"Ever eat a pine tree? Many parts are edible."

When I was a kid we used to find colored sap on the pine trees up in Alaska and chew it like gum.

When I was back up in Alaska a few years back, I tried it again, and yep,
still is pretty tasty!

Can't stand pine nuts though...lol

yamammasamonkey
reply to post by InTheLight

 

The part of the loblolly that is poisonous is the cambium. I eat the nuts (and have for 40 yrs) which are fine. The needles are good for tea, but will cause miscarriage. The pollen is nearly identical to humane testosterone and used for medical treatments. There is usually two sides to a story, the whole truth usually resides in the middle. I eat nothing if I am not 100% confident in my knowledge. I love hunting mushrooms and have for many years all over the country. If you do this, especially in different regions, in which mushrooms mimic each other, you learn you can never be too cautious. One bad mushroom can kill everybody.

Yes, for pregnant women it's a whole different story and more research is required as to quantities. As for identifying mushrooms, that should be a university course.

Darkblade71
When I was a kid we used to find colored sap on the pine trees up in Alaska and chew it like gum.

When I was back up in Alaska a few years back, I tried it again, and yep,
still is pretty tasty!

I've never tried it with pine sap though i have tried it with Birch Bark Tar, partly as archy remains of it with iirc child's toothmarks in have been found, *possibly* used as a medicinal chewing gum. It's an accquired taste, though not completely god-awful. Trouble is, it made me salivate wildly while turning said saliva red. Looked pretty gruesome!

reply to post by teamcommander

Survival does not look kindly on experimentation!

although i agree with that sentiment. someone had to try it.
i can see two cavemen walking along and one saying to other.... i wonder if we can eat that. the other saying,
i don't know why don't you take a bite.

hounddoghowlie
reply to post by teamcommander

 

Survival does not look kindly on experimentation!

although i agree with that sentiment. someone had to try it.
i can see two cavemen walking along and one saying to other.... i wonder if we can eat that. the other saying,
i don't know why don't you take a bite.

Actually, there are instructions as to how one may try to taste/try an unknown plant and watch out for certain adverse symptoms to determine if it is edible or not. Usually, just holding against your lips or putting it in your mouth for a short time will tell the tale.

www.wikihow.com...

reply to post by InTheLight


that's true now, but that wasn't always so. someone had to try it in order to figure out what could and couldn't be eaten.

hounddoghowlie
reply to post by InTheLight

 

that's true now, but that wasn't always so. someone had to try it in order to figure out what could and couldn't be eaten.

edit on 31-10-2013 by hounddoghowlie because: (no reason given)

Yes, but we are smarter now, aren't we?

roasted pine nuts are delicious but they are tiny on the AT, as another user already pointed out.

reply to post by InTheLight


The "poisonous" pines are yew, loblolly, Norfolk. They all contain taxine (the poison) but loblolly is listed as poison because it can be abortifacient.

[I see I should have read the rest of the responses before posting. Doh!]

I've made white pine needle tea, It is actually pretty good. The sap of a white pine will clean out your sinuses if you put a little of the pitch on your tongue.

I've eaten the buds of other trees and tasted some leaves of ones I knew were safe. I'm going to taste the helicoptors off of maple trees next summer.

I love pine needle tea with a little honey. Has a goodly amount of Vitamins A and C. I also keep a small amount of pine pitch in my camping supplies as a pea-sized amount is enough to get a good fire started, even in the rain. If you're low on matches, it only takes one to get pitch going.
I don't bother remembering all the varieties of edible pines, just recognize the 3 I can't have. Less to clutter up my addled brain with.

Just make sure you arent using pine needles from the Hemlock tree. It is a poision that was once used as an execution method.

Hemlock PLANT is totally different than hemlock tree. The plant used for execution was Conium maculatum. The perfectly safe hemlock tree is Tsuga Canadensis, also known as a type of spruce tree.