As promised! I have begun to harvest spruce tips!
Now, if I was going to use these directly for tea or something and not add anything to them, I would want to pick the smallest, most dense tips . These are the sweetest. But as I am preserving these on Honey and salt and sugar, I’m not as worried about them being a bit older and bitter.
Once I’ve harvested them a good idea with anything you forage is to soak it in a salt brine so clean and to kill any bugs that might be hiding amongst the tiny nooks. I usually let them soak for half an hour before moving on.
First up is the spruce tip infused salt. Pretty simple start with a layer of salt then spruce tips then salt, repeat till we finish the top layer covering well with salt. With any of these leave the lid slightly loose not fully tight for the first week to allow any gasses to escape. Otherwise you may have a jar blow on you.
Next up! Spruce tip infused brown sugar. Same process as before with the salt. Start with some sugar, then spruce and then a sugar layer, repeat. And cap with sugar!
Finally, today I’m making spruce tips preserved in raw honey. Depending on where you get your raw honey it may or may not look like the honey I have here. Don’t be discouraged! It’ll be your own unique blend! Simply pour the raw honey over the spruce tips to cover – if you have to warm the honey slightly do so with a warm water bath. But DO NOT boil the honey, you will lose all the wonderful bacterial benefits of the raw honey if you do.
All of these simple recipes I’ll leave stored in a cool space for about a month before I use them. Trust me the wait is worth it!
Thanks for tuning in!
Today’s reading: 2 kings 2, John 18
I love you all!
-H.