Plant Stories
Pine
Pinus strobus · Pinus sylvestris
When the garden is asleep, the pines are still there, and a handful of needles brought into a warm kitchen smells like walking in the woods. Pine is one of the few plants I gather all year — but it is also one that demands real care in identification.
- Family
- Pinaceae
- Also called
- Eastern white pine, Scots pine; sosna in Russian
- Parts used
- Needles, young spring tips, resin
- Where I meet it
- The woods behind the house, and the windbreak at the edge of the field
Knowing it
True pines have needles in bundles (fascicles) of two to five, wrapped together at the base. Eastern white pine has soft needles in bundles of five; Scots pine has stiff, twisted needles in pairs and orange bark high up the trunk.
Yew (Taxus) is the dangerous one to know: flat single needles in two rows, no bundles, and soft red berry-like cups. All parts of yew are poisonous.
Gathering
Take a few small twigs from many trees rather than stripping one, and gather from fallen branches after storms when you can. Away from roads and sprayed areas.
Drying & keeping
Needles can be used fresh, which is best for scent. They dry easily on the twig in a paper bag.
Preparing
Snipped needles steeped (never boiled hard) for tea; packed into jars of vinegar for household cleaning; warmed gently in oil.
What is known
Pine needle tea and pine-steeped drinks have long been winter preparations in northern forests, valued for freshness when little else was green. Pine resin was used in salves and as a household pitch.
A famous story says Jacques Cartier's crew was saved from scurvy in 1536 by a tea from a tree the local Iroquoian people called annedda. It is often told as pine — but most historians think it was eastern white cedar. A good reminder of how plant stories get smoothed over time.
I make pine vinegar every January for cleaning the kitchen. It is the only cleaning job my children volunteer for, because the jar smells like a forest.
Pine needles contain vitamin C, though the amount varies with species, season and preparation. Their scent comes from aromatic compounds such as pinene. There is little clinical research on pine needle tea itself.