After our urban foraging workshop, Kenny and I decided to head back to the woods and recover a much coveted sassafras sapling we discovered on the hike. Root in hand, we hoped to make homemade soda. With only our bare hands and a snow shovel it was a difficult job to say the least. . . but well worth it. Add sassafras soda to a little home-brewed burdock root extract and you have a pretty good mixer.
A note of warning: in the 1960s the government declared the active ingredient in sassafras, "safrole" to be a carcinogen. While many dispute this claim, it may be wise to listen to the Cherokee Indians who first introduced Sassafras to colonists: don't drink it for more than a week at a time.
Look at you, getting all wildernessy. How was it? I hate to say it but it looks like it would taste kind of awful.
ReplyDelete@ Bradlee: Real root beer is made from sassafras, so it probably tastes like root beer, but more so.
ReplyDelete@ Colby: I'd love to give that a try. Did you follow the recipe from the link?
You never cease to amaze me, Colby. Ingenious! I want some now.
ReplyDeleteWow- I remember Sassafras tea from family picnics as a kid. Thanks for the great flashback!
ReplyDeleteMy Granny would make Sassafras tea as a cure all for us youngins...she would brew it and pour cream in it and it would turn bright pink. I remeber it looking better than it tasted. Good times.
ReplyDelete