Our Farmer's Market in Athens, Ohio is still going strong. We have an abundance of wonderful farmers who are keeping us nourished with local veggies, great selection of fruits,herbs,teas and spices. We also have processors,such as myself, who create products using these wonderful local ingredients.
Staring last month we began to harvest and dry local spice bush berry. After the herb is dried we hand crush the berries to release the amazing flavor trapped in each seed.We look for the berry in the undergrowth of our woodlands. They are most often found growing under Paw Paw trees.When we harvest our Paw Paws in early Sept, the spice bush berries are still green, giving us notice to comeback and harvest in a month.
The old timers in my area told me that they generally harvested the twigs of the spice bush tree to use for a tasty tea. They would often be in the woods hunting in the fall, and would brew up a batch of spice bush twig tea. They did not bother to much with the berry as the hardness of each berry made the tea brew too weak. The berry taste is similar to a nice nutmeg, not too strong, yet full of its own unique flavor.
Because spearmint is one of my favorite herbs I add crushed spice bush berries to a blend of organic spearmint leaf. Giving me a tea I call, Native Spicebush Spearmint Tea. The flavor is an interesting blend of mint and deep spice. A perfect reminder of fall for all of us here in Athens, Ohio.
The berry is said to have medicinal qualities, good for relief of fever and flu symptoms.It can also be added to seasoning mixes, or used alone, to add the distinct flavor of native nutmeg.
