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Du Jardin Learning Center

Foraging Fun: Evergreens, identification & uses

1/25/2021

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My haul from a Winter foraging walk is mostly evergreens, along with some rosehips.
Given we live in Maine, I suppose it isn't surprising I'm passionate about evergreens. I've had a long love-affair especially with White Pines, so it is quite fitting indeed that we live here in the Pine Tree State. It seems a hundred years ago, when my daughters were tiny peanuts, that we would grab baskets & head out into the woods around our log-cabin to gather treasures. How clearly I recall hunkering down & fanning out a freshly picked cluster of White Pine needles to show them the easy 5-needle ID [W-H-I-T-E for White Pine.] <3 
​Memories to cherish.
​
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The Eastern White Pine [Pinus strobus] has coniferous needles which typically grow in bundles of 5
Here in the dead of Winter, our year-round Herbal Allies in the evergreen family are a perfect way to entice yourself to get out into the cold, fresh air!  With so many members & so many edible & medicinal ways to use them, it is hard to know where to start. They have been used in traditional Nordic & Indigenous Peoples cooking for centuries. Loaded with Vitamins C & A, as well as healing & pain-soothing properties, evergreens are main staple plants, especially for winter foraging.
​
Easy to identify & available in nearly every climate, evergreens are a great place to start if you’re new to foraging as well. 
As with any foraging undertaking, it is imperative you accurately identify what you are collecting. Colleen of Grow, Forage, Cook, Ferment has a wonderfully detailed guide to ID-ing conifers that is packed with helpful info. Check it out before you head out!
​And as always, be sure to harvest from more mature trees, steer clear of those sprayed with pesticides or growing close to heavily traffic roads or railroad tracks, & avoid harvesting from the top of the plants, which can stunt their growth. Take only what you will use.
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Most conifer needles are edible, with the exception of the toxic yew [Taxus spp.] tree. Spruce, pine, fir, & redwood all have wonderful herbal & edible uses. Conifer needles are particularly useful in teas & steams, but are also used in applications varying from healing-salves to flavoring infusions. In order to protect the Vitamin C, these needles are often cold-infused. Boiling, or heat infusion will result in less Vitamin C, but a deeper, more intense flavor. Both methods of extraction are used depending on the desired result. I love to add spruce tips to my daily tea where flavor, not vitamins, are my main focus.

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Stovetop potpourri of foraged evergreens with oranges rejuvenates me & my home!
A favorite way to use freshly gathered evergreens is in fragrant stovetop potpourri. This is a wonderful way to freshen stale air in your Winter-locked-down home, as well as to freshen your spirits! Grab a nice selection of evergreens -- my pot here includes White Pine, spruce, fir, & cedar branches & pinecones, along with a few slices of orange. Pop them in a large, heavy pot & cover with water by about 1”. Set the pot on your stovetop on high heat & bring to a boil. Lower the heat to maintain a slow simmer as long as desired, adding more water if needed, as you diffuse the fresh scent through your home & add moisture to the dry Winter air. Heavenly!
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​A
nother super easy way to enjoy the benefits of pine is to add fresh needles to some
bath salts for a fragrant, detoxifying soak. You can use whatever type of bath salt you have on hand, Epsom salts & pink Himalayan are two of my favorites. Simply snip your freshly gathered needles into small pieces. Add them to a jar with your salts & some sweet almond or olive oil [about 2 TBS oil per 3 cups salt] & shake to 
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Fresh Pine Bath Salts Are An Easy Treat To Make
combine. Allow to infuse for at least an hour before use--but this mixture will keep for a couple of months. If you have them, crushed juniper berries are a lovely addition to this soak, or even a few drops of cypress, orange, &/or cedarwood essential oils [up to 12 drops total per 3 cups of salt.]  Incredibly soothing for the mind & the body, this soak is a Wintertime must! Be sure to place a small strainer or piece of cheesecloth over your drain at the end to catch the plant material when draining, or place your salts in a bath infuser or muslin bath-bag to start with.
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Sorting & drying my herbs to enjoy in tea year-round.
Spruce is an absolute favorite of mine for flavoring syrups & teas, as well as for infusing in gin. Tender, young spruce tips in the Spring give the very best flavor, but spruce needles can be used this way year-round with wonderful effect. I will do a drink focus with them this Spring, showing a favorite pairing of them with apricot. You can easily find recipes online to make Spruce Tip Beer as well --although I have never played with this, I have heard wonderful things about it!  
In the Winter, I tend to favor teas with spruce, adding tiny cuttings to my herbal tea blends almost daily. I have also been playing around with them in a zero-proof ‘gin’ alternative with very positive results, but that is also a post for another time.
​Finally, I will mention the use of Pine in cough syrups. White Pine particularly is wonderful for soothing sore throats & works well as an expectorant. I will refer you back to Colleen’s Grow, Forage, Cook, Ferment for a wonderful Pine Needle Cough Syrup recipe. It is thoughtfully detailed & presented in her post & definitely worth your time to make.
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Check out growforagecookfement for a lovely pine cough syrup recipe
I hope you have enjoyed this post & that it has encouraged you to get out & enjoy the outdoors during this slower-paced time of year. There is always something to learn & something to do in the Herbal World. If you are just beginning to explore foraging, evergreens are a wonderful [& delicious] starting point.
Let me know what you are foraging & how you are using it-- I love to hear from you!

Until next time--Stay safe & remember to  #StopAndEatTheFlowers 
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Herbal Spotlight: Butterfly Pea Flowers with Winter Blues Pie Recipe

1/12/2021

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Butterfly Pea Flowers [Clitoria ternatea] provide gorgeous natural color, as well as many benefits for the mind & body.
Trade your
Winter Blues for some natural Botanical Blue & brighten things up as we explore these amazing flowers & their benefits-- & have some fun playing with them in a recipe for a blue rice & custard pie too!
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Adaptogens are substances that are considered to help the body resist stressors of all kinds, whether physical, chemical or biological, and to exert a normalizing effect upon bodily processes.
More than just a pretty face, Butterfly Pea flowers are a powerful Herbal Ally! Native to Southeast Asia, these flowers have been used for centuries as a memory enhancer, brain booster, anti-stress & calmative agent; they are staples of Chinese & Ayurvedic medicine. Clitoria ternatea are considered to be adaptogenic.  They are packed full of antioxidants, flavonoids,& peptides, as well as anti-inflammatory compounds, particularly anthocyanin, which are believed to support ​
cardiovascular health. They are also traditionally used cosmetically to stimulate hair growth, & to support glowing skin & graceful ageing. ​
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Butterfly pea flowers are most often used as a tea & have an earthy-green flavor similar to that of green tea. The dried flowers, when steeped, release a deep indigo-blue color. Due to this, they are often used as a natural food coloring agent in Malasian, Thai, & Burmese cooking. Most interestingly, this color is pH sensitive, producing a wide variety of shades ranging from fuchsia to bright blue-green as it is exposed to different ingredient’s pHs! 
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Image: Ama Grow. pinterest.com/pin/778770960548743102/
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My 'Comfort & Joy' Adaptogenic Zero-Proof Cocktail

​This makes the herb VERY popular for cocktails! As anyone who knows me would expect, I have had quite a ball playing with the effects: Delighting my niece Phoebe [missing you peanut!] with “Electric Lemonades'' & also using them as an ingredient in one of the Adaptogenic Zero-Proof Cocktails I crafted for the Rocky Horror Picture Show at Cupacity last October being two of my favorites. 
BUT, as butterfly pea flowers are most often used for drinks, I decided to present you with a non-beverage recipe in this post, instead sharing a recipe for a wild-looking rice custard pie with rose & cardamom. It is super-easy to make, absolutely delicious, & outrageously colored! Seriously, you will not believe it is achieved with a natural colorant when you see it-- the color is not properly captured by my pictures!
Before we get going, just a few little things: With this recipe, I was aiming for an aqua shade & based my recipe amounts for the herb on this. The more butterfly pea flower you use & the longer you steep it, the deeper shade of blue you will get. I prefer to steep my milk & half & half overnight the day before baking, but you can get away with steeping it for 2 hours or so or even heat it with the dried flowers to color it instead. Additionally, if you say add lemon juice to the rice when it's cooking-- the pH change 
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Steeping my milk overnight
will shift your color to a vivid pink, SO there are endless ways to play with this. Finally, this rice custard pie is a sliceable dessert, served more like brownies than traditional pie. When baked, the rice settles to the bottom with the custard layer forming the top. It is delicious served warm, but many people prefer to chill it in the fridge before serving. The custard top, like all puddings & custard, will form a ‘skin’ which will oxidize & darken. Personally, I prefer to peel it off before serving to better enjoy the color effect of the butterfly pea in it. Here we go!

Winter Blues Pie

3 TBS Dried Butterfly Pea Flowers  
2 Cups Milk [whole, skim, your choice] 
1 Cup Half & Half 
1 Cup White Rice 6 Large Eggs 
¾ Cup Sugar 
1 TBS Vanilla Extract 
½ Teaspoon Cardamom Extract [or 1 tsp ground cardamom] 
½ - 1 Teaspoon Rosewater  [to your taste]
Pinch of Sea Salt
DAY BEFORE: Add 2 tablespoons of dried butterfly pea flowers to a quart jar & add the milk & half & half. Pop it in the fridge to steep overnight. Swirling/shaking occasionally.
DAY OF BAKING: I like to cook my rice in a rice-cooker, but stovetop is just fine as well. Measure out 1 ½ cups boiling water into a liquid measuring cup, add 1 TBS butterfly pea flowers & stir. Allow it to steep to develop the desired shade of deep blue. I let mine go about 5 minutes to give you an idea. Strain out the flowers & throw them in your compost. Use your blue water to cook your cup of rice, then set it aside to cool. Meanwhile, strain your milk/half & half combo, & prepare your other ingredients. Preheat your oven to 350. Grease an 8” x 8” pan.  Beat your eggs with the sugar. Add your blue milk & flavorings mixing until smooth & completely combined. Stir in the rice, breaking up any clumps. Pour into the prepared baking pan. Bake until a butter knife inserted in the center comes out clean, about 30 - 40 minutes. It is easy to scorch the bottom, so do the knife check even if it still looks loose! Remove from oven. Slice into squares & enjoy! You can serve it warm or allow to cool & chill it in the fridge before serving. Again, I like to remove the top skin before serving.
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Images do not properly capture the strange shade of aqua here!

​And there you have it -- a violently un-natural looking naturally colored dessert! Sure to thrill the child [or child-at-heart] in your life. The blue milk is particularly fun for Star Wars fans [on its own or baked into this dessert]  I like the blue-blue of doing it this way, but adding an acid to the rice would make it more pink-purple & give interesting tonal coloration. The color shift is really fun to play with! 
​
More than just the sheer strangeness of the colors, remember you are getting the herbal benefits of the butterfly pea flowers. This Herbal Ally provides so many benefits for mind & body. It is definitely worth adding to your own tea selection or Herbal Apothecary. 
I hope you enjoyed this look at these amazing flowers & this silly-fun recipe. It is likely I will post some drink recipes made with this herb in the future too. Let me know how you like to use Butterfly Pea & what color combo you create! Check out our very special skin & hair care products crafted with this Herbal Ally.  
Until next time--Stay safe &  #StopAndEatTheFlowers 
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