Young pine needle tips are extraordinarily high in vitamin C — early American settlers brewed pine ferments specifically to prevent scurvy through long winters.
Ingredients
- 1 cup young pine tips (Eastern White Pine, Ponderosa, or Douglas fir — avoid yew, it’s toxic)
- 1 tablespoon raw honey
- Pinch of sea salt
- Filtered water, to fill a quart jar
Method
- Rinse pine tips well and pack loosely into a quart jar.
- Add filtered water, honey, and salt.
- Cover loosely and ferment 2 to 3 days at room temperature.
Lightly fermented, slightly piney, and vitamin-rich — not sweet, not for everyone, but a genuine winter immunity tradition.
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