Thousand Islands Life, Trees That Heal

We all know that trees are good for us in a general sense: They take carbon dioxide from the air, helping to combat climate change. And while most of the oxygen we breathe comes from marine algae, trees still account for 28 percent of the oxygen in the atmosphere. Spending time around trees is also good for our health, with proven effects such as reduced stress levels and stronger immune systems. But during cold and flu season, the needles from many types of native conifers can be used to make tasty, nutritious teas loaded with vitamins and antioxidants.

My legal department requires me to say that, as with all natural remedies, it’s important to first check with your health care provider to make sure there’s nothing in your health history that might conflict with drinking these kinds of tea. Actually, I don’t have a legal team – it’s just a good idea. One that I never follow through on ... In general, if you are pregnant, be especially cautious about any supplement not prescribed by a doctor.

That said, tea made from the needles of pine, spruce, cedar, and fir trees has been safely consumed worldwide for centuries. The practice remains quite popular in Japan, Korea, China, and among indigenous peoples in North America. One of the main things that evergreen needles are known for is their high Vitamin C content. In fact, by weight, pine needles have more Vitamin C than lemons.

Although Vitamin C cannot prevent a cold or bout of influenza, research does show that it can help shorten the course of illness by increasing T-lymphocyte activity, and possible antibody and interferon production. Because our bodies cannot make Vitamin C the way they can synthesize B-vitamins, we have to get C from outside sources. In the old days, people who didn’t get enough fruits and vegetables, in particular sailors, used to get scurvy, a disease that caused anemia and tooth loss. Oh, and death.

In 1535, French explorer Jacques Cartier and his crew were on the verge of death from scurvy near present-day Quebec City. Luckily for them, they were cured by First Nations healers who gave them tea made from the needles of the eastern white cedar. Cartier dubbed the cedar “l’arbre de vie,” which is why today we find it labelled “arborvitae” at nurseries and garden centres. Given the horrors of colonization, I have to wonder if the folks who saved Cartier and company later regretted doing so.

In addition to Vitamin C, conifer needles contain Vitamin A and amino acids like arginine that are used to make proteins. Pine needle tea has also been shown to be anti-inflammatory, and to reduce blood pressure as well.

Hemlock tea is one of my favourite evergreen teas. This is not the recipe poor Socrates drank, which was made from the toxic perennial herb, poison-hemlock. The kind I like is an infusion of needles and young shoots from the stately eastern or Canadian hemlock. This hemlock tea is delicious, and the good part is that you can drink it more than one time. Plus, it’s fun to see the reaction when I offer it to guests.

All of our native spruces, firs, and cedars are safe to use, but two western species of pine, ponderosa pine (found in central and lower British Columbia) and lodgepole pine (Rocky Mountains and foothills regions of Alberta), can be toxic. The only other evergreen to avoid is the yew (Taxus spp.), which is native to Quebec, but is also grown as a landscape hedge. If you’re new to tree identification, get someone who knows their stuff to help you.

There are dozens of companies that sell bagged evergreen-needle tea ready to use, but if you have access to evergreen trees, you can easily make your own. Be sure to harvest just a portion of the ends of twigs from large, healthy specimen trees. Rinse the needles under cool water, and blot them dry. You can freeze extra for future use.

To make tea from fresh needles, I cover the bottom of a teapot or saucepan with needles – I’ve never chopped them, as I’m lazy, but feel free to try it. I then fill the vessel three-quarters full with boiling water. Boiling the needles will destroy Vitamin C and degrade the flavour of the tea. After steeping for 5-10 minutes, I stir briefly and pour through a fine-mesh strainer before serving.

For a sugar-free sweetener, you might want to try chopped twigs from yellow birch, sometimes called sweet birch or the tea tree. Black birch works well for this too, but it’s limited to parts of southern Ontario, whereas yellow birch is found throughout the region. The twigs have a naturally sweet wintergreen flavour, but for best results, should be steeped longer than pine needles are. I sometimes boil them separately for 5 minutes or so.

A very different sort of birch-related tea is made from Inonotus obliquus, a fungus that grows on birch trees of all species. Known as chaga, it has a long history in northern latitudes around the world as a medicine as well as a pick-me-up. Sometimes called cinder-conk because the surface looks as though it has been charred black, this native fungus is available online and at most health-food stores as a tea. If you collect this fungus, be aware that is grows very slowly, so leave enough for next time.

The health benefits of chaga tea include lower cholesterol, lower blood pressure, and lower blood sugar. Of course, there is no reason that chaga tea cannot be drunk together with conifer-needle tea.

Doctors are already prescribing time spent in the woods, or “forest bathing,” for stress, anxiety, and high blood pressure. Perhaps in the near future they may be telling us to drink evergreen-needle tea when we present with the sniffles.

Paul Hetzler is now writing about nature for "several nature magazines. This article first appeared in the Saturday Evening Post June 2024, and the Adirondack Almanack in July 2025 plus others.

Paul is a former Cornell Extension educator, and he also writes books! Be sure to check out the description of his books and I promise you will not only smile but you will want to give them as gifts for the next birthday - Just the titles makes you smile! Head of the Class: Smart as a Slime Mold, Shady Characters: Leprechaun Trees, Plant Vampires and Caterpillar Soup and his third book, Birds of Happiness Aren’t Blue: and 85 other very funny and somewhat educational nature essays is available online at https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CCZSY8N9 (US) and https://www.amazon.ca/Birds-Happiness-Arent-Blue-educational/dp/B0CCZSY8N9 (Canada).

Marie-Anne Erki

Marie-Anne Erki is TI Life's illustrator and accomplished artist. She is also Professor Emeritus of Civil Engineering at Canada's Royal Military College where she taught for twenty years. We are fortunate to have Marie-Anne offer to illustrate Paul Hetzler's articles - and I hope you enjoy them as much as we do.