Wild Teas From the Siuslaw River

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On our most recent no-school day, our family decided to go on an adventure. We headed out to the Siuslaw River Road, a Backroads Scenic Byway that runs from Lorane to Whiteaker Creek through the coast range. Our plan was to find some nice creek bottoms to play in. We turned off on one gravel side road along a tributary stream to have our picnic lunch, and found a patch of newly emerged green nettles to my delight! I was so excited that I picked them bare handed, which I have done once before and do not recommend.



My wild foods instructor up in Portland once said that he picks nettles with his bare hands all the time and doesn't know what the fuss is about. He told us we should just buck up and we would be fine, but I am put off by the tingling and numbness in my finger tips for a day or so afterwards. I am reminded of the fairy tale of the seven wild swans, where the sister must make garments for her brothers out of nettles to return them to their human form after their evil stepmother cast an enchanted spell upon them. The girl's hands are described as raw and bleeding. I should have seen the lesson in this fairy tale when harvesting nettles. In any case, nettles are worth the trouble and gloves are helpful.



We travelled on to another side road which dead ended at another tributary stream with an overgrown road/trail on the other side. There was a nice little waterfall here, and a pool that looked like it would be inviting in the heat of summertime. We crossed the creek on a log and headed off to explore the alder and maple forest of the ravine.

The trail was easy, and we passed many babbling waterfalls flowing down the mossy hillside. A few times we broke away from the trail to make our way through the salmonberry bushes down to little gravel bars in the creek. My kids had a grand time playing with rocks and climbing on logs from which they fell in several times and became quite wet. They didn't seem to mind it at all. This was a great way to spend the afternoon.

On our way home I spied some young Douglas-fir trees with bright green new growth on the ends of the branches, so I stopped and harvested some of the tips for tea. Douglas-fir tip tea is an excellent source of vitamin C and antioxidants. In fact, fir was a primary source of vitamin C for the Native Americans of the west coast. It kept them from getting scurvy. Plus, it is quite fragrant, lemony and tasty! I find the flavor reminiscent of the way tree boughs smell.

I headed home with my wildharvested bounty and brewed up a big jar of fresh nettle tea. If you have never tried nettle tea, I cannot say enough good things about it nor recommend it highly enough. It is extremely good for you and is high in protein and vitamins including zinc, magnesium, calcium, iron, folic acid, potassium and carotene. It's good for a wide variety of things including intestinal issues, allergies, healthy pregnancy, coughs, urinary tract infections, hair loss, removal of toxins in the body, blood purification, and an overall tonic. It will also keep you from getting scurvy, and nobody wants scurvy. I love to drink it in the late winter and early spring when I feel like I just haven't been getting quite enough green things to eat. The lovely green color of the tea alone makes me feel like I am ingesting a good healthy dose of plant vitamins.

I always feel like I'm bringing home treasures when I collect wild plants for food. It's such a delightful surprise to find some plant you are fond of poking up out of the forest floor or rocks along a stream bank. In some ways it feels like taking some of the woods home with you and incorporating it into yourself. It's a good feeling.