Eating spruce fresh and delicious!

Believe it or not but spruce tops are edible. You can even eat them raw, they taste very fresh and acidic! When I walk through the forest I like to recognize edible plants and spruce or pine is one of the easiest to find in my area. On the picture you see a spruce but in Poland it's still a bit early in the season. The green fresh tops are now still brown bulbs. The brown bulbs you can see at the end of every branch.

How to recognize spruce

Spruce is a tree with single needles. Every needles is attached separately to the branch. When you pick a needle they are often a bit square and tend to roll easily between your fingers. A very good guide to identify different conifers is here.

Uses for spruce tops

spruce is used allot because the tops have a fresh taste what reminds you of lemon. It can be used in tea, salades and even to make sirup! I made a list of common uses for you to try;

• Raw as a mouth refreshner. Don't eat more than 2 at the same time because the taste is quite strong.
• In tea, crush the green fresh needles a bit and boil it in water for 5 minutes.
• In ice tea were you replace the lemon with needles.
• Mix sugar water with crushed needles and put this on the heating for a day or 2. It helps against throat pain.
• You can add it when your brewing beer. It gives the beer a more fruity fresh taste.