Make this delicious fermented winter drink! Edible pine needles have a wonderful minty, citrusy flavor and pair well with some lemon juice. When the pine needles are mixed with water and sweetener like sugar or honey, the natural yeasts on the needles initiates fermentation. During this process, the yeast on the pine needles consumes the sugar and bubbles are produced making a fizzy drink.
Pine needles are edible! You can use any pine needles, just make sure they are edible and are free of pesticides. Most pine trees are suitable; however, it is important to exercise caution when using pine needles, as some species may contain toxins or irritants. Needles of pine trees like Norfolk Island Pine, Yew and Ponderosa Pine are not edible. I used needles of White pine trees.
Needles of edible pine trees are a living medicine chest. They are particularly useful for anyone who is in the forest, whether living there or just going out on a day-hikes. It is good as a first aid remedy, treats respiratory problems and can be used as food. In addition, it can help musculoskeletal problems, promotes digestion and can help with mental, physical fatigue. Oh and let’s not forget about its vitamin and mineral content! This is truly an amazing remedy!
RECIPE
INGREDIENTS
16 oz mason jar
a good handful of edible chopped pine needles of your choice – I used white pine needles.
1-2 Tbsp sweetener of your choice like sugar, brown sugar, maple syrup, honey. (Sugar substitutes like stevia, erythritol will not work).
spring water
Lemon juice (optional)
DIRECTIONS
Collect the pine needles. You can wash them if you think they are dirty but is not necessary otherwise.
Fill your jar with the chopped needles and cover them with water leaving 1 inch of space open on the top for the bubbles to form.
Add sweetener of your choice.
Stir the content to distribute the sweetener to allow the fermentation process to occur.
Now leave the bottle in a warmish place that is not too hot or cold. The counter in the kitchen would be fine.
Let it ferment for 2-5 days, less in the summer more in the winter. When you can see bubbles formed on the the top, the drink is ready. Strain and you can start drinking it.
If not consumed right away, store the strained liquid in the refrigerator.
Here is the season that we have been waiting for since the winter solstice! In the spring, we witnessed the buds emerging on the plants and maturing into full grown plants … oh and the days getting longer and warmer. Now finally we can appreciate what nature can give: warmth, light and food. This is a great time to get outside and socialize. You can travel and eat the abundant fruits and vegetables or just have fun. Also, we can take an advantage of all the gorgeous flowers blooming outside.
In Chinese Medicine, each season is associated with a natural element so summer’s element is Fire. Also, each element has corresponding Western organs. The Western organs of the Fire element are the Heart and the Small Intestines and in addition, the Pericardium and the Triple Warmer are included. Also, this element contains the Mind that might be a rather difficult concept for Westerners.
One of the elements in nature is Fire, in fact, it is probably the most important one for our survival. Fire or warmth is essential to keep the body going as our metabolism and our whole body depends on it. Fire is also important for our mental state. According to Karl Jung, Fire is needed to have clear perception. Also, psychotherapists believe that ‘cooking’ is important for meaningful changes to occur in their patients. In fact, “throughout the history of humankind, the symbol of Fire has always been synonymous with life”.
Element: Fire
Organs: Heart-Mind, Small Intestines, Heart protector, triple Warmer
Sense: Joy
Color: red
Taste: bitter
Supporting flavors: salt, pungent
Emotion: joy
Evil (Health problems): Heat
In Chinese Medicine, the Heart, the Emperor of our body, is not necessarily treated directly as it depends on the other organs for its nourishment. Basically, you are to take care of your body in order to keep the heart healthy. For prevention, we are supposed to attend to all the other organs all year around to help the Heart function properly.
It is believed that if the heart is not happy, nobody is happy. So let’s see what would be ideal for a happy Heart. The Heart needs to be warm, neither cold or hot. The biggest issue during the summer months is the heat so we should be avoiding getting overheated while paying attention not to weaken the Digestive Fire. In general, we should be eating cooling foods like all the summer fruits and vegetables but paying attention to our digestion too. For instance, the Chinese eat cooling mung beans to keep the body cool but these beans are also cooked with warming carminative pisces to support the digestive Fire.
Let’s look at how we can nourish the Heart. All cooling foods especially the brightly colored fruits and vegetables are great. In Chinese Medicine, the red color is associated with the Fire element. It is believed that consuming foods that are red (watermelon, strawberries, red beans, goji berries, red peppers, chili peppers, hibiscus flower) and heart shaped foods (chickpeas) are beneficial for the heart.
Another factor that can influence our Heart is our emotions. All five emotions, anger, joy, sadness, fear, and sorrow are initiated by our Heart to protect our body but emotions out of balance can negatively effect the Heart. Out of the five emotions, joy more exactly over joy can particularly weaken the Heart.
The Mind is unique concept in Chinese Medicine.
Furthermore, the Heart’s energy tends to move downward from the Mind that the bitter flavored foods support. However, avoid eating too much bitter foods in the summer as this flavor tends to be drying. Moderation is the best! (Summer bitter foods include all whole grains, bamboo shoots, celery, dill, lettuce).
The Small Intestine helps the body sort through important and toxic information. So the healthy Small Intestine helps us in letting go of unneeded things in our life and by the same token an unhealthy Small Intestine will accumulate toxins leading to the pollution of our body, mind and spirit.
We can certainly nourish the small intestines with food. It is part of the elimination system so food would be important. Fiber rich foods will make the intestines work more efficiently and hence result in a more effective absorption of nutrients. Foods like nuts and seeds can supply this necessary protein and fiber. Of course, any kind of whole grain is helpful as well in providing fiber.
In addition, it is summer, so we can take an advantage of all the fruits and vegetables, they are an excellent source of fiber. Probiotics such Lactobacillus and bifidobacterium can be beneficial for the small intestines as well which can be found in yogurt, kefir and fermented foods.
Also, to help calm the mind and deal with the heat of the summer, it is recommended to eat a more simple diet with light foods and avoiding complicated dishes. Oyster shells, whole grains, mushrooms, barley, oats, cucumber, basil, mulberries, lemon, ghee are especially useful.
The flavor of the summer is bitter and it is recommended to eat bitter foods because it brings energy from the brain, the mind down to the lower part of the body. (Summer bitter foods include all whole grains, bamboo shoots, celery, dill, lettuce).
To work with the summer season, mainly its heat, we need to make some changes to our cooking methods. Of course, eating some raw foods is great; however, cooking some food is still recommended supplementing the raw foods. Cooking should be quick on high heat. Add hot, pungent foods to your meals. In hot climates, it is customary to add lots of hot peppers to open up the pores and release the excess heat from the body. (Of course, this should be done with some caution as too much hot pepper can injure the stomach). Also, try to minimize heavy foods to avoid sluggishness.
This is a great time to be active, spend time outside and socialize. The biggest issue during the summer is heat. Our diet and life style should support the body so we can stay cool, while paying attention to our digestion. We naturally want to eat raw fruits and vegetables but in addition consider including some simple, cooked foods during the summer to keep the digestive Fire going. Eating bitter, salty and pungent foods can facilitate the energy of the summer. Also, paying attention to our emotions can be helpful too.
(I capitalized the organs because in Chinese Medicine, it is more like an organ is considered to be the organ itself and its energetic functions).
No season brings more anticipation than spring … seeing how nature is slowly waking up and enjoying watching the plants grow. Spring is my favorite season. It is miraculous how the scenery quickly changes from snow and mud to luscious greenery. We can finally sit outside, eat fresh plants and wear lighter clothing. I feel that spring gives my creative energy a nice boost …
Spring is an important transition time of the year when we are moving out of the cold winter time into the hot summer time. It is true as they say spring comes in as a lion and leaves as a lamb. If we prepare our body in the winter, our immune system will be able to handle the changes easier. In addition, it is important to work with this transitional season so we can cope with its harshness easier and can enjoy the heat of the summer later.
Element: Wood
Organs: Liver, Gallbladder, Eyes, Ligaments
Sense: seeing
Color: green
Taste: sour
Supporting flavors: sweet, pungent, bitter
Emotion: anger
Evil: Wind
Spirit: vision
In Ancient Chinese Medicine, each season is associated with a natural element so spring is associated with the Wood element. Also, each element has corresponding Western organs. The Western organs of the Wood element are the Liver and the Gall bladder along with the organs that they control: the Eyes and the Ligaments. (I capitalized the organs because in Chinese Medicine, it is more like an organ is considered to be the organ itself and its energetic functions).
Chinese Medicine is not just concerned about the physical body, it believes that our spiritual health is also important. The health of our Wood element can greatly effect this higher self and vice versa. It enables us to make plans, have a clear vision and allows our energy to move freely in the body. In other words, eating well during the spring can have an effect on the spiritual aspect of a person, too.
Our body should be flexible like a tree in the spring wind both mentally and physically. A healthy tree can easily yield to any wind and not fall over. We try to create this in our body by nourishing the liver and giving our body a break from all heavier, fatty, denatured foods, chemicals and intoxicants.
The energy of spring is more ascending and expansive like the new shoots on the plants. In a similar fashion, the liver’s energy tends to move upwards and is more active. To create this outside climate inside our body, Chinese Medicine recommends that the diet be the lightest of the year and to eat more cooling, nourishing, sweet, pungent and detoxifying foods.
More complex carbohydrates like grains, cereal grasses, legumes, seeds, young beets, carrots along with all new spring foods are great sweet foods. Pungent cooking herbs – like ginger, garlic, scallions, basil, fennel, marjoram, caraway seeds, dill, bay leaves – are great to help the liver’s active energy.
Spring is the season to cleans our body and mind. As I mentioned earlier, we need to give our liver a break from heavier foods. As spring arrives, we naturally tend to eat less. In fact, people have been traditionally doing their fasting early spring to make a smoother transition into spring and be able to cope with summer’s heat later. The detoxifying process can be a very spiritual experience as well.
The bitter, sour and detoxifying foods can help this fasting process. Bitter foods are burdock root, dandelion root/leaves, artichoke, lettuce, spinach, asparagus, amaranth, quinoa, alfalfa, radish, citrus peel. Foods that detoxify and cool the liver are mung beans, celery, seaweed, lettuce, cucumber, watercress, tofu, millet, chlorophyll-rich foods, mushrooms, rhubarb stem/root. Also oats, sage, fennel, pine nuts, flax seed oil are beneficial for the liver.
In addition, small amount of vinegar or lemon have all three properties. For instance, people often drink a little lemonade in the morning with maple syrup or sugar (but not honey!) and cayenne pepper to get the liver ready for the day. The juice of one lemon is great. (Caution: do not take too much vinegar or lemon, as you can achieve the opposite effect).
Our eating and cooking habits should change as spring moves in. In general, our diet should become more simple. Foods should be cooked quickly at higher temperatures in other words the quick sauté method is preferred. Try to aim for simple food combinations. Also, it is best to eat dinner earlier than during the summer months. I would say dinner should be done by 6-7 pm. According to Chinese Medicine, Liver time when our liver is the most active is between 11 pm and 1 am so our food should be digested by this time so the liver can do its jobs more efficiently … and it has 100+ jobs that it does regularly …
Spring is the time when we naturally eat less and eat lighter foods. In general, the liver likes to be cool and well nourished. We should be minimizing salt, fats, meats and eggs and eat more vegetables and grains. Of course, all over-processed foods should be avoided. Just like we do spring cleaning in our homes, we need to ‘clean’ out the inside of our body.
Winter is rather a complex and mysterious season. It is more like cold and darkness desiring warmth.
When I’m out in the woods in the winter, it is so quiet, I can hear every step, every movement. I always wonder about what is inside the Earth and deep inside the lakes. It is almost like you can hear it. It is so mystical. Where are all the plants and animals? As a great Hungarian poet, Petöfi Sándor put it “Nature doesn’t die, it is just sleeping”.
Winter is an auspicious time of the year for sure. In the absence of many distractions, our life quiets down. We naturally tend to turn more inward and spend time in the quiet. With the scarcity of warmth and light, we start acknowledging them more. We bring them into our lives by lighting candles or by sitting by our fire places.
Element: Water
Organs: Kidneys, Urinary Bladder, Adrenals, Sexual organs
Sense: hearing
Color: blue
Taste: salty
Supporting flavor: bitter
Emotion: fear
Evil: Dryness
Spirit: wisdom
In Chinese Medicine, each season is associated with a natural element so winter is associated with the Water element. Also, each element has corresponding Western organs. The Western organs of the Water element are the Kidneys and the Bladder and in addition, the Adrenals’ and the Sexual organs are also included. (I capitalized the organs because in Chinese Medicine, it is more like an organ is considered to be the organ itself and its energetic functions).
Let’s look at what the Kidneys do in our body. The Kidneys provide warmth and moisture and are the source of vitality. In addition, the Kidneys ‘govern’ water metabolism and control’ the Bladder. Salty (pork, salt, sea weed, barley) and warming foods (squashes and root vegetables) support these functions. For vitality, it is essential to avoid too much stress and try to rest more, curl up on your sofa and read a book or do whatever your heart is desiring.
It is important to keep the Kidneys healthy during the winter months so they can perform these functions now and later the year. Major consideration for the winter months are cold, dryness and stress. It is a great time for eating nourishing, warming foods like bone or vegetable broths, meats and beans especially kidney, aduki and black beans. The Chinese and many other cultures take their nourishing, rejuvenating herbs at this time. As we are preparing for the holidays poppy seeds, walnuts and pork come to my mind.
In addition, the following foods are also great to nourish the kidneys: millet, barley, mung bean, potatoes, spirulina, cheeses, fenugreek seeds, cinnamon bark, cloves, onions, quinoa, lamb, salmon, trout, wheat berry, sweet rice, animal kidneys, almonds, royal jelly, bone marrow soup, butter, ghee, chicken liver, chestnuts. Oh and let’s not forget the cranberries!
Bitter foods help the body’s energy to sink downward and get the body ready to store food. Winter bitter foods are oats, rye, quinoa, kale, celery, turnips, cranberries, citrus peels. Salty foods are also able to move energy inward concentrating warmth inside while keeping the outside slightly cool. Salty flavor also keeps the kidneys stay moist and healthy so they can promote fluid metabolism. Salty foods include pork, barley, seaweed, salt.
Winter is the coldest season so rejuvenation and resting are important. To facilitate this energy, our cooking method should focus on storage and moving energy inward. Mainly cook your foods longer at lower temperatures and use less water. Try to avoid ice, raw and greasy foods, excessive salty and bitter foods and over-eating.
Paying attention to our cooking and eating methods could help us get through the harshness of the cold winter easier. Just like the trees that move their sap deep down and inward, so too energy in humans should have the same movement. The flavors of the winter are bitter and salty (of course in moderation) and should facilitate this sinking, downward moving and storing energy.
If you are looking for dishes to make during the winter, please, click on the winter ‘keyword’ on the right and you should get all my winter recipes.
Out of all the seasons, Autumn was the most difficult to understand for me. There is beauty but then there is letting go. There is lots of good food but then there is sadness. There are all those extravagant colors of the leaves but there is grief. So I started contemplating about what these all mean and realized that this is life. Life is beautiful and sad all at once.
“Autumn shows us how beautiful it is to let things go.” – source unknown
As the Autumn season is arriving, I feel like a little squirrel trying to get ready for the colder months: eating the colorful fruits and vegetables, preserving foods, making last minute repairs and just mentally getting ready. By now we are aware that the Summer is gone and a new season is coming with all its beauty and challenges. It was the Autumn Equinox a couple of days ago, when the days and nights were equal and from now on the days are going to get shorter and colder as well.
Autumn is a very special and unpredictable season. Every year, I marvel the beautiful vibrant colors of Autumn, the leaves on the trees and the vegetables on the table. It is the ending of a cycle and we know that all those leaves will turn into something new in the spring. Robert Frost’s poem sums up the Autumn season for me beautifully.
Nothing Gold Can Stay
Nature’s first green is gold, Her hardest hue to hold. Her early leaf’s a flower; But only so an hour. Then leaf subsides to leaf. So Eden sank to grief, So dawn goes down to day. Nothing gold can stay.
When I walk through the forest in the Fall, I feel so peaceful. This is a time of tranquility when we start turning inward, a great time for spirituality. In the absence of creating new things, we can now focus on the importance of our existence, our spirituality. In Chinese Medicine, ” metal symbolizes the spirit that brings meaning and purpose to existence”. We can support our Metal element and this spiritual process with foods as well.
In Ancient Chinese Medicine, the Autumn season belongs to the Metal element. Like every element has corresponding Western organs, the Metal element’s organs are the Lungs, the Large intestines and ultimately the Skin. If you experience problems during this season for instance having frequent colds/flus, dryness, skin problems, excessive mucus, try to pay attention to your eating habits as well. If the Metal element is strong, the Qi, the life force will circulate easier and can help our body stay health.
At this time, “everything in nature contracts and moves its essence inward and downward. Leaves and fruits fall, seeds dry, the sap of trees goes into the roots”. Bitter and salty foods in moderation are the flavors that we need at this time of the year and help support this energy movement. The bitter flavor moves energy downward, foods to support this movement are dark green leafy vegetables like kale and spinach. Salty flavor moves energy inward and salty foods are seaweed and salt.
Let’s look at the nature of the Lungs. The Lungs like to be moist and warm. Moistening foods can help the Lungs stay healthy (spinach, barley, millet, pears, apples, almonds, eggs, home-made soy products, seaweed, flax seed and a little salt). Of course, the warming foods of the season are important for the Lungs as well (squashes, carrots, parsnips). In addition, the Metal element is associated with the color white and supporting foods like leeks and white onion are important.
As I mentioned earlier, this season is also associated with the Large intestine so it is wise to include fiber rich foods for the colon … and yes … in addition this is the season of letting go … letting go of things that no longer serve us physically and mentally. Beneficial foods are pulp of fruits, indigestible portion of foods, the bran of grains, and cell walls of vegetables.
The emotion related to the Metal element is sadness and grief. I always feel a little sadness at the end of the summer. Then I realized this is a natural feeling that we all tend to have. We are saying goodby to the warm weather and all the fun we had in the summer. To cope with these emotions easier, ancient people had big feasts during this time like the Harvest festival.
The flavor related to the Metal element is pungent. The pungent flavor is both protective, dispersing and cleansing for the Lungs and the Colon, exactly what they need now. To stay healthy, the stuck energy in the Lungs and Colon need to be dispersed. Pungent foods include all white vegetables, onions, garlic, hot peppers, chilies, cabbage, turnip, ginger, horseradish, cinnamon, and nutmeg.
In addition to pungent foods, it is also recommended to eat sour foods in moderation to balance out the Metal element of the body. Sour foods are lemon, vinegar, sourdough, leeks, aduki beans and fermented foods like pickles or kimchi.
In addition, golden-orange vegetables have protective benefits for the Lungs and the Colon as they are rich in beta-carotenes (provitamin A). These foods include carrots, winter squashes, pumpkins, broccoli, kale, turnip, and mustard.
Let’s remember this is the Harvest season! “We must be aware of its abundant yet contracting nature” that can be accomplished by eating more heartier and astringent foods. Astringent foods for the fall are cranberries, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, rosemary, turnip, potatoes, chestnuts, walnuts, pears, apples, spinach, burdock root, buckwheat, millet, buttermilk, whey, kale, chard, lavender, rose, grapes and many types of beans and lentils including black, mung and aduki beans, tur dal, and urad dal.
To attune to the Autumn season, we need to make some changes to our eating and cooking habits. So we have grown all the healthy foods that will be used now but we have to be thinking of the weather getting colder too. Also, we need to pay more attention to diet as more complex dishes are needed compared to the summer ‘s quick foods. Cook with less water at a lower heat for a longer period of time. It is getting colder so try to eat more heartier soups and warming dishes instead of the salads.
If you are looking for dishes to make during the fall season, please, click on the fall ‘keyword’ on the right and you should get all my fall recipes.
