teaberry, or the love of the food one had as a child

[ironymaiden]

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 tell varina8 this and how excited i was to learn about it, and she's like "that stuff grows all over Capitol Hill".

Comments

[ironymaiden]

and i've ordered one to try to put in a pot in the shady corner of the balcony. we're excited. teaberries!

[garyomaha]

Remember "The Teaberry Shuffle"?

[oracne]

Cooooool. I have a tiny octopus toy named Teaberry. She is not pink, though.

[buhrger]

yay! keep us posted on updates!

[flexagon]

Ooh, this flavor sounds interesting! The odds of my finding non-dairy teaberry ice cream sound like 0% but maybe I'll try the gum.

[yourlibrarian]

Huh! I had no idea these were the same thing.

[varina8]

I love old-fashioned regional names like teaberry. I fully expect it to flourish under your care!

(And, yes, it is a beautiful shade plant. Perhaps I will feel flush this fall and plant a few with the hostas under the trees on the corner.)

[jazzfish]

Can confirm that the gum is pretty good. Though twenty-years-younger Tucker was disappointed that it tasted almost, but not quite, entirely unlike tea.

[ivy]

Hooray! I will now keep an eye on the ground the next time I'm in Cap Hill!