Brambles – Blackberries and Raspberries
These are my favorite berries for eating, cooking and making wine…. But, the berries don’t come along until summer. The tender shoots in early spring may be cooked and eaten as you would Asparagus. The leaves are tangy and astringent. They can be eaten as a potherb in small amounts, and they make a popular tea. Strawberry leaves may be used the same way. All are Rose-family plants and basically interchangeable.
Although mild, the shoots and tender leaves both have a slightly acidic flavor that is somewhat like citrus. This goes very well with chicken and small game birds. If you can collect a few rose hips, rose petals or blackberries, you can enhance these flavors. If not, mix in some sorrel or lemon zest. If you use chicken, cut it into breasts, thighs, legs and wings. You can either brown it in a pan with some oil and then roast it, or brush it with oil and grill it. Either way, when your bird/s is brown, put it in a deep frying pan or a roasting pan. Add your Bramble shoots (peeled) and tender leaves, a few aromatic herbs like parsley, rosemary, thyme, etc, salt, pepper and a sweet, fortified wine like sherry or marsala. A little honey, lemon zest and a dash of fish sauce or soy sauce is perfect. I like to add a little hot pepper, but… I do to most things. If you don’t have rose hips or blackberries, you could add a few raisins.
A tea made of Blackberry or Raspberry leaves is tasty and refreshing. It is very popular among pregnant women, who drink it to tonify the uterus – reasonable amounts of the tea being recommended in pregnancy books and articles. But, I caution against using herbs in medicinal doses during pregnancy. Even common herbs like mint and oregano can cause miscarriage. There is, at least, one documented case of a woman who decided that if 1 cup of Raspberry leaf tea was a good idea, a whole gallon or more would be better! Not surprisingly, that caused a miscarriage.
Briers
Briers are probably the most overlooked of all wild plant foods. For most people, they are just a nuisance in hedges or something that scratches you in the woods. In truth, the entire smilax family is edible and quite tasty. Certain members of the Brier family are also highly valued as herbal medicine. The herb, Sarsaparilla is a brier from South America. Several North American Briers share the same adaptogenic properties – such herbs are “tonics” that aid immunity and help restore strength and endurance… some even help with sexual function and athletic performance. Sarsaparilla was in such high demand in early America that it helped foster the soft drink industry. Root beers were made with Sarsaparilla root, or the roots of any number of the Brier or Smilax family, along with the Aralia family and usually Sassafras. All of these root herbs are very aromatic, medicinal and pleasant tasting. Root beers were sweetened with sugar or the syrups of trees such as birch and maple and then fermented so that they would carbonate. The root beers of old were often strongly alcoholic. Now-days, root beer is made with artificial flavors, caramel color and corn syrup, and carbonated without fermentation. Why not make your own, real root beer?
Root Beer
Ingredients:
Dried roots of Smilax, Aralia and/or Sassafras
Water
Sugar and/or sweet tree sap
Lemon
Yeast
Instructions:
Bring water to a boil in a large pot. How much water you use will depend on the quantity of roots you are using and how much root beer you want to make. I’ll advise for 1 gallon – scale up for more. Add your chopped up roots and boil until the water is reduced by about half. Stir in 2 pounds of sugar until dissolved. You can also just use sap from a tapped tree in place of water and sugar, but most folks probably won’t do that… I would, but most people don’t tap trees, which is a shame. At this point, if you did not use sap, adding a handful of birch twigs and green leaves will give the brew a very nice flavor. Birch also has some aspirin-like qualities that will add to your beer’s medicinal properties. Real root beer is strongly medicinal, by the way; it is a traditional spring tonic. Cover and let cool to room temperature. I usually let it sit over night. Strain out all solids. Add any citrus juice you like for some acidity to balance the sweetness. Add yeast. You can let it ferment for only 24 hours, bottle and refrigerate it if you want a sweet root beer with essentially no alcohol. But, I like to seal it with a fermentation air lock and let it ferment until still, then bottle it with just a pinch of sugar so it will carbonate. I aim for around 5% alcohol, although I have made some that was higher than 20%… and it kicks like a mule!
Technically, I need to include a disclaimer about Sassafras. A couple of decades ago, the federal government banned its sale because some “scientific studies” showed that giving mice the equivalent in human terms of 50 gallons of highly concentrated sassafras tea could cause cancer. Frankly, I think this is the kind of moronic nonsense that I have come to expect from “government experts” but you will have to make your own judgments.
As for the green parts of the plant, the edible bits are the leaves and shoots. New, tender leaves and shoots are best. You can snack on them raw while hiking, or add them to a salad. Cooked, the leaves taste much like spinach. The Brier leaves are a mild green vegetable that can be served in any number of ways. But, the shoots deserve a mention as an ingredient in frittatas and stir-fry. I think they pair particularly well with sweet corn. Basically, if a recipe calls for bean sprouts, toss in some Brier shoots… you'll be glad you did! Otherwise, you can cook the shoots the same as you would Asparagus. The flowers are also very nice when in the bud stage. For one variety, in particular, you definitely do not want the flowers to mature past the bud stage – that is the Carrion Flower! Carrion Flower is my favorite of all the Briers because it grows to be a huge size, medicinally it is very similar to sarsaparilla and it has no thorns. I purposefully grow this Brier as a material for weaving baskets. The fact that it is edible is a nice bonus. But the mature, open flower smells like rotting meat… this attracts flies for pollination, but I don’t find the aroma appetizing!
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Disclaimer
The information on this site is not intended to diagnose or treat any disease or condition. Nothing on this site has been evaluated or approved by the FDA. I am not a doctor. The US government does not recognize the practice of herbal medicine and their is no governing body regulating herbalists. Therefore, I'm just a guy who studies herbs. I am not offering any advice. I won't even claim that anything I write is accurate or true! I can tell you what herbs have "traditionally been used for." I can tell you my own experience and if I believe an herb helped me. I cannot, nor would I tell you to do the same. If you use any herb I, or anyone else, mentions you are treating yourself. You take full responsibility for your health. Humans are individuals and no two are identical. What works for me may not work for you. You may have an allergy, sensitivity or underlying condition that no one else shares and you don't even know about. Be careful with your health. By continuing to read my blog you agree to be responsible for yourself, do your own research, make your own choices and not to blame me for anything, ever.
