The first wave of green has swept through the territory–the poplars and birches are in leaf, the grass is bright and springy, and the dandelions have that juicy, early-season perkiness that makes you think of spring salads or spanakopita.
Tiny brown fists have appeared at the end of each branch on the baby spruce beside my mailbox. In a few days the bright green tips will thrust out, looking like little paint brushes wearing papery brown hats.
My spruce tree basks in a sunny southern exposure, so it’s slightly ahead of the game.
But soon, all the spruce throughout the territory will burst into bud, sometime between now and the middle of June—exactly when depends on latitude and altitude.
According to my foraging diary, in 2014 we were still picking spruce tips near Whitehorse on June 8; in 2016, our season had almost ended on May 30.
For those as yet uninitiated, spruce tips are one of those truly magical wild northern foods. They’re packed with Vitamin C and have been used by Indigenous people to soothe sore throats and combat flu for centuries.
Cooks love them for their light, citrusy, slightly resinous flavour. They’re the last word in versatile: you can pickle spruce tips, candy them, combine them with sugar or salt as a seasoning, infuse them in oil or vinegar, make jelly or syrup, eat them fresh in salads, pastas or stir-fries, and use them as a herb in everything from focaccia to pan-cooked grouse.
The best time to pick spruce tips is when they’re still in that bright-green paintbrush phase. Knock off the brown husk by shaking the branch as you pick. (If you end up with a few husks in the mix, don’t worry.) When the bright green tips grow longer and the needles spring outwards the flavour becomes too pronounced for eating fresh, but they’re still excellent to cook with.
Pick away from roads and highways or areas that may have been sprayed with herbicides or pesticides. Remember, spruce tips are the tree’s new growth. For the health of the tree it’s best to avoid picking the tip at the very end of the branch, focussing on those that grow along on the sides. Pick no more than 20 percent of the tips on one tree, or one in five of those on any given branch. Bypass the young trees, they need to grow.
Preserve spruce tips by freezing them or air-drying on a baking sheet away from direct sunlight.
Finally, if you’re new to spruce tips, start small. Pick two or three cups and get to know them gradually.
Tip: Spruce tip salt or sugar is a great place to begin.
Mix ingredients together and store in a small jar, stirring occasionally the first few days to avoid clumping.
Sprinkle salt on steaks or fish filets before cooking; incorporate 2 Tbsp sugar into your favourite shortbread recipe. Serve spruce tip jelly on toast with butter; in thumb-print cookies; on a charcuterie platter; with smoked salmon and cream cheese; or to accompany any wild meat or fish, whether braised, grilled, roasted or fried. I’ve made my best jelly yet using Certo Light pectin crystals. The jelly is nicely set, the colour is a glowing lemony-amber, and the flavour is pure Yukon forest in the spring.
Certo Light is a low-methoxyl pectin that requires less sugar in the recipe for gelling. Too much sugar can overwhelm the taste of the spruce tips.
The Canadian Living Test Kitchen advises that Certo Light and Bernardin No Sugar Needed Pectin can be used interchangeably—worth a try.
Pomona’s Universal Pectin, another low-methoxyl pectin, uses both calcium and pectin powder in a two-step process; follow the directions in the box. (For this recipe you’ll need 3 tsp each of pectin powder and calcium water.)
Spruce Tip Salt or Sugar
Ingredients
Instructions
Spruce Tip Jelly
Ingredients
Instructions
Notes
A note on pectin: