“Terroir” is a French term used by winemakers to describe the character of a wine given to it by the soil and the environment the grape vines grow in.
In February, Ginger Miller and Kara Entrop held tastings in Warsaw and Clinton to introduce people to the complexities of flavors that can be produced by brewing drinks made from the stems and flowers of trees and plants that grow in Missouri.
The plants included sumac, dandelion, pine and burdock.
“This is set up like a wine tasting,” Ginger explained to participants in Clinton on Wed., Feb. 15.
Kara and Roxanne Stockdall, a master naturalist in the Hi Lonesome chapter in Cole Camp, served each person with six samples. The drinks were in small cups set in a wooden cookie, made from cedar. The cookie had a handle and cup indentations, which were numbered, set on a place mat to record responses to drinks and rate the flavor.
Each table also had a tin of coffee beans, used to clear the olfactory senses, and oyster crackers to cleanse the palate. Ginger then explained how to identify the tree or plant each drink was made from, and how to make it.
The first was a tea made from needles of White Pine, which is not a native pine but is found in many yards in town, she said. To brew the tea, Ginger said she broke up the needles, which are soft, and poured boiling water over them, then steeped for 20 to 30 minutes.
Even when mixed with black tea and sweetener, the pine-based drink did not get a thumbs up from tasters.
Ginger added that when pine needles are dried and ground, they make a good rub for meat and also can be mixed with salt to make pine salt, and vinegar to make pine vinegar.
The next four drinks were technically tisanes, herbal infusions made from plants other than the tea plant, Camellia sinensis. Tisanes are used in Europe to lessen nausea or flu systems, or taken every day as a preventative, like an apple. Most tasters judged the tisane made from elderberry stems okay, but found the one made from elderberry flowers more flavorful.
“I could drink a big cup of that,” said Deean Beaver.
Deean, from Clinton, invited her friend, Donna Martin, to attend the Wednesday afternoon tea tasting at the MDC office in Clinton. Donna said she was glad she did.
“It’s very interesting to think what you can do with the bark of a tree or a flower,” Donna said.
Ginger noted that elderberry is her favorite native plant, and easy to grow in Missouri — just take a cutting with two nodes and stick it in the ground. Elderberries can also be turned into juice or wine.
“It has a fruity taste,” she said. “Just be sure you strain the seeds out, as they can upset your stomach.”
On a historic note, she said that Pliny the Elder wrote a book on the healing properties of all parts of the elderberry plant, which he claimed could cure anything. A naturalist and naval commander during the early Roman Empire, Pliny died in 79 A.D. trying to save a friend and her family from the eruption of Mount Vesuvius.
His legacy: the elderberry is one of the most prominent medicinal plants in use today and is known all over the world.
The Wednesday tasting in Clinton drew participants from all over. Karl Bodenheimer came from Kansas City, where he lives north of the river. Kristina Anderson, an accountant and beekeeper, came from her farm north of Calhoun, as a break from tax season.
Karl said he liked the idea of making syrup from the bark of a shagbark hickory, a sample of which Ginger included as a sweetener to add to teas. She warned that cooking it at home makes you whole house smell like a wood fire.
“I’m going to put it in a dutch oven on a campfire,” he said. “That way I don’t smell up my kitchen.”
The surprise hit of the day: spicebush, whose stems have a clove flavor.
“We just snapped up the stems and poured boiling water over them,”Ginger said. “You can substitute the berries for allspice.”
A tisane made from sumac had a tarter taste, like lemonade, but would be good drink to take on a fishing trip to quench your thirst, Deean said. You can use all types of sumac, Ginger said, fragrant, smooth or winged.
People who are sensitive to poison sumac, however, should not overindulge in drinks made from the plant, Ginger said. For all ingredients culled from nature, she warned to be careful to identify the plant correctly, avoid harvesting near railroads and roads that may have been sprayed with herbicide, and take small tastes, to make sure you do not have an allergic reaction, such as numbness of your lips.
Another favorite with the tasters was a concoction of burdock and dandelion roots, roasted with fresh ginger root and star anise, and simmered for 30 minutes. Ginger said she sweetened it with brown sugar and added seltzer to give it bubbles, yielding a drink that tasted like root beer.
As conservation department educators, Miller and Kara Entrop are always cooking up something from nature, whether it’s candles from deer tallow, natural vinegars or nut cookies. Held at the MDC office on South Second Street in Clinton and at Lost Valley Hatchery in Warsaw, the workshops are free and a great way to widen one’s knowledge of the bounty of nature found in Missouri. Go to mdc.mo.gov.
Ginger said her supervisor, T. J. Peaches, made the cedar cookies for serving teas, which will be used for other tastings.
