It’s almost that time of the year again when everything starts to flourish. For the most part, the snow is gone (or going) and the snowdrops and crocuses are starting to add a bit of colour to the dull, straw-coloured lawns. The fresh spring colours are always so welcome in my world at the end of a long, drawn-out winter. Soon, the deciduous trees, once again, will gain a green hue as their leaves unfurl and the evergreens will start to show bright green tips at the ends of their branches- which brings me to the point of this post:
Did you know that you can eat those bright green tips? And that they are delicious? I had no idea until a couple of years ago. I bought Shawn Dawson’s book ‘The Forager’s Dinner” and read it cover to cover. I have it left on my kitchen bar and there is so much information in it that I pick it up and browse it over and over.
After reading it, I watched the spruce trees in the early spring for their bright green tips, but it didn’t happen until the last week of June. I went out one day and gathered about a cup of tips from various spruce trees (don’t just pull them all from one branch or the tree won’t grow) and also gathered some from fir trees. I had to know what they both taste like. (Take it from me, spruce tips are better, but fir tips are fine.) Make sure that you remove any of the brown coating from the tip and leave only the green growth.
I heated about a half cup of good quality oil in a saucepan and let it simmer before adding approximately 1/4 cup of the spruce tips. I only left them in there until they started to turn brown, which they do rather quickly. (In my first attempt, I added them to very hot oil and they turned brown immediately- my oil tasted only of burn.) When they start changing, I took them off the stove and strained the oil from the tips. Let the oil sit and cool a bit. When the fir tips are cooled, you can eat them. The oil is great for dipping bread in. I generally mix it with some good balsamic oil and dip the bread in those together. With my husband’s homemade bread, this meal is divine. I cannot wait for the spruce tips to make an appearance again this year!