Pine Syrup Slushy

Pine Syrup

Spirals are nice

Recipe: Pine Syrup and Freshly Fallen Snow

To Make the Pine Syrup:
6 cups of very strong Pine infusion
3 cups organic cane sugar

Pine syrup doesn't taste "piney". It tastes kind of smokey, kind of astringent and pretty sweet. It goes perfect with snow.  If you want to make it taste like Pine, you could - but I wouldn't - add a drop or two of really high quality Pine essential oil.

Place infusion and sugar in a large pot. Stir well and heat to boiling. Reduce and heat and simmer until the infusion has reduced to desired thickness. Remove from heat and pour into a jar. Refrigerate.

To Make the Slushy:
Spiral the Pine syrup on fluffy, freshly fallen snow with your favourite spoon.

Enjoy!

Divine Pine

Pinus monticola ~White Pine Note the white stripe running down the middle of the needle. This is one of the identifying features of White Pine. Needles occur in bundles of 5.  Here's a little mnemonic to help you remember W-H-I-T-E = 5 needles in a bundle

 Pine silhouette ~ Note the "bristle brush" appearance of the needle bundles. Compare this to the silhouette of the Douglas Fir below.

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How would you describe the difference between this Douglas Fir and Lodgepole Pine above?

Want to know more about Pine! Join us Sunday, Dec 9 for a Pine Plant Study. Visit http://www.wildrootsherbs.com/

In Love with Bryophytes

Click on the photo to enlarge

"The importance of bryophytes (and lichens) in British Columbia is considerable. With over 850 species of mosses and hepatics, the province's bryoflora is one of the richest in North America and contains the largest percentage of endemic species and genera on the continent."

In Plants of the Souther Interior - Parish, Coupe, Lloyd - they state that there are close to 1,000 Bryophytes in BC. Pretty impressive I'd say.

My knowldege of bryoflora is somewhat (okay - very) limited, but nonetheless, they are near and dear to my little British Columbian heart. And I aim to learn more - a lot more about them.

If you're interested too, here's a start http://www.cmiae.org/_PDF/reference148.pdf

Long Time ~ No Post!

I love plants so much that I much prefer to be out in the forest or down by the river or in my garden or even reading about them, than writing about them!

Most of my posts about plants these days are to be found on my Facebook page(s), however, in recognition that not everyone in the world is a FB user (and I say good on you if that's the case) I'm going to make a concerted effort to post to my poor neglected blog.

So next up...a little bit - a real little bit - about Bryophytes!