Slightly Sooty Salad: Pine is a friend of mine

Gregg Stankewicz

Slightly Sooty Salad: Pine is a friend of mine
Green pine cones sit whole on a cutting board and cut in a jar as they are prepared for pine cone syrup. Photo by Gregg Stankewicz

Have we given pine trees enough attention? I wasn’t giving them enough attention. But when I start to give them attention, my hands get all sticky, the needles prick me, and the rough bark breaks my soft human skin. I think if I adjust my approach to the pines (no more hugs), I might find a way to appreciate what they have to offer without injuring myself.

And pines have a lot to offer. The resin that makes them so sticky is an excellent fire starter, or it can be mixed with oil and beeswax to make an antibacterial salve for bug bites, cuts and rashes. The resin can also be used as the principal ingredient in homemade glue. Pine tar can be extracted from resinous pine wood and used to waterproof the side of a house or even a boat.

But I want to eat pine. The Sámi people of Northern Europe have used various parts of pine bark to make flour. There are a few species of pine in the western United States that have large enough pine nuts inside their cones to be worth the effort to extract them. But here in the East, pine needle tea, pine cone jam, pickles and syrup seem like the most accessible options to try. I would love to hear about anyone’s attempts to make jam or pickles. I missed the window this year, as reportedly, you need very young green cones about the size of an adult pinky nail in order to make good pine cone jam or pickles. By mid-May, when I checked, I was too late.

Pine cone syrup, on the other hand, has more forgiving collection demands and can be made with many species’ green pine cones at varying stages of maturity. Spring and early summer are the times to look for these: any pine cones that are still tender, green, sticky and resinous. We’ve had good results making syrup with the cones of white pine, red pine and Himalayan pine. But many other varieties of pines, spruces and firs are equally good options. The syrup tastes great as a maple syrup replacement. Or, as our family enjoys, pine cone syrup can be added to lemonade or other drinks to make a refreshing beverage.

When you go out to collect your cones, you have two choices: surrender your harvesting hand to the stickiness or bring a rag, glove or bag to cover it. The finished syrup will last quite a long time in the refrigerator. One recent batch in our fridge was unchanged after two years. So it’s worth collecting enough cones to fill a quart jar or two, or five. When you get your cones home, give them a good rinse. We also soaked ours in a baking-soda solution for 20 minutes and agitated everything really well, because whatever is floating around in our NYC air is probably sticking to those cones.

Remove any stems and cut the cones into 1- to 2-inch lengths so they’ll pack together nicely in the jar. Then measure approximately how many cups of cones you have and add them to your jar with an equal amount of sugar. Most recipes advise using turbinado, maple or brown sugar. White sugar is apparently okay as well, but won’t impart as rich a flavor. We put together a jar this May with white sugar. Since the main difference between white and brown sugar is that the molasses has been refined out of the white sugar, we added a couple spoonfuls of molasses to the jar to see how that turns out.

We put our jars on a sunny windowsill to encourage fermentation. Now we need to wait at least 30 days, but we’ve let our jars sit out as long as 60 to 70 days in the past. We will shake and stir the contents occasionally to make sure everything is well blended. The cones should release a good deal of liquid within the first day or two, and the mixture will start to bubble and ferment sometime after that. Make sure the lids aren’t screwed on super tight, or unscrew them every few days to release any built-up gases. You can start tasting your syrup as soon as it’s in the jar, but try again around the 30-day mark to see what you think. When your taste buds tell you it’s ready, pour and scrape the contents of your jar into a pot and bring it to a gentle boil. Heat everything through and melt the sugar. Five to 10 minutes should be enough. Then pour it through a strainer into your bottles or jars. It will keep best in the refrigerator. Enjoy!

Send me an email about your pine-related adventures: slightlysooty@gmail.com.