Pickled Spruce Tips
A jar of foraged conifer tips in sweet vinegar. Camp condiment, not a meal.
- calories
- 45
- weight
- 1.2 oz
- cal / oz
- 38
- protein
- 0 g
- serves
- 8, scales
- prep
- 20 min
- cook
- 5 min
- total time
- 25 min
- water
- 240 ml boiled
- cost
- $
Calorie and protein figures are my own estimates, good enough for planning a food bag and not meant as precise nutrition data.
- Snack
- Campfire coals
- Canister stove
- Liquid fuel
- Car camping
- Basecamp
- Canoe / raft
- Vegetarian
- Vegan
- Gluten free
- Dairy free
- Nut free
- One pot
- Grab and go
- Shelf stable
- Basic
Ingredients
| New spruce or fir tips | 2 cups | soft, pale green, husks rubbed off, rinsed |
|---|---|---|
| Water | 1 cup | |
| White vinegar | 1/2 cup | |
| Granulated sugar | 1/4 cup | |
| Salt | 1 tsp |
Method
- Pick only soft new growth, a small handful per tree, and never the leader at the top. Be certain of the tree. Yew is toxic and grows in the same woods.
- Rub the papery husks off the tips and rinse them in cold water. Pack them into a clean jar or a screw-top bottle.
- In a pot over the fire or stove, bring the water, vinegar, sugar, and salt to a boil. Stir until the sugar is gone. Two minutes is enough.
- Pour the hot brine over the tips until they are covered. Cap it, let it cool, and leave it a week before you open it.
- Once opened at home, keep it cold. On trail, treat an opened jar as a two-day item and finish it.
This is a foraging project more than a dinner. Fir and spruce push out soft new tips in late spring, and for a few weeks they taste sharply of citrus and resin. Vinegar and sugar hold that flavor in place. After a week in brine the tips behave like capers: sour, faintly piney, useful anywhere a trail meal has gone flat.
Everything but the tips is shelf-stable and travels in a jar, so this suits car camping or a basecamp where the fire is already going. The caution is identification, not cooking. Yew has flat needles and red berries and will hurt you. Take a key, take a small amount, and leave the growing tip on the tree.
Packing
Carry the brine ingredients dry and premeasured in a bag, jar empty. You are picking the tips on the trip, so the only weight in is vinegar and a jar.
Variations
- Mince them fine and stir into a foil pouch of tuna with a squeeze of mayo.
- A spoonful chopped into instant mashed potatoes cuts the starch.
- Swap half the sugar for honey if you are not keeping it vegan.
https://morningchores.com/wildcrafted-fir-or-spruce-tips-recipes