towel in several loose layers to dry thoroughly in the sun.

Before drying mint, rinse it clean under a spray hose in the kitchen sink, or outdoors if you have a lot of mint you’re processing in one batch. After cleaning, the mint must be thoroughly dried. I do this by shaking off the mint thoroughly, then laying it out on a few loose layers on a towel in the sun.

AIR DRYING

After my mint is washed and dried, I bundle it up for hanging and drying. I make my bundles loose to allow for the much-needed air to circulate around the herb and draw the moisture away. Air circulation is key when it comes to drying herbs; the air removes the moisture from around your plants and helps prevent mold from developing.

When making my bundles, I use rubber bands to secure the ends. Rubber bands have two main advantages over string: first, the contract as the stems dry out and shrink, thereby maintaining a tight bundle throughout the drying process and second, they can be used over and over. I save all of the rubber bands I end up with from the grocery store or anywhere else, and use them for my herb drying. I attached an unfolded large paper clip to my bundle and use the paper clip to hang the herbs from my ceiling. You can hang herbs from wall racks, or anything else you can think of as long as the location is warm and gets plenty of air circulation (i.e., basements are poor choices).

Rubber bands are the best way to hold herb bundles for drying. Here, a rubber band is first slipped over one stem, then wrapped around the bundle several times.

After wrapping the rubber band around the bundle several times, secure the end by slipping it over a few branches. This provides plenty of give for shrinkage.

You may have read that herbs should be placed in brown paper bags to dry. I believe this is nonsense. I think the only exception is when you are drying an herb such as dill and want to save the seed, then you’ll need to place a paper bag around the seed head. Otherwise,  unless you live in the driest of environments there is no way you’re going to get enough air circulation to draw the moisture away from your plants if they are suffocating in a bag. I am also lazy. Packaging herbs up for drying is just not something I am interested in spending my time doing since I see no detectable benefit from doing so, unless I am saving the seed. But I’m sure many will disagree with me, and that’s ok!

This re-purposed screen serves as a wonderful drying rack for herbs when hung from a ceiling in a warm, airy locations such as my front sun room.

Instead, I hang my herbs upside down from a drying rack I have hanging from the ceiling in my front sun room. The rack used to be a screen with rice paper lining, but the rice paper was torn at one point, so I removed all of the paper and the hinges, and hung it from the ceiling to serve as a drying rack. It also just looks kinda cool.

The ideal temperature to air dry herbs really varies; I’ve read anywhere between 70F and 120F. Frankly, whatever warm location you have available is the best location. So many guides provide supposed “rules” but ultimately the best environment is the one you have available to you. You just need to find a way to work with what you have. But with drying herbs, good air circulation is a must…without it your herbs will mold. If you don’t have good air circulation, consider placing a fan in the room in which your herbs are drying. And it’s best to keep your drying herbs out of direct sunlight; while my sun room is sunny, the herbs at ceiling level are protected from direct exposure.

How long does air drying take? It depends upon those unique conditions you are working with. In an 80F, moderately humid environment with moderate air circulation, bundles such as the ones shown above can take two to four weeks. Here in Colorado in my very warm sun room, it only took about 4 days to get crisp-dried mint.

OVEN DRYING

I encourage you to air-dry your herbs whenever possible; it just seems a lot easier to me if you have the space and if your environmental conditions are dry enough. However, if you live in a moist environment or don’t have the space to hang herbs, oven drying is a great option! Some people even prefer the flavor of oven-dried herbs to air-dried. Frankly, I can’t tell the difference.

To oven dry herbs, you also want to wash and either air dry or pat them dry before proceeding. Then you can either strip the leaves from the stems and place them in a single layer on a cookie sheet, or lay the stems on the cookie sheet themselves in a single layer. Place the herbs in a warm, 180F oven for 3 to 4 hours with the oven door cracked to allow moisture to escape. Then, crush the leaves and store.

COLLECTING AND STORING

Collect your dried mint by crushing the leaves off the stem.

The leaves are the edible portion of mint, so when it is thoroughly dry, you’ll need to remove them from the stems. I do this by taking one of my bunches, holding it over a large bowl or sheet, and simply pressing the stems. The leaves crush off cleanly from the stem, and any bit of stem that might break off and fall is easily removed after I have finished removing all of the leaves from my mint.

It is recommended that you store your mint in a cool location away from direct sunlight. I store a portion of my mint in a used tea tin and keep it in a cupboard by my tea kettle. The rest of my yearly supply is stored in a large air-tight mason jar in my pantry. Sometimes I just take the jar out and look at it…herbs that you harvested and dried yourself are not only fresher (and thereby tastier) than store bought, looking at them can also help us feel the summer sun on a cold winter day as we recall the harvest.

 
11 Comments

Posted by on August 19, 2012 in Edible Plants, Food Preservation, Fun Experiments, Gardening, Great for Kids, Hobbies and Arts, Home Remedies & Apothecary, Homesteading, Recipes, Saving Money

 

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Respect for the Yummy Milkweed

03 Jun

This showy milkweed (Asclepias speciosa) can be confused with common milkweed (Asclepias syriaca). But never fear, as they are both edible.

There are close to 150 species of milkweed plants worldwide. About 25 of these are the only food source for monarch butterflies, and milkweed is an important nectar source for bees. And while a few species of milkweeds are edible to humans some are poisonous, and all should be treated with respect. If you don’t know what you’re doing, do yourself a favor and don’t do it.

There are about 20 edible milkweed species floating around, which is good! That being said, basically all of the different milkweed species contain alkaloids, cardiac glycosides, and toxic resinoids. As the scary names imply, these can all be bad. The secret lies in knowing what you’re doing when it comes to eating these plants, and don’t eat them at all if you can’t remember what the rules are. (Note: Make sure you refer to a reputable botanic key to identify plants, or have an expert show you.)

EDIBLE MILKWEEDS

Common milkweed (Asclepias syriaca) is the most widely known and distributed edible milkweed, though it is definitely not the only one. Common milkweed looks very much like showy milkweed (Asclepias speciosa, see above), though the flowers of common milkweed are, of course, not as showy as the flowers above. Both are edible and can be treated the same way.

Here are some other edible milkweeds that are not as commonly known, including their reported edible parts. For these plants it’s important to consult a reputable edible plant resource that speaks to these plants specifically before consuming them (note: my source for the following is Plants for a Future, which provides wonderful information on edible and medicinal plants):

  • Swamp milkweed (Asclepias incarnata, see photo below): flowers, leaves, oil, seedpod
  • Purple silkweed (A. lanceolata): flowers, leaves, and seedpod
  • Green milkweed (A. viridiflora): flowers, leaves, oil, root, seed, seedpod
  • Butterfly milkweed (A. tuberosa, note all references say to either avoid this plant or consume in low quantities): flowers, leaves, oil, root, seedpod
  • Purple silkweed (A. hallii): flowers, leaves, oil, seed, seedpod

Swamp milkweed (Asclepias incarnata), is edible too, though many references recommend staying away from narrow-leaved milkweeds because of higher toxicity levels.

EATING MILKWEED

The edible parts of some milkweed plants include the new shoots, which taste like asparagus and can be harvested in spring when they are less then 8 inches tall. The flowers and flower heads taste like peas, and can also be harvested. As the plant matures the seed pods can be picked when they are about 1 inch long or less; as the pods increase in size, they also increase in bitterness and alkalinity.

The root of milkweed may nor may not be edible, depending upon the source you’re consulting. My policy is that when it comes to conflicting information regarding whether a plant or plant part is edible, I err on the side of caution and don’t eat it.

Some sources say that young seed pods and shoots of milkweeds can be eaten raw, but I don’t recommend this. These sources also recommend only eating the raw plant parts in  low quantities, and in my mind it’s always better to process plants that contain any alkaloids and toxins properly just to be safe. Processing the plant parts also removes bitterness, and just makes them taste better.

To process your shoots, flowers, and seed pods, place them in a pot, and cover them with boiling water (do not use cold water…make sure you boil it on its own first), then bring everything back to a boil. The water must then be discarded, and the process repeated two to three times. A tea kettle kept at a boil on the stove comes in handy for this.

To eat the plant parts after processing, boil them normally for about 15 minutes, until tender. You can serve them with butter, a sauce, or any other way you’d eat asparagus, peas and the like. Also feel free to include them in soups, casseroles, eggs, and more. They are very tasty. The flower heads can be boiled down to make a sugary syrup because of the sweet nectar, and feel free to pickle the seedpods in the same fashion as you make cucumber pickles.


 
12 Comments

Posted by on June 3, 2012 in Edible Plants, Outdoor and Survival

 

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The Humble Crab Apple: An Underutilized Free Food

09 Apr

A crab apple in full bloom is a beautiful thing! But the fruits deserve more credit than they get, too.

Most people know that the crab apple is edible, but it is so small (and some are bred not to bear fruit) that it is discounted as a food source and sometimes decried as a pain when the fruit begins to fall and birds start to flock. That’s a shame! Crab apples are a delicious food and, if processed the right way, not as much work as you think to utilize as a free source of tasty treats in both rural and urban locales. And the plant also has medicinal properties that make it an underused plant in the average yard or field.

Most people can identify crab apples when they’re in fruit (and when they’re in bloom). But for anyone interested in collecting plants for food or medicine, being able to identify plants properly will make your life easier, if not save it.

Crab apples are deciduous (they lose their leaves in winter) small trees in the Rosaceae family, and the Malus genus. They reach about 15′ to 25′ at maturity. The buds and leaves have an alternate arrangement, meaning the leaves hop scotch as they move up the stem, as opposed to an opposite leaf arrangement, where the leaves are directly across from each other on the stem. The leaf buds are egg-shaped with several overlapping scales. There are about 700 varieties of crab apples (yep!) so the leaves are variable in color and size. But take a look at crab apples this spring and look at the leaves to learn their general character.

Crab apples have an alternate leaf arrangement and their leaves have the look of other trees in the apple family, but there is much variability.

FOR EATING

The fruit is the main edible part of the plant, eaten raw or cooked, though raw it is highly astringent. Because of this, it is most frequently cooked with sugar and made into jams, jellies, fruit fillings, chutneys, and more. In fact, crab apples contain an excellent pectin, which can be used to thicken other kinds of jams.

One secret to using crab apples for food is to remove their wee seeds, though this is not always necessary (see the recipe below). Yes, to do this with individual fruits is time consuming as each small crab apple needs to be sliced and the seeds removed. I once made a crab apple pie this way and it took hours to remove the seeds from all of the crab apples; I’ll never make crab apple pie that way again! OK…maybe I will because the pie was so tasty, but I’ll have to be in the mood for a lengthy, repetitive task.

In my opinion the best way to use crab apples is to process them with heat and liquid, run them through a sieve or food mill, and use them in recipes. Processing like this will eliminate the seeds with much less fuss.

The seeds should not be eaten in large quantities as the seeds of all members of the genus contain hydrogen cyanide, which can be dangerous in large quantities. If you prepare a crab apple dish that contains seeds (see below), make sure to spit the seeds out as you would an olive or watermelon. The fruit pulp is perfectly safe.

FOR HEALING

There is some conflicting information about whether crab apples have medicinal properties; I’ve not used them as such myself so I can’t say for sure. I have read in different sources from India and China that a crab apple fruit poultice can be used to sooth inflammations and help heal small wounds. (To learn more about what a poultice is, read our ‘Spin, “Roots, Twigs, Barks and Parts: The Home Apothecary.”) The bark, especially the root bark, is reported to help expel parasites from the gut (ick), cool the body, and help induce sleep. The leaves are reported to be an antibacterial.

RECIPE

Here’s a recipe from our 1946 edition of “The Boston Cooking-School Cook Book,” by Fannie Merritt Farmer:

Sweet Crab Apple Pickle:

Crab apples can be made into pickles, jams, pies, and this beautiful jelly.

  • 3 pounds crab apples
  • 2 cups cider vinegar
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons cloves
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons allspice berries
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons black pepper
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons ginger

“Wipe crab apples, remove stems, and steam until soft. Tie spices in muslin bag, put in preserving kettle, add vinegar, sugar, and crab apples, bring gradually to boiling point, and simmer 20 minutes. Makes 3 pints.”

The pickle can be processed using the water bath method for your elevation (the same time is used for pints or quarts):

  • 0 – 1,000 ft: 20 minutes
  • 1,001 – 3,000 ft: 25 minutes
  • 3,001 – 6,000 ft: 30 minutes
  • Above 6,000 ft: 35 minutes
 
6 Comments

Posted by on April 9, 2012 in Edible Plants, Home Remedies & Apothecary, Homesteading, Outdoor and Survival, Saving Money

 

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Winter Edibles: Cattails

03 Feb

Cattails are a common edible during the growing season, but they can save your butt in winter.

People like to learn about and collect wild edible plants for a variety of reasons: survival foods if they are lost in the wilderness, a source of free food and culinary exploration, or just plain outdoor fun. But it’s a common mistake to only think about many wild edibles as food sources during the growing season. In fact, there are edible plant sources during the winter, too.

Cattails are one of those plants that can be counted on as a winter edible, which is one reason it is sometimes known as “Supermarket of the Swamp.” Cattails are a great winter edible because they are easy to identify, they occur frequently wherever shallow water is present, and they usually exist in large stands. Their sheer quantity can provide a substantial food source if you really get your butt in a sling in the wild.

The reliable edible part of the cattail in the winter is the plant’s roots (rhizomes), which are a great source of starch and can also be turned into a flour. You may also find the coming season’s growth shoots (corms), which also make an excellent edible, attached to where the rhizomes meet the base of the plant.

To harvest the plant, reach to the plant’s base and dig or pull the rhizomes out of the soil. Cut them from the dry, above-ground stems and wash them thoroughly. At this point you’ll be able to separate the rhizomes, which will be brown and covered with root hairs making them look like an old rope, from the more succulent corms. From here you can do several things:

You can make a flour with the rhizomes: Peel the rhizomes and crush them in a fair amount of cold water to separate the white, starchy goodness from the fibrous portions. Remove the fiber and let the container sit for several hours until the starch settles to the bottom. Pour off the water carefully and strain the starch if you can. From here you can use the pasty starch as a flour immediately or let it dry well for storage. If you dry it for storage, you’ll need to grind it fine, but then it can be used in conjunction with other flours in baking.

You can supplement a soup with the above starch: Follow the same instructions as above, but instead of straining off the starch, heat the water and starch and add any other wild edibles you’ve been able to collect. Staying hydrated in a winter survival situation is very important, and this soup will kill a few survival birds with one stone (hopefully you’ll have a bird to add to the soup, too).

You can eat the corms: The corms may be as small as peas or larger, depending upon where you are and how far along you are in the winter season. Peel or scrub these new shoots and eat them as-is, or you can slice them and cook them. I recommend adding the corms to the above soup if you’re in a survival situation; it will provide warmth, hydration, and starch for energy. But if you’re just eating the corms for an interesting food item on your table, they are tasty cooked in some butter with a sprinkling of salt and thyme!

Sources: “Edible Wild Plants: Eastern/Central North America” by Lee Allen Peterson, “Wild Edible Plants: A North American Field Guide to Over 200 natural Foods” by Thomas S. Elias & Peter A. Dykeman.

 
3 Comments

Posted by on February 3, 2012 in Edible Plants, Fun Experiments

 

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Edible Winter Barks

10 Jan

While the bark of this small pine is edible in winter, choose larger trees.

One of the things I’m into here at Rural Spin is edible plants. I know my plants pretty well, and it’s fun to know what I can eat in the wild if I really had to in any kind of survival situation. (Hey, I hike a lot.) Most people think edible plants can only be found during the growing season. Not true! Even in winter you can forage for wild edibles, and one of the mainstays is tree bark!

I know what you’re thinking. Eating tree bark seems so…impossible. It is bark, after all! But properly prepared, bark can provide needed energy if you really get yourself in some serious doodoo. But it’s not like you can just rip it off the tree and start to nom. The edible portion of select trees is the inner bark, which sits between the outer rough bark and the tree’s wood. Inner bark is paper thin, really, so you need a lot of surface area to provide any sort of meal. Because of this, stick to the tree’s branches if possible–going at it on the main trunk can kill the tree.

Once you get a hold of enough inner bark, you can do one of two things with it: You can either boil it and eat it out-right, which would be a low point in your culinary experience, or you can dry it and grind it into a flour, which makes a kind of cake when mixed with water and cooked near a fire. Personally, I’d go with this route.

So what species of trees provide edible barks? There are five trees in particular: spruce, sweet birch (also known as black birch), slippery elm, pine, and hemlock (the tree…not the poisonous herbaceous). We’ll cover plant ID in later posts, but just know those are the ones to look up if you’re interested in this sort of thing!

 
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Posted by on January 10, 2012 in Edible Plants

 

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