<\/a>Spruce tips, seen here in various stages, are all edible but vary in flavor greatly. (Vivian Faith Prescott | For the Capital City Weekly)<\/p><\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
At the trailhead, I close my eyes and offer a thank-you to the forest. I find a good location where the ideal trifecta of cold-fighting Southeast Alaskan medicinals are growing; s’áxt’ (devil’s club), gítgaa (spruce needles), and s’ikshaldéen (Labrador tea, hudson bay tea, muskeg tea). I choose spruce tips and Labrador tea because of their vitamin C content. They both have 3-5 times more vitamin C than an orange in a cup of tea. I choose devil’s club because it’s good for everything that ails you. Oplopanax horridus is the Latin name for devil’s club. Oplo means weapon or armor in Greek. Panax means heal all. Horridus means wild, frightful, rough, bristly, standing on end and unkempt.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t
These teas are just what I need.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t
Seasonal tastes<\/strong><\/p>\n\t\t\t\t The teas taste very different when harvested at different times of the year. In the springtime, they’re much more potent. Spruce tea is sweeter and more lemon zesty in spring and bitter in winter. Labrador tea is a little less aromatic in winter than in the spring and summer. Devil’s club plants are a lot dryer in winter and harder to harvest than in spring and early summer. I never harvest devils club when the berries are red in the summer, but you can harvest it in the winter, although it is not as potent. Even though winter isn’t the best time to harvest devil’s club, I’ll harvest it in small quantities if I need it.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t I definitely need these plants this week while I’m traveling. I prefer to dose myself before I get sick, especially if others are passing around the crud, or when I’m exhibiting the early signs of a cold. I bend over and pick a handful of spruce needles from the lightest colored green tips as it is the newest growth on the tree. I pick a handful of Labrador tea that still has green leaves and hasn’t turned brown. I select a small branch of a devil’s club about two feet long and I don’t disturb any of the large stalks. I scrape myself a handle at the base of the devil’s club. From the handhold, I cut the stalk, scrap the needles and outer brown bark off with the dull side of the butter knife. Then, with the sharp side of the butter knife, I scrape off the green and white cambium layer where the medicine is.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t I gather up my goodies and take a long look around the forest to appreciate the moment. As a Tlingit person, I come from one of the oldest cultures on the planet to reside in one spot sustainably for thousands of years. I take a deep breath. The Tongass rainforest is one of the largest producers of oxygen on the planet. There’s a symbiotic relationship with everything that resides here, including us. The devil’s club doesn’t survive well in clear cuts. The ones that do survive never have the strong medicine in them. Not only do my people need this forest, the whole world needs this forest. Even a simple walk in the forest is medicine. We hike, we harvest and we heal. I harvest sustainably so we can live here another 10,000 years.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t Sharing the medicine<\/strong><\/p>\n\t\t\t\t I inhale this harvesting memory like good medicine and stir the tea some more and adjust the temperature on the burner. The medicine is almost ready. I smile as I remember on the way back from harvesting yesterday, I ran into some other Sitka friends I hadn’t seen in months who gave me a hug and exclaimed, “Vivian, you always smell like the forest!” I gave them some of my goodies because they mentioned they were around some sick people too. Then, when I’d made it back to my friend’s house where I’m staying, I immediately set up the stove for a sweat. The cold was in my friend’s chest so I put the devils club in a pot of water and had her grab a towel to do what I’ve nicknamed a poor man’s sweat. As devil’s club heats, it releases some of its medicine in the vapors. She hung her head over the slow-simmering pot, threw a towel over herself, closed her eyes, and inhaled the vapors slowly through her nose and exhaled out her mouth. Devils club is an emetic and if you breath too much through your mouth instead of your nose it can cause you to vomit. With certain illnesses, though, that can help. In this case, it was not indicated. When my friend finished a round of breathing devil’s club, she began her first cup of Tlingit medicinal tea. I instructed her to do this four times a day for the next four days.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t