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Spruce/Fir Tip Pickles

Spruce Tip Pickles capers

Spruce Tip Pickles

Spruce tips. The Scandinavians have always loved them. The season for these is really short, so when you can find them, grab a bunch and give em a go. They smell awesome: bright, citrusy and fresh. Their texture is soft and chewy. They are widely available, easy to harvest, and delicious.

The only challenge can come from removing their papery husk. The best tips will still be encased in the husk, you want these since they are nice and tight. older tips are still edible but they can tend to break apart when cooking.

One thing I like to do with these little guys is make pickles, which you can use in a ton of ways. At the restaurant I like to put them in a little salad for garnishing fish, or mixed in a vinaigrette. They are easily added to sauces as well, or used as a garnish for soup or a salad; they’re very versatile.

Some recipes online may put sugar in their spruce tip pickles, I find that this makes them tough and stringy, and I don’t recommend it. You can always add a little honey or something to whatever you are making after you’ve taken them out of the jar before you serve a dish, a couple minutes of contact with sugar wont hurt, but prolonged contact will destroy their soft, chewy texture.

Pickled Spruce Tips

Makes 2 half pint jars, scale as needed

Ingredients

  • 2 cups fresh, young spruce tips, papery husk removed
  • 1 cup water
  • 1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
  • 2 tsp salt

Method

  1. Clean the spruce tips of their papery husk and give them a rinse if they are dirty, usually mine are clean enough to just cook as is.
  2. Pack your 1/2 pint canning jars with spruce tips, leaving 1/2 inch of headspace from the top
  3. Heat the water, vinegar, and salt in a pot until dissolved and clear
  4. Fill the mason jars with the hot pickling liquid, leaving 1/2 inch headspace from the lid
  5. Process the jars for 10 minutes in a waterbath canner, then cool
  6. Allow the pickles to age for 3 months before using
Nice edible Spruce Tips

Nice Spruce Tips

Previous Post: « Wild Rice Flour Gnocchi
Next Post: How to Dry or Dehydrate Wild Mushrooms »

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. George Strickland

    July 13, 2017 at 5:00 pm

    Should I refrigerate the spruce tips after they are pickled?

    Reply
    • Alan Bergo

      November 27, 2017 at 9:35 am

      Yes, but you could can them.

      Reply

Trackbacks

  1. Forager|Chef – Venison en Crepinette, Dryad Saddle Jus, Wild Rice Gnocchi, and Spruce Tips. says:
    June 2, 2013 at 1:09 am

    […] See recipe HERE […]

    Reply
  2. Forager|Chef – Trout With Spring Vegetables: Winter Shades Of Green says:
    December 26, 2013 at 9:28 am

    […] A few pickled spruce tips (recipe here) […]

    Reply
  3. crispy pork snout with truffles and spruce tips recipe says:
    April 7, 2014 at 4:44 pm

    […] 1 tbsp pickled spruce tips-recipe here […]

    Reply
  4. Canning Spruce Tip Jelly | The Homestead Survival says:
    March 17, 2016 at 6:23 pm

    […] Spruce/Fir Tip Pickles – https://foragerchef.com/sprucefir-tip-pickles/ […]

    Reply
  5. Benefit of Spruce Tips ~ Mountain Girl Camp says:
    July 19, 2016 at 4:17 pm

    […] Spruce Tip Pickles […]

    Reply
  6. 360 The Restaurant at the CN Tower - Make It Like a Man! says:
    January 14, 2017 at 10:43 am

    […] PANCETTA WRAPPED FOGO ISLAND COD with pickled spruce tip tapenade, Sweet Potato confit, Henry of Pelham Estate Winery charred broccolini, […]

    Reply

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Sam Thayer dropped 25 lbs of his highbush cranberr Sam Thayer dropped 25 lbs of his highbush cranberry cultivars (3 types!) on me before the last snowfall and I honestly don’t even know where to start after processing them. I’d already made jams and hot sauce already and I have enough for a year. 😅

Great time to practice the cold-juice which ensures the juice isn’t bitter. 

Anyone else have any ideas? 

You can still find some on the shrubs if the birds didn’t get them up by the north shore. 

#highbushcranberry #winterforaging #birdberries #sweetnectar #foragerproblems #juiceme #embarassmentofriches #wildfoodlove
100% wild candy bars. I don’t usually make raw v 100% wild candy bars. I don’t usually make raw vegan snacks, but when I read about Euell Gibbon’s wild hackberry candy bars I had to try them. The  originals were just crushed hackberries and hickory nuts, but, I’ve read that Euell grew to dislike the crunch of hackberry seeds later in life. 

Here’s the thing though, if you sift the hackberry flour, you get a fun texture, with no worries about cracking a tooth. 

These are equal parts ground hackberries, dried wild blueberries, and hickory nuts, with a splash of maple syrup to bind.

The end product is a shelf stable, nutrient-packed bite filled with protein, carbohydrates, fats and natural sugars infinitely adaptable to your local landscape.

The texture is chewy and nougat-like, and now I’m curious to see how they’d perform baked in recipes that use frangipane or almond paste. 

#euellgibbons #energybars #hackberry #crushin #paleobreakfast #tradionalfood #wildfoodlove #rawfoods
Hackberry milk spoonbread with black walnuts and c Hackberry milk spoonbread with black walnuts and chokecherry gastrique is one of the dishes @credononfiction and I filmed for @headspace. 

I cook hackberry milk with cornmeal and maple syrup, whip some egg whites and fold them in, then bake. Eats a bit like crust-less pumpkin pie, if pumpkin pie came from a tree. 

#hackberry #souffle #wildfoodlove #chokecherry #blackwalnuts #brunching
Hackberry milk is a sort of rustic nut milk made f Hackberry milk is a sort of rustic nut milk made from ground hackberries and water. I grind the berries to a meal, then simmer with 3x their volume of water, strain through a chinois (without pressing) season with maple and a pinch of cinnamon. Tastes like pumpkin pie in a glass, also a decent cooking medium. 

#hackberries #nutmilk #foraging #wildfoodlove #celtisoccidentalis
Are hackberries a fruit? A nut? They're a bit of b Are hackberries a fruit? A nut? They're a bit of both. They also contain protein, fat, and carbs, and the oldest evidence of humans enjoying them goes back 500,000 years. Right now is the best time to harvest them in the Midwest as the leaves have fallen. The full break down and introduction to them is in my bio. 
#hackberry #celtisoccidentalis #winterforaging #wildfoodlove #traditionalfoods #manbird
If you’re in the Twin Cities the nocino I collab If you’re in the Twin Cities the nocino I collaborated on with @ida_graves_distillery for 2020 is on the shelves @surdyksliquor along with our spruce tip liquor. I’d give it a couple weeks before they sell out. 

Brock did a good job on this one: mellow flavor that almost reminds me of a tootsie roll, with spices and mellow tannins. 

#nocino #liquor #distillery #craftspirits #blackwalnuts #mnwinter
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