3 Wildcrafted Spruce Tips Recipes That Your Great-Grandmother Ate

When you look back just a couple generations, it’s incredible the difference in variety of foods and nutritional value our ancestors ate. Even more surprising is where they got their food! Read on for 3 delicious recipes using spruce tips!

Growing up I was always surrounded by spruce trees and loved hiding under their big boughs. We had a special one that was used as our ‘bus shelter’ (iykyk), and smelled so good!

Now with my own home, we are again surrounded by spruce trees! Hence the blog name 😉

Years ago I saw a recipe on Pinterest for spruce tip tea but it kind of weirded me out. Why would you eat a tree? I mean, there are more delicious things to eat and that’s crazy woo-woo hippie stuff.

Well here I am, enjoying my journey to that “woo-woo hippie” I secretly felted called to be.

This summer I’m expanding my foraging and herbal remedy skills. As many of you know, I am a huge supporter of using natural remedies first and foremost, treating the cause, not the symptoms.

Spruce tips are a great item for a beginner forager.  They’re easy to find, and use. You most likely have a spruce tree in your backyard or somewhere close to you.

As I re-learned two days ago, there’s no time like the present to take action on your desires!

Family all in bed and having a moment to myself to reflect and express gratitude, that spruce tip tea came back to me.

I quickly ran inside, threw on the kettle, grabbed a jar and headed to the nearest tree to harvest its bounty!

How to Harvest Your Spruce Tips

Spruce tips are found in early to late spring, just when the world is becoming luscious green again.

You’re looking for the soft tips of the tree, that have recently come out of the paper-y wrapping.  You’ll know them because they’re super soft, unlike the rest of the tree which will stab you in no uncertain terms.

The tips are a gorgeous blue-green colour which is what makes a forest look like its glowing in the spring time.

• When harvesting spruce tips, they should be no longer than 1”. 
• Take from a variety of branches in various trees. Remember, this is new growth for the tree so you don’t want to over-harvest anywhere.
• Leave the papery bites behind and collect just the greenery.
• No need to wash, you want nature’s biology for your immune system!

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Why Forage Spruce Tips

In no uncertain terms, spruce tips are a super easy item to have in a home apothecary.

They are high in vitamin C which is the perfect remedy for an unwell immune system, or to keep one well.

Spruce tips are great stimulates for congestion or sore throat due to their naturally astringent properties. Heck, even inhaling the tree can help you breathe better. Nature’s remedies!

You can dehydrate or freeze them to use throughout the winter as an extra antioxident boost.

Really, something so plentiful and simple to harvest and store that is rich in Vitamin C. No need for oranges that lack flavour and nutrients, or a store bought bottled vitamin when you can walk right out your door and get it yourself!

Here’s a little fun tip where you can really see, or smell, the Vitamin C: seal them in a jar and allow them to sweat for a few days. They smell like mangos!

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Spruce Tips Tea

This tea is perfect for when you’re feeling rundown or unwell, or as a daily antioxidant boost.

• Handful of spruce tips to a mug or kettle
• Pour over boiling water
• Steep for 15 minutes or until to taste
• Add local honey and cinnamon, optional

Spruce Tip Salt

This a a great way to preserve your spruce tips and eat them at every meal.

• Finely chop spruce tips
• Add to salt and let dry for a few days
• Once dry, store in an air-tight container
• Use in soups, meats, veggies, fresh on the table

Spruce Tips Vinegarette

This is a really great (and delicious) way to bring spruce tips onto your menu.

You can check out the full recipe from my friend Hannah over on Homespun Eats.

• 2 TBSP spruce tips
• 1/4 cup white wine vinegar
• 1/2 tsp horseradish
• 1/4 tsp Real salt
• 1 chopped garlic clove
• 1 drop Lemon essential oil
• 3/4 cup extra virgin olive oil or avocado oil

Blend until smooth and pour over your favourite foraged salad greens.

Changing Time

Foraging is how our ancestors lived for thousands of years. Farming is a fairly “new” endeavor and the concept of solely buying from the grocery store really in the last 30 years!

Learning, and preparing foraged meals is a more nutritional way of eating, it also throws a big FU to the corporate greed empires who have so far been successful at vilifying food and medicine and self-sufficiency as the way of life.

Until now.

Just you being here learning this information and how simple it is to put into action changes the tide and makes your life better, healthier and wealthier. Congratulations to you!!

Join thousands of others learning these self-sufficiency skills and take back control of your health, wealth and happiness.