{"id":184,"date":"2012-12-01T15:27:10","date_gmt":"2012-12-01T20:27:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bohemianutopia.com\/?p=184"},"modified":"2017-08-22T16:02:03","modified_gmt":"2017-08-22T21:02:03","slug":"sassafras-harvest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bohemianutopia.com\/?p=184","title":{"rendered":"Sassafras Harvest"},"content":{"rendered":"

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In the past, Sassafras root had been used as the colorant and flavoring in Root Beer.\u00a0\u00a0 This isn’t the root beer that is based on the sugary syrup carbonated beverage we have become accustomed to in America.\u00a0 This was the real, genuine “root beer”.\u00a0 But what was it?\u00a0 It was actually sassafras tea.\u00a0 Cleaned roots, with hot water poured over them and allowed to steep.\u00a0 What genuine frontiersman wanted to be known for drinking tea while en route to new explorations of a big land?\u00a0 No – these explorers had to change the name to something a bit more rugged for the frontier.\u00a0 How about calling it beer?\u00a0 Yep.\u00a0 Root Beer was actually sassafras tea.<\/p>\n

Note – After the original writing of this article – our friend Tim Hall wrote to let us know that:<\/p>\n

“… the term “beer” might not be entirely incorrect. It was very common “back in the day” to make what was called “small beer.” This was often made with roots, sarsaparilla, wintergreen, spruce, maple, etc. It was basically a very low alcohol beer, brewed so it was often safer to drink than water and would keep for a while.<\/p>\n

“Root(s) beer” was most likely a small beer, probably less than 1 or 2% alcohol.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

When we moved to our little utopia, otherwise known as Harmony Hollow<\/strong>, we noticed an abundance of sassafras saplings and three good sized ‘mother’ trees.\u00a0 Score!<\/p>\n

Fall is the best time to harvest Sassafras.\u00a0 When its leaves begin to turn beautiful red, you know the energy of the plant is returning to its roots in preparation for the winter’s sleep.\u00a0\u00a0 Harvesting on a waning, or ideally new moon further accentuates this.\u00a0 Just as the moon pulls the tides of the ocean, it also pulls the sap of plants to the light of the sun when full and to their roots in the darkness of the earth when new.\u00a0 We chose a drizzly Sunday afternoon, two days before the new moon for our long awaited harvest.<\/p>\n

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HISTORY<\/strong><\/p>\n

Sassafras has long been touted for its healing properties.\u00a0 Most commonly, it was used to treat the common cold, flu and bronchitis.\u00a0 Upon research I discovered it was considered an antiseptic and pain killer and was considered an effective treatment for a multitude of aliments such as urinary tract disorders, kidney problems, rheumatism and arthritis, painful menstruation and recovery from childbirth, high blood pressure, tooth ache relief, bruises, swelling, insect bites and lice.\u00a0 Additionally, it was added to soaps, perfumery and toothpaste and the twigs were even used as toothbrushes!<\/p>\n

With the advancement of modern medicine, the primary active constituent in sassafras – safrole – was found to be toxic and ‘not safe for human consumption’.\u00a0 Despite its long history of miraculous healing powers which date back to Native American practices, sassafras has been reduced to an artificially concocted flavoring added to our carbonated infused corn syrup elixir, Root Beer, and ‘the little tree that could’ is now considered a cancer causing nuisance.<\/p>\n

DESCRIPTION<\/strong><\/p>\n

The plant has three distinct shapes of leaves.\u00a0 One of the leaves is often referred to as looking like a mitten.\u00a0 The second is elliptical in shape, with “almost pointed” ends – like a thin football, and the third type of leaf is a fully symmetrical leaf – like the thumb-side of the mitten.<\/p>\n

All three are shown in the picture below.<\/p>\n

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HARVEST
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

When scouting, it is easiest to look for a large ‘mother’ tree.\u00a0 While sassafras does propagate from seed, it reproduces more prolifically from rhizomes, so typically you will find an abundance of saplings under the larger trees just as we did.<\/p>\n

Second year saplings are the best to harvest.\u00a0 They will typically be 18″ – 2′ in height and be no bigger around that a No. 2 pencil.\u00a0\u00a0 We found a sharpshooter shovel works best for getting under the roots.\u00a0 Before you start digging,\u00a0 you want to\u00a0 remove the top soil and leaf matter away to expose the direction of the root as best as you can.\u00a0 The root, several inches under the surface of the soil, makes a sharp 90 degree turn and has a feeder root growing in the opposite direction.<\/p>\n

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This series of saplings was carefully unearthed to reveal that they were in fact one tree root system that was growing into individual trees.<\/p>\n

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A nice harvest for the year, we are ready to clean our roots up a bit! Don’t forget the leaves can be placed in a paper sack to dry, then crushed and used in gumbo.\u00a0 No gumbo is complete without file powder!<\/p>\n

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Shake off as much dirt as possible and remove the above ground portion of our trees.\u00a0 You can smell a huge difference between the tree and root portion.\u00a0 When trying to determine where to cut and what to keep, the nose knows! Give your roots a good rinse.<\/p>\n

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The thin stringy portions of the root tends to also hold dirt and should be removed.\u00a0 We used a pair of utility scissors or diagonal cutters to remove them.\u00a0 For faster drying, the roots should be cut into lengths of approximately 4 to 5 inches long.<\/p>\n

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At this point your roots can be placed in an open, airy location to dry or can be used immediately for tea.<\/p>\n

A few things that I would like to mention at this juncture:<\/p>\n

One – I was originally taught to boil the roots once and discard the first round of tea, probably due to the aforementioned toxicity associated with the oil, safrole.\u00a0 However, by doing so you lose some of the flavor and likely most of the healing attributes the plant has to offer.\u00a0 If you lean to the side of caution and are just after a flavorful, natural and native tea then this is the best mode of practice.\u00a0 Personally I am of the opinion that in small portions, used as a medicine should be, the first boil is perfectly safe for consumption.\u00a0 Regardless, your roots can and should be used more than once.<\/p>\n

Two – Before storing your roots in any form of sealed container make sure they are dry, dry, dry.\u00a0 I have enjoyed collecting and using old glass canning jars to store my herbs and thought nothing of putting my ‘dried’ sassafras in one.\u00a0 But I have to tell you, there is nothing more disheartening than returning to find your sassafras was not as dry as you thought and is now covered in mold.\u00a0 So sad, and such a waste!\u00a0 Paper sacks and colanders are your friends.\u00a0 When in doubt, leave them out and let them dry longer.<\/p>\n

TEA TIME<\/strong><\/p>\n

Place the roots in a pan and cover with water.\u00a0 Bring to boil for approximately 15-20 minutes.<\/p>\n

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Sassafras tea can be bitter, especially on the first boil.\u00a0 A little honey will sweeten it up quite nicely…of course we never miss an opportunity to use honey from our apiary.<\/p>\n

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Cheers!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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In the past, Sassafras root had been used as the colorant and flavoring in Root Beer. This isn’t the root beer that is based on the sugary syrup carbonated beverage we have become accustomed to in America. This was the real, genuine “root beer”. But what was it? It was actually sassafras tea. Cleaned […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[13,15,47,11,46],"tags":[7,14,49,53,52,48,50,51],"class_list":["post-184","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-gardening","category-harmony-hollow-apiaries","category-homesteading","category-permaculture","category-sustainability","tag-bohemian","tag-bohemian-utopia","tag-harvest","tag-root-harvest","tag-roots","tag-sassafras","tag-sassafras-tea","tag-wild-herbs","odd"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2ze45-2Y","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bohemianutopia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bohemianutopia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bohemianutopia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bohemianutopia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bohemianutopia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=184"}],"version-history":[{"count":41,"href":"https:\/\/www.bohemianutopia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1875,"href":"https:\/\/www.bohemianutopia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184\/revisions\/1875"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bohemianutopia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=184"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bohemianutopia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=184"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bohemianutopia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=184"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}