Nature School Project: Evergreen Tea
Today we are joined by Kroka Expeditions in Marlow, New Hampshire with an Evergreen Tea recipe.
This project accompanies the fourth story in the Martin & Sylvia: Nature School Audio Book – “The Great Gift.”
There are many reasons to make a steaming cup of evergreen tea. The warmth alone can be the reason on a rainy day to give comfort to cold fingers and chilly bodies. The taste, especially with honey and spruce needles, is like drinking a delicious, sweet Christmas tree. As the pioneers taught us, vitamin C is great for health and a good way to ward off scurvy! My personal favorite is spiky spruce tea but you can use pine or fir needles as well. Making this tea is really simple -- even little ones can help make it.
Evergreen Tea
Ingredients
½ cup of spruce tip
3-4 cups of water
honey to taste
Directions
Find the bushy-branched, spiky needles of a spruce tree that can be easily reached by the harvester. The tree will likely be 10-30 years old.
Tear the green tips from each sprig and collect into a birch bark basket or other carrying tool.
Boil 3-4 cups of water in a pot on an open fire (or on your kitchen stove). When the water is boiling remove from the heat and add all collected sprigs.
Steep for 10 minutes off the fire in a pot or in your cup until it reaches your desired taste.
Add some honey for an extra soothing taste and serve after tea has cooled enough for drinking. This drink has a pleasant pine/lemony taste.
If you liked this recipe, here are others you might enjoy:
(Do not consume if you are pregnant or breastfeeding.)
Images for this post were provided by KC Pagano.
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About the Authors
KC Pagano
KC is a full-time radical homemaker and mama to two spunky little girls. She writes about all kinds of radical goodness, from gardening and cooking with whole foods to crafting, sewing, homeschooling, and mama musings. Read more on her blog The Nettlesome Life.
Kroka Expeditions
Kroka Expeditions is a wilderness school in Marlow, NH committed to awakening in young people a connection to nature and the spirit within, and a capacity for conscious living and compassionate service. We strive to achieve this through wilderness adventure, community living, farming, and the practice of traditional and indigenous skills in Waldorf-inspired semester, summer, and school programs for ages 9-18.
