happyflowerlady
Survivalist
I just watched an interesting tutorial video about using fresh-picked pine needles as a survival food if you are stranded out in the woods and have nothing to eat.
Pine needles are actually full of vitamins, although it might take quit a bit of munching to keep you with enough calories to survive for very long.
Of course, if there is nothing else there to eat, then pine needles would be a welcome food, I guess.
I have picked the pine needles before and used them for pine needle tea, and it tasted pretty good.
You can also cut the needles (assuming you are home and have scissors or a good knife)and put them in vinegar and have in interesting flavored vinegar that is similar to balsamic vinegar.
When I lived in Idaho, we had balsam fir trees, and they had little "blisters" on the bark. Inside each blister was some sticky kind of a gel.
That stuff was the very best thing for putting on cuts or scrapes and helping it to heal up. We used it all of the time for both ourselves and on the animals if they had a cut.
It was easy to get if you had a pocket knife to pop the little bark blister open, and then you just used the knife tip to get the balsam gel and put it on a popsickle stick or something similar to be able to smear it on the wound.
Pine needles are actually full of vitamins, although it might take quit a bit of munching to keep you with enough calories to survive for very long.
Of course, if there is nothing else there to eat, then pine needles would be a welcome food, I guess.
I have picked the pine needles before and used them for pine needle tea, and it tasted pretty good.
You can also cut the needles (assuming you are home and have scissors or a good knife)and put them in vinegar and have in interesting flavored vinegar that is similar to balsamic vinegar.
When I lived in Idaho, we had balsam fir trees, and they had little "blisters" on the bark. Inside each blister was some sticky kind of a gel.
That stuff was the very best thing for putting on cuts or scrapes and helping it to heal up. We used it all of the time for both ourselves and on the animals if they had a cut.
It was easy to get if you had a pocket knife to pop the little bark blister open, and then you just used the knife tip to get the balsam gel and put it on a popsickle stick or something similar to be able to smear it on the wound.
I never knew pine needles are edible until I read it here. We have a lot of pine trees in our area and in almost every mountain here in our region that's why this information is such a plus for me. With regards to them being a good source of tea too, I think it's really splendid because the smell of pine needles just gives me this certain feeling of being in one with nature. I could imagine that sipping a pine tree needle tea could also provide me the same sense because the smell of fresh tea is just so awesome.