Welcome back to Taival Outdoors. My name is Joel and today I'm out
harvesting some spruce tips and
I just wanted to make a short video
Not only showing when to harvest them and what to do with them, but also explaining bit
What are the rules and regulations regarding?
suppose deep harvest here in Finland
So first of all, Finland is a long country
Up in the north. There are still over half a metres of snow
Whereas over here where I live?
It's already basically late spring
Which means that there isn't any particular week or a month, when would be the best time to harvest spruce tips in Finland?
It all depends on where you happen to live and
That leads us to the first rule and the main rule of spruce tip harvest so you have to do it on your own property
Like I'm doing right now or you have to have the land owner's permission
Also, if you don't have access to any land you can get a license per year with a small fee
You can harvest spruce tips and some other stuff from the government lands
So these new tips grow every spring and I've noticed that these
Smaller ones that are only a couple of centimetres long they tend to be the tastiest
But this is still or
Good stuff to go and you can eat it just like this
At least in my opinion
They taste great are great little pick-me-up
These months could be collected as well, but they are just a bit too small
In my opinion, they don't quite have that same taste. They can be a bit
Bit more bitter
And also you will have to collect
quite a bit more these than you'd do for the
bit more fully developed ones
The same applies the other way around - these are almost
Too developed you can see the size of these things. They start to get a bit more
Harder to chew and also they start to lose their taste
Here's an example of tips that have gone too far. You can barely
Just barely tell that this is a bit different colour than the main branch
So there's quite a bit of individual differences between trees
These couple of ones were just few metres apart and they all are in different stages of bringing up this new de spruce
tips
so
you could basically do a good harvest in a couple of weekends in a row and
I just pick different trees in different weekends depending on the States how well they've developed so far
but I think I'll start with these big boys and then move that way and take the
Medium-sized and let the small one still
Develop a bit further and come back to those perhaps in a week or twos
time
I'd like to harvest these tips from all around three
because this is how
the tree then grows it grows the new branches out of basically these tips and if you only harvest
Every year from the same spot, which might be the most convenient spot for you
But eventually it will mean that the three then rose to every other direction except the one and it will end up looking
pretty pretty horrible
so I
Kneel to a certain spot or stand in a certain spot pick some and then
move a bit further away and do the
Same thing
from the other side or
however, big the trees I
think I've done for this section, but I will continue collecting some more and
Then we can head out to the nearby woods and make some spruce tip tea and there is a proper way of doing it
And I will show you guys how to do
Always gear testing
I've got this hydro pack stove
Water bottle a while back to act as a backup in case my hydration bladder fails
So I have harvested quite a good haul
so far, but I will probably
Harvest some more then next weekend. I'm going to now use speed up this for a nice cup of
spruce tip tea
And
Most of this is going to go and make me some spruce tip syrup actually
The recipe or the matter of doing that syrup is very simple
I'm kind of wondering if it's even worth making another video about that syrup will last for a long time in a fridge and
You can use it with
Basically anything where you would normally put some sort of jam or something like that
you can even use it with ice cream and
then probably from next week and harvest I will then back those and put them into the freezer and then they are good to
Go for the winter time as well. So
As you might have noticed I put only water in here now
I'm heating up that water and remember if you're taking that water from natural sources, then remember to boil it all the way up
But it might be that
I'm not waiting for a full boil
but anyway after the water is holding up for you, then you can start putting the screws tipped into the water and
Take it of course out of the flame or the heat source at that point. So the point is not to boil the Spruce tips
in my opinion that ruins the flavor and I don't know if that's also
harmful in regards of the nutrients and the vitamins that are in these
these are at least full of vitamin C that much I know and perhaps some type of
antioxidants or something else
but anyway, none of that is
Important because all you have to know is that they are good for you
So I prefer not to boil it. Just put these in hot water
let them sit for few minutes and it's the same as with any other tea the longer you let it sit the
Stronger it gets and I prefer to be strong to get most out of those
vitamins
But if the taste is too strong then you know that start get just a couple of minutes and work your way up
Cheers everyone
If that is not some elixir of life, I don't know what is
In case you're wondering
How many spruce tips you should put in one pot of water
It's all up to you
More the better, of course, but it takes some harvesting
Well, I guess that's it for this video
I'll stay out here and finish my tea and then head back home see if this is enough for
fall mason jar of syrup or not
if not
Then I will head out and harvest some more if it is
Then I will anyway head out and harvest some more at least if not this week and then next
It's good to stock up
Well, the season is on
See you all in the next one
