Six weeks ago, I picked some of our treasured wild medicinal plants--Y'know, those things some folks refer to as weeds? Included among them was a harvest of fresh pine needles.
I had read this recipe in which a pine needle vinegar is made by combining apple cider vinegar and clean chopped pine needles.
So I gathered, cleaned, and snipped enough pine needles to pack into a jar, and covered it with an equal amount of ACV per the recipe instructions. The recipe specifies white pine needles, but its author and all the other herbal recipes I've found online say any type pine needle can be used, the flavor varying somewhat from astringent to pleasantly close to balsamic in flavor.
It was worth a try! So it's been jarred for 6 weeks, awaiting its debut...
Tonight was the night! I filtered it into a clean glass jar. And I have to say, it smelled delightful!
It's so easy to make, it's definitely worth experimentation, and I will be making more!
Have you ever tried it? What's brewing/fermenting/cooking in your kitchen?
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12 comments:
This in very interesting! I am always looking for new ways to use what nature has provided and this use of pine needles is one I have not heard of before.
Brewing at my house...I have kraut in a jar and kefir water on my cabinet and cranberries in vodka in a cabinet( I am making this for the first time hoping it will be an asthma help) and today I am planing on putting some chickweed in coconut oil in my little crock pot to make some skin nourishing lotion.
Really interesting, we might have to experiment with this as well. I have a big pine out back just waiting to be plucked.:)
Do you need to boil the needles or anything or does the ACV have enough acid to kill off wild beasties that might be in the needles? Sounds very cool!
We have tons of white pines around my house. I am sooooo going to try this! Thanks for the post!
Melodie, we LOVE fresh kraut but have to stay away from anything with much salt because of Jack's high blood pressure tendency...but it's SO yummy! I've never made kefire water, but we've made the dairy sort before. I'd love to know more about the cranberries and asthma connection! And chickweed is on my wish list of bulk herbs to include in a daily mix for infusion...we drink a combination of herbs infused or decocted, daily...and really feel the difference. Kudos to you at making so many wonderful handmade and nourishing things!
Mr H...they say different pines produce different flavors. I'd love to see how yours turns out and how you end up using it!
Warren...the recipe doesn't call for it, but many times what I do with a lot of anything green...like collards, kale, etc, is to put them in something and cover them with cool water and salt it a bit with salt (not loads, just a few spoonsful depending on your quantity of greens to be washed)and leave it for a few minutes, swishing it around to get it all through. (This kills hidden insects, and you'll see them when you pour the water off ) Then rinse it off and proceed to clean whatever it is as you usually would. With the pine needles, the next time around I would trim the stem end off of them and then chop them more than I did before. I did the salt water rinse (I have no idea if this changes anything for the worse, but I can't stand crawlies) and then rinse it thoroughly so no salt remains on them, and proceed as called for in the recipe. Plus you're pouring boiling hot vinegar over them, and the final stage after "aging" is to filter the vinegar...I think all suspects are gone by that point :)
Small Farm Girl, I'd love to hear how it comes out! If it doesn't taste good, you'll at the very least have a wonderful natural cleaner. But I'd love to know if you like the taste and how you end up using it :)
Warren, PS, I didn't use the organic ACV, just what I had on hand, which was some cheapo kind I got on sale at some point from the store.
Melodie, P.S. have you ever just made tea with the pine needles? It makes a very invigorating, sort of menthol tea I find pleasant and add other things to for single cups of tea. It has a lot of vitamin C !
Your worried about a few creepy crawlies in pine needles? I would think the boiling vinegar would take care of anything that had the ill fortune to live inside of a pine needle. I hear bugs are very nutritious too.
Seriously, I loved you blog and think it is great that you find new uses for natures bounty.
Grey Wolf, lol, yep they won't survive the pickling...and thanks for the nice word! :)
Yeah, boiling liquid kills about everything doesn't it? Thanks for the great reply!
I absolutely love this idea! :-) I am part of a medieval enactment group and have been researching ways to use pine in medieval medicine. Through that I found your blog and this post. :-) I will be brewing pine tea soon (the Vikings used it as a healing brew) and can't wait to try your pine vinegar. :-)
Rambling, that's really neat! And pine certainly has medicinal qualities in abundance. So do SO SO many things we think of as weeds, and I'm among those who study to learn about their known benefits as well as ones most suited to each person's own locale. It's a wonderful quest of "return"!!!
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