sassafras

[sidelock]

Anyone planning on making sassafras tea (or other use) this spring? Us kids would bring a supply of roots every spring for Mom to make tea. Sure was good.

 

[George]

Most of the time I make a drink while trekking it's sassafras tea, sweetened with either brown sugar or maple sugar. I have a huge root dug 25+ years ago, it just keeps on giving.





I never drink it at home, or very much in total, turns out there are some nasty chemicals in it, limited use is recommended. It's a good thing my grandmother didn't hear that. She was a firm believer that your blood thickened up in the winter and that you needed a cup of sassafras tea every spring to thin it out. :grin:

Spence

 

[Loyalist Dave]

The Indians thought of it as medicine, not a simple beverage, and I'm sure your granny was well within what we'd call "safety limits" with an annual cup of the tea. :grin:

LD

 

[zimmerstutzen]

When you boil the roots to make tea, that little slick of oil that forms on top is safriole, a narcotic, schedule 2 federally controlled substance and ingredient in the drug ecstasy. But it sure is good. I have heard that possession of any part of a sassafras tree is illegal in some countries. Here in the midatlantic it grows everywhere.

 

[Sean Gadhar]

Remember back in the 70s when EVERYTHING caused cancer in rats......YEP that's where your sassafras has gone...down the rat hole.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Safrole


ff As a teen I wrote a paper on how it would some day turn out that being watched by people in lab coats was the cause of cancer in lab rats. :haha: Damn science teacher gave me an "incomplete" and I had to write a new paper

 

[coloradoclyde]

Reminds me of when people use to drink Radium water... :shocked2:
If only they had used some rats first back then. :shake:

Unfortunately, today many municipalities are having trouble with radium in their water supplies. High water use, contamination, and lowering aquifers are forcing them to drill ever deeper wells, right into radium laced rock..

 

[tenngun]

It's not lab coats that cause cancer, it's being born. Some smokers get lung cancer, some tanners get skin cancer. Some dieters that get ahold of sacerine get gastric cancer. However all cancer victims have been born. Getting born kills 100% of its victims....oh the humanity.

 

[zimmerstutzen]

Had some excavation done a few weeks back and the dozer guy piled up some trees from the fence row. Can't walk within 50 ft without noticing that sweet sassafrass fragrance coming from the roots.

I cut a couple chucks of the roots to sand smooth and put in dresser drawers similar to cedar.

 

[Obi-Wan Cannoli]

I really enjoy the Claeys sassafras hard candies.

 

[zimmerstutzen]

Ditto, when I can find them.

 

[Obi-Wan Cannoli]

The Log Cabin Shop or Amazon. :hatsoff:

 

[zimmerstutzen]

We still have some remarkable sweet shops in these parts. We can get nearly any candy ever made. The Claeys' Sassafrass is something they only have ocasionally. Clove Gum, Black Jack Gum, Lavender Gum, Sky Bars, Turkish Bars, Lion Bars, Licorice Pipes, All sorts of Mallow Cups. Rarely anything Sassafrass

Although for Christmas, Mrs. got me a cotton candy machine that makes cotton candy from any hard candy. Will have to try some Sassafrass cotton candy.

 

[George]

Can't walk within 50 ft without noticing that sweet sassafrass fragrance coming from the roots.

It's really pretty amazing stiff. I collected this big root 25-30 years ago, and it hasn't been cut into for at least 10 years, but you can smell it any time you are near. In use, too, it can be boiled many, many times without running out of flavor.



Spence

 

[Bill Mc]

Sassafras leaves are important ingredient for gumbo.

Filé powder

Filé powder, also called gumbo filé, is a spicy herb made from the dried and ground leaves of the North American sassafras tree. Filé powder is used in Louisiana Creole cuisine in the making of some types of gumbo, a thick Creole soup or stew often served over rice. Several different varieties exist. In New Orleans, what is known as Creole gumbo generally ranges from house to house though still retaining its African and Native American origins. The Creoles of Cane River make a gumbo focused much more on filé. Filé can provide thickening when okra is not in season, in types of gumbo that use okra or a roux as a thickener for gumbo instead of Filé. Sprinkled sparingly over gumbo as a seasoning and a thickening agent, Filé powder adds a distinctive, earthy flavor and texture.

 

[ohio ramrod]

I dig my yearly supply of sassafras roots every spring, "shave the outer bark" and dry the shavings for use in tea. ( Or to chew on while deer hunting to cover human breath.) Yes, some people think it causes cancer but I know my great aunt Sadi drank it and lived to 97 without cancer, Grandma drank it and lived to 96 without cancer, my mom drank it every spring and made it to 95. My oldest sister and one brother-in-law did not drink it and both died of pancreatic cancer. So I just tell my wife to put on my tombstone:"He ate bacon and eggs every day for breakfast and drank sassafras tea. " In fact I have some in the fridge right now for iced tea and I'll be brewing a pot of hot tea tomorrow at the Killbuck rendezvous. :idunno: :idunno:

 

[zimmerstutzen]

Boiled up some root last week and made iced sassafras tea. After an afternoon working in the hot sun, it sure hit the spot.

 

[tenngun]

Being alive will kill ya. Good stuff may be unhealthy, but.... Life is to short to not enjoy life. ' To enjoy the full flavor of life take big bites, moderation is for monks'

 

[Black Hand]

"Everything in moderation, including moderation."
-Oscar Wilde

 

[Crewdawg445]

Not something I drink daily, it's considered a medicinal herb and should be used sparingly.

However, I'm sure there are those who drink it on a regular basis and are just fine.

I made it for my wife who recently got a bad UTI, my grandmother also uses it for arthritis.

Again, not something I'd regularly drink, but as a medicinal herb, absolutely in moderation.

 

[Black Hand]

All medicines are "poisons" of some sort or another, and it is the amount ingested that determines a curative or deleterious effect. As an example: A little Tylenol helps your head & body aches, too much Tylenol and your liver fails.

Now before someone gets all defensive - I am in no way against medicines as they have bettered life. I merely stated it as I did above in an effort to make a point.