Eating Pine Trees: Bark Bread, Tea, and as a Green Vegetable

[230gr]

Eating Pine Trees: Bark Bread, Tea, and as a Green Vegetable
   In North America the Indians preferred the inner barks of the White Pine, Black Birch and Slippery Elm, but Spruce, Hemlock, Ponderosa Pine, are also used, as well as. So to where Yellow and Paper Birch and to some extent Fremont Cottonwood.  While in Northern Europe, Red Pine and Black Birch were utilized.

Bark
   The best time to gather the bark is when the tree is richest in sugars in late spring from the largest trees possible as width is more important than height because the wider the tree, the thicker the cambium layer. This is where the cambium is the thickest and best, and where you can get the most food with the least work
   The moist white living inner bark (cambium layer) is located just underneath the dead outer layer and it is here where the tree’s girth growth occurs.  The best way to get a supply is to peel off some large chunks of bark, being careful not to girdle the tree lest you kill it. Carefully fillet the moist layer of cambium clinging to the inside of bark chunk and prepare it for immediately or dry it for later use. 
    Boil for a half hour or until the water turns red from turpentine flavored resins, then change water and boil a second time for a half hour.  Change water and boil a third time for a half hour.  After the last boiling, the bark will be fairly tender and the water will only be light pink. The "bark" will have a color like fresh ham but a texture like roasted chicken.
   The prepared bark may now be dried for storage or pounding into flour or directly added to cooking. If dried first, it will need to soak a couple of hours before final cooking. The bark has no particular flavor but can used as a meat substitute with the proper flavorings. For final cooking, add four cups of water and four chicken or beef bullion cubes and simmer for one hour or longer.
   Bark flour was generally used to stretch the supply of grain flour (usually down to rye, barley or oats by then) during hard times. The cakes held together better, tasted better and where easier if the bark flour made 1/3 of the flour used.

Recipes
Bark Bread 
2 quarts lukewarm water
1 pint bark meal
3-4 packages yeast
2-quart rye flour
2-quart wheat flour
The ingredients are mixed the same as any other bread. The dough is set aside to rise for an hour; then it is punched down and allowed to rise for 40 minutes. The dough is shaped into 24 balls, placed on cookie sheets and flattened like pancakes. The bread is baked at 450 F. for 10-15 minutes. The recipe makes 24 small breads.

Pine as a Green Vegetable
Young Pine Spring Shoots- succulent green branch and pale immature needles can be eaten raw during new growth periods, peeled and used as a boiled green vegetable or candied by boiling in a heavy sugar syrup until are nearly transparent and thoroughly crystallized.
Young staminate catkins (little pine cone like growths, covered in soft brown scales and growing at the terminal end of the needle clusters) can be boiled and eaten. Some varieties of pine have a heavy turpentine flavor and must be boiled with water change several times.

Pine Needle Tea
Pine needles contain 5 times the vitamin C found in lemons but should be used sparingly over long term as they are irritating to the kidneys. A handful of pine needles, or 1/4 cup fresh chopped needles steeped in boiling water for 10 to 15 minutes provide 100% of the U.S.R.D.A. of vitamin C.