Foraged Flavor: All About Pine (2024)

FAQs

What are 3 interesting facts about pine? ›

Pine trees are considered evergreens because they keep their needles for approximately 2 years. When old needles falls, new needles quickly take their place. Pine tree needles can range in length from 1 inch to 11 inches. Both male and female pine trees produce woody cones.

Pine has a gorgeous, spiky flavor: herbal, sweet, a little perfumey—like rosemary dressed in a caftan and jewels.

Pine tree spices

The needles of your tree can be dried and mixed into a powder that has a light, citrusy and very aromatic spice. They can be used to spice-up cooked rice, to rub it on chicken before roasting, to smoke your meat or to add flavour to your cookie dough.

A great way to incorporate pine's unique flavor into dishes is to cook with pine oil. "With any kind of tough herb," Ziata suggested, "you keep the oil and the herb until it comes to a nice gentle simmer. Turn off the heat and let it steep until the oils cool and then strain the herb out.

Pine tree branches are extremely flexible, which allows them to handle a heavy snowfall without the branches snapping off. Pine tree seeds are protected in cones, allowing them to survive harsher temperatures. Pine trees have some special adaptations that make them resistant to wildfires.

The Torrey pine is the rarest native pine in the United States and, possibly, the rarest pine in the world. It only grows naturally in two places.

3 Edible Parts of Pine Trees

1. Pine nuts: The seeds of female pine cones contain vitamin C and dietary fiber. 2. Inner bark: Technically known as the cambium, this soft layer of bark is beneath the hard, outer bark and can be eaten raw in survival situations.

Pine goes especially well with mushrooms. It's also incredibly easy to make a pine needle oil to bring out the best of the pine flavor, which can be brushed on top of grilled or roasted fish or chicken. Tempura-fry pine needles and they will become crumbly like toasted sesame sticks.

Most of it is due to chemical compounds called terpenes. Terpenes are composed of carbon (C) and hydrogen (H) atoms. And they're built from different numbers and kinds of molecules, including pinene, which has a piney odor, and limonene, which smells citrusy.

Sensory Profile. Rosemary has a distinctive pine-woody aroma with camphoraceous undertones and a fresh, bittersweet flavor.

What scent is pine? ›

Fresh, cold, tingly, sharp, invigorating, woody, slightly minty, sweet, tangy, and fast fleeting.

Pine trees, smelly trees well-beloved for their scent, produce pinene, a terpene shown to have anti-inflammatory effects. The peppery, minty scent of phellandrene and eucalyptol, both emitted by eucalyptus trees, are antidepressive as well as effective cough suppressants.

Bring 1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons water, 2 tablespoons corn syrup and a pinch of salt to a boil in a saucepan, whisking, then boil 1 minute without stirring. Remove from the heat, add the needles and steep 2 to 3 hours. Strain the syrup and refrigerate up to a month. It tastes great in co*cktails!

The bark of a pine tree has a bitter, resinous taste. While it's not typically consumed, certain Indigenous cultures and survival experts have used pine bark for medicinal or nutritional purposes in times of need.

Mugolio is a sweet syrup that's very similar to maple syrup, made from fermented pine buds or cones. The name comes from Pinus mugo, a low-growing coniferous tree that grows at high elevations in Europe, such as in the Italian Dolomites.

In eastern California, a Great Basin bristlecone pine (Pinus longaeva) known as Methuselah has long been considered Earth's oldest living thing. According to tree-ring data, Methuselah is 4,853 years old — meaning it was well established by the time ancient Egyptians built the pyramids at Giza.

Pine Wood Basics

Pine trees grow quickly, quicker than many other tree species, so the pine tree supply is replaced rapidly. Pine is light in color. The light colors allow it to blend well with other wood types, making it easy to mix and match with other furniture.

Pines are long lived and typically reach ages of 100–1,000 years, some even more. The longest-lived is the Great Basin bristlecone pine (P. longaeva). One individual of this species, dubbed "Methuselah", is one of the world's oldest living organisms at around 4,800 years old.