Teaberry (Wintergreen) Muffins and Tea

I spent a couple hours yesterday tromping around the woods gathering teaberry berries and leaves with the intent of making muffins and tea. 

At first, I had my plan that I would gather the required 1 cup of berries on my way out into the woods, then I would gather leaves on my way back. After I had gathered about 3/4 cup of berries, I realized, I really should be gathering the greens at the same time!

So.. I have determined the most efficient way of gathering teaberry.  Basically, when you see a berry (which is relatively few and far between compared to the vast landscape of greenery).. just pull the whole thing up!  These plants will definitely NOT suffer a loss if they are pulled up by the root. I originally just tried to pull the leaves along with the berry, but inevitably the whole plant would come up most of the time. I found that if I just put the plant stem between my cupped fingers and pulled up, I could strip off the green along with the berry. This turned out to be quite efficient and I was able to gather enough leaves and berries to make a large batch of tea and muffins. 

My page on teaberry will help you to identify the plant and give you information about the benefits if you want to attempt these adventures yourself. 


In order to make a medicinal tea:


Fresh leaves have to be fermented in water to develop the wintergreen in them. Pack a jar loosely with fresh leaves and cover it, set it in a warm place for several days until the water is bubbly. Warm the tea by setting it in a pan of hot water. This will be a strong, good-tasting minty tea. The leaves can be strained out and dried in order to use for a tea that won't be so strong. I will be putting them into the dehydrator to make a nice supply!


The muffin recipe I ended up with is:

• 1 cup oat flour
• 1 cup quinoa flour (you can create both of these yourself. I use my grain mill, but you could use a food processor or a coffee grinder)
• 4 teaspoons baking powder
• 2 Tablespoons sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 beaten egg
• 1 cup vanilla almond milk (you can use your preferred milk whether it be cow, soy, etc)
• 3 Tablespoons vegetable oil
• 1 cup washed teaberry berries

Mix flours, baking powder, sugar and salt. In separate bowl mix egg, milk and oil. Add dry ingredients to wet and mix well. (if you use quinoa flour I suggest letting it sit a bit to give the quinoa a chance to soften up a bit) Fold in berries. 

Fill greased muffin tins 3/4 full and bake for 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. 

Oh wait, that's Stephen King. I saw him live last night in Lowell :)
.. He doesn't have anything to do with teaberry.. it's just cool!

Teaberry! (aka Wintergreen... aaka Checkerberry)

When I was out tromping around The Mashpee River Woodlands the other day, I noticed there was a grand amount of teaberry there.

  I think teaberry is the first wild edible I was ever introduced to. I can't remember when, and for the life of me I can't actually ever remember walking in the woods with my mother, but I KNOW she was the one that pointed it out to me. "It is the flavor of Clark's Teaberry Gum" is what she would always tell me. 

I knew of it as teaberry my entire life. I don't think I ever made the connection to wintergreen until I was going on a backwoods camping trip the week before Christmas 2010 with my buddy "Plane" Dave.  I made a comment about how much teaberry there was around and he said "All I see is wintergreen".  

Teaberry berries can be eaten raw or cooked. They have a kind of waxy wintergreen flavor. I have always remembered finding the berries in the fall and winter and so I thought they were a late season fruit, but when I was on the Appalachian Trail in the summer of 2011 I found them in abundance. I have since then learned that yes, they come out in the late summer and they just hang on!  They are actually better after a frost, and will stay on the plant pretty much until something eats them. I love to snag them as I walk along. It's a lot of fun when blueberries are in season, to pick a few of each and have a festive little red and blue handful. .. ok.. it's fun in my head anyway :)

Teaberry berries have that kind of little star-ish end on them, similar to a blueberry. The fruit is definitely NOT a nice round berry. 

When broken open the berry has a kind of.. dryish, white inside. The only thing I can think of to equate the texture to would be .. like.. well..wet styrofoam, but it's not gross. 

**I feel like I need to make some sort of disclaimer here saying please don't go out and eat wild food without having explicit knowledge of what you are eating.. that being said.. this one is pretty easy to not screw up if you pay attention**

 The leaves can be eaten (and harvested) any time of year. They can be nibbled on raw or made into a tea. Native Americans brewed a tea from the leaves to alleviate rheumatic symptoms, headache, fever, sore throat and various aches and pains. The active ingredient found in the leaves and berries is methyl salicylate, and is closely related to salicylic acid - the forerunner of aspirin. Early medicinal formulas using wintergreen to reduce fever, body aches, and muscular pains, were probably quite effective. Unlike aspirin, a moderate internal dosage of wintergreen will relieve indigestion rather than inducing it.

To make the more medicinal quality tea:
Fresh leaves have to be fermented in water to develop the wintergreen in them. Pack a jar loosely with fresh leaves and cover it, set it in a warm place for several days until the water is bubbly. Warm the tea by setting it in a pan of hot water. This will be a strong, good-tasting minty tea. The leaves can be strained out and dried in order to use for a tea that won't be so strong.


You can make a quick tea just by breaking up fresh leaves and let it steep in hot water. On the Trail, I would treat myself to Teaberry tea when I wasn't having sassafrass (my favorite Trail tea.. hmm.. another blog ...)

I am always looking for things to do with wild edibles.. and in my searches, I came across a recipe for WINE!! (I still have a bottle of my Dandelion wine left from last summer)

I also found recipes for muffins and pies! The muffin recipe only calls for a cup of berries.. I think this will need to be attempted (and tweaked of course for using other than regular flour).


Natural Root Beer: (this totally looks like fun.. but.. 1 1/2 GALLONS of molasses?!?!?)

• 5 gallons water
• 1/2 cup dry yeast 
• 1 1/2 gallons molasses 
• 1/2 cup wintergreen leaves, rinsed & dried 
• 1 cup sassafras root bark 

Combine water and molasses and heat just to the boiling point. Remove from heat and allow to stand for two hours. Add the wintergreen, sassafras root bark, and yeast. Stir just until blended. Allow to ferment overnight at room temperature. Strain and refrigerate.


And of course.. wintergreen (any minty thing) crushed and placed at your doorways will discourage insects from intruding.