spruce tips are a bit of a culinary fad, which, like a lot of fads, culinary or otherwise, is really just a rediscovery of something already known for centuries. here in the midwest we’re suddenly fermenting sauerkraut and pickling vegetables as if we, and not our germano-scandinavian forbears, invented the idea. this year, we missed the spruce tip harvest season. they have burst their husks and started to lose their early season tenderness. so we’ll have to give this ancient native wild edible a try next spring, at which point i promise to report our experience with the breathless excitement of a totally new discovery.

annual growth tips on spruce and balsam

my yard, saint paul, minnesota

p.s. on a similar note, last week i bought myself a pair of trendy, 0f-the-moment birkenstock sandals. i tend to admire them without thinkng much about how in fashion they would have been a couple thousand years ago in downtown nazareth.