Two weeks ago, before the great head cold week, my nature study class studied white pines. I used the question from the handbook of nature study mostly, and added some pine needle tea. I’d heard about pine needle tea in a book about colonial medicine, then saw it on a Man vs. Wild episode (or maybe Survivor Man?) one of those manly, manly shows we love to watch at my Mom’s house on Sunday Afternoon. I looked up some recipes on line, saw that white pine worked fine, and made some tea:
I picked a handful of new needles, climbing through a foot of snow to get at them, as I’d warned all the moms in co-op we were going outside no matter what, I couldn’t wimp out myself. I put them in a fresh coffee pot, filled them with hot water, and put them on a warming burner on the coffee pot. They smelled very nice, and got wonderful surprised looks from the moms getting their coffee!
The kids in groups of 2 and helping parents all got their own tree, the church driveway is lined with white pines. They also got different aged trees, so they could see the branching patterns of the whirled boughs.
They liked the tea (with lots of honey in it). It turns out they all watch the Discovery Channel too.