Euell Gibbons became famous for asking, "have you ever eaten a pine tree?"

A lot of folks had a laugh over that, but perhaps Euell will have the last laugh. We all probably have an ancestor who ate a pine tree or part of it now and then. I know I did. And people may eat pine again. It’s a family with over 200 species and has served man well, famine food to ship masts. So much has been written about this family let me see if I can say a few things others haven't.

Where ever there have been pines and people the people have depended on the pines. Besides food, they had and still have medical uses. They have been used for the making of stimulants, laxatives, diuretics and vermifuges, among many.

There are actually two groups of pines, softwood pines and hardwood pines. The soft pines have needles that are found in groups of five on twigs. Their wood is actually low in density. Hard pines have needles in groups of two or three per twig. Their wood is moderate in density.  This may seem like a technical distraction but often telling pines apart is very difficult and how the needles arrange themselves is important... unless you are making pine needle tea, then just put a few needles or the tip of a young branch in hot water and you'll have a nice serving of vitamin C. Pine needle tea saved many a sailor in olden days from scurvy.

The cambium of the pine (between the bark and the wood) can be boiled or roasted as a famine food, and makes a reasonable flour. The cambium near the base of the tree is better than the cambium near the top of the tree. That bit of advice always struck me as odd as if I would climb a pine to get a strip of bark off the top when the bottom is so close and handy. And of course nearly everyone has had a pine nut or two. Animals like the pine nuts as well, including squirrels, turkey, quail, and brown-headed nuthatches.

The collecting of pine nuts for human use is a debatable issue. If foraging is a hobby, then go ahead and collect a few (put the female cones near a fire to make them open and release the seeds.) If in a survival situation, however, one could expend more energy collecting pine nuts than energy gotten from the pine nuts so it is a significant decision to make when out of food.

But, there is more to the pine than nuts, cambium, and needles. Like the cambium, the young male pine cones can be boiled and eaten. What is a male pine cone? Well, they are small, soft and papery whereas the female cones are woody and tough.  Male cones really shouldn't be called cones. Technically  they are microsporangiate strobili. Say that at a cocktail party and see how many conversations you start.  The best I can do is that a male pine "cone" looks like a small cluster of toasted coconut bits shaped like orzo.  See picture, upper right. If you have a better description let me know.

But I have saved the most unknown for last. During certain times of the year my pickup is covered with a light yellow dusting. It is spring and the pines have sex on their minds and the fellows are releasing pollen. For some pine pollen means misery from sniffling and sneezing. But pine pollen is more than just the mere powder of pine lust.

Pine pollen is a large particle, and since it depends on the wind, it can't travel too far. It also has a waxy coating on it's surface which makes it a minor allergy trigger, though a few folks are allergic. When the pine is pollinating other trees that are more significant allergens are secretly pollenating such as birch, cedar, oak and sycamore. Often folks who think they have a pine allergy are actually allergic to one or more of those other trees.

Which brings me back to pine pollen.  It has over 200 identified elements from vitamins to proto male hormones... yeah, it's a guy food.  It's been called the natural testosterone, androstenedione, but that is a marketing exaggeration.

Androstenedione is an adrenal hormone produced in humans.  Reduce androstenedione by one molecule and you have  testosterone, which both men and women have in different amounts. Androstenedione can raise testosterone levels. The effect lasts about a day.  And this is how the Native Americans used it, for extra energy when they needed it. So when on the run, grab a little pine pollen. Pine pollen also seems to have a beneficial effect on the cardiovascular system as well.  How do you collect it? Put a sack over the microsporangiate strobili and shake.

Female pine cones can weigh up to 10 pounds and be two feet long. The pinyon pine, where we get the familiar pine nut in the US, is the only pine with one needle per twig. Some 20 species of pine have nuts big enough to harvest for human food.

The English name pine comes from the Greek Pitus thru Latin Pinus (PIE-nus and PEE-nus)  by way of French pin. Contemporary Greeks say ;' PEFko." That brings me back to how the Greeks use pine, and that is to flavor a white wine called Retsina.

Greeks have been making retsina for a few thousand years. It was an acquired tasted by accident. They stored their white wine in clay containers lined with pine pitch (too keep them from weeping.)  The wine took on the subtle flavor of the pitch. Now days, Retsina comes in a wide range of flavors, from delicate to intense. I have several relatives who make it. One of my fondest memories of Greece was having cloudy, young, homemade retsina high in the mountains after a meal of kid roasted on an olive wood fire. There’s one other advantage to retsina: Take it to a party and no one will steal your wine. To make your own retsina the short way, put a pea-size piece of pine pitch  in a bottle of chablis and let set in the refrigerator for a few days.

Young pine roots are edible as is stripped of their bark. The bark can be seeped in water for its sugar and the water drank. Also, many pine trees have burls on a limb and those can be broken off and used as a throwing stick or mallets. 

Spatchcocked Chicken

Traditionally a spatchcock is a game bird that is prepared for roasting, broiling or grilling by removing the backbone and sternum of the bird and flattening it out before cooking. In this recipe the pine needles are used like rosemary.

1 3 ½ - 4 pound young chicken,

Sea salt and ground pepper

2 tablespoons young pine needles or shoots, minced

2 -3 tablespoons lime juice

Rinse chicken with cold water, dry. Remove extra fat, trim off wing

tips. Place chicken breast side down and using poultry shears cut along

backbone, starting at the neck. Repeat on the other side of the backbone

Spread the two sides apart and press down on the breast so that the chicken

lies flat. Season both sides with salt and pepper and lemon juice.

Build a charcoal fire on one side of your grill;. Place chicken skin side

down at the edge of the fire with legs closest. Turn over

when skin starts to brown. Turn and move chicken to the side of the fire and

cover with a large disposable aluminum pan. This creates a “mini” oven

providing high heat off the direct fire. The  grill cover can be used, but the

browning and flavor will be less. Cooking time varies, depending on the fire

and the size of the chicken. Check the temperature at 20 minutes after turning.

When the temperature in the thigh reaches 175 degrees, remove from the heat

and let sit, sprinkle with chopped pine needles, loosely covered for 15 minutes

before carving.

Pine Needle Tea

You can make pine needle tea two ways. One is to pull three or four needles off a tree and stick them in a cup of hot water. Wait a few minutes then enjoy with or without sweetener.

Or collected a handful of pine needles. Needles nearest the trunk are higher in vitamin C. Chop the needles and put them into a tea ball. Bring water to a boil. Take off the boil. Steep the pine needles for 3-5 minutes. The tea is delicate.