ironymaiden (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
ironymaiden) wrote2021-08-08 10:44 pm
ironymaiden) wrote2021-08-08 10:44 pm
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teaberry, or the love of the food one had as a child
recently someone posted on one of the Seattle subreddits that their olive tree was fruiting. this isn't as weird as it sounds, we're technically a Mediterranean climate. which sent me down a rabbit hole of researching what can grow well here. we can also have fig trees (there are a quite a few in my neighborhood), kiwi vines, and some jasmines (in addition to the more expected hops, berries, hazelnuts, apples, cherries, and plums).
anyway, a regional nursery also sells wintergreen as a full shade groundcover. and i'm like huh, that's kind of like teaberry. i have fond memories of foraging teaberries with my father. teaberry is my favorite flavor of ice cream (which seems to be regional to Pennsylvania); i'm also a fan of Clark's Teaberry Gum. the ice cream is pink and i would describe the flavor as mild wintergreen to folks who haven't had it.
guess what? wintergreen is gaultheria procumbens, which *is* teaberry. it's the same plant. it's not that we have a plant in the Americas that's like some plant in Europe, wintergreen is from North America and it's not a member of the mint family. wintergreen is teaberry and it grows in the woods behind my grandparents' farm! the leaves and essential oil contain salicylic acid, hence a history of being used for medicinal tea (teaberry!) and how common it is in liniments.
so i tellvarina8 this and how excited i was to learn about it, and she's like "that stuff grows all over Capitol Hill".
anyway, a regional nursery also sells wintergreen as a full shade groundcover. and i'm like huh, that's kind of like teaberry. i have fond memories of foraging teaberries with my father. teaberry is my favorite flavor of ice cream (which seems to be regional to Pennsylvania); i'm also a fan of Clark's Teaberry Gum. the ice cream is pink and i would describe the flavor as mild wintergreen to folks who haven't had it.
guess what? wintergreen is gaultheria procumbens, which *is* teaberry. it's the same plant. it's not that we have a plant in the Americas that's like some plant in Europe, wintergreen is from North America and it's not a member of the mint family. wintergreen is teaberry and it grows in the woods behind my grandparents' farm! the leaves and essential oil contain salicylic acid, hence a history of being used for medicinal tea (teaberry!) and how common it is in liniments.
so i tell
varina8 this and how excited i was to learn about it, and she's like "that stuff grows all over Capitol Hill".