Every Monday, I pull out a meaningful quote from one of the great books or articles I’m reading (or re-reading) and share it with you. Like last week, today I’m sharing from Wilderness Cooking by Berndt Burglund and Clare E. Bolsby. It was written in 1973 by a husband and wife team who are wilderness experts, having spent their lives studying and teaching woodland lore. The bookjacket declares Mr. Berglund to be one of North America’s foremost authorities on wilderness life and survival.
Chapter 11 is entitled “Wilderness Beverages” and in it, the authors share more than a dozen beverages created by fruits, berries and roots. They write,
“After a certain length of time in the wilderness, the craving for any kind of beverage other than water soon gets the upper hand. The early settlers soon learned to take advantage of Mother Nature’s richly stocked pantry, and the Indians had for generations utilized many fruits, berries and roots to make palatable drinks.
The favorite drink in the north woods is tea, followed by strong brewed coffee. Not surprisingly, the tea and coffee you carry are the first of your supplies to run out.
But if you know wild plants, substitutes can easily be made with plants that are probably growing all around you. We would like to mention the most common plants which can be used to great advantage by the woodsman on lengthy wilderness trips or on trips where packing has to be kept to a bare minimum.”
Then they list a number of beverages that can be made from fruits, berries and roots. Here’s the one I want to tell you about:
“Chicory Coffee:
The root of this common plant is used even today as an adjuct to coffee to give it a deeper color and a more lasting flavor and aroma. Chicory is a native of Europe and probably was imported as an impurity with seeds the settlers brought with them.
Chicory roots from spring-planted seeds are dried and then roasted and ground. This makes a good hot drink and was frequently used by the settlers. The addition of maple sugar vastly improves the flavor of this kind of coffee.”
Interestingly, my children and I brewed some chicory root tea last week and it was delicious! We used 1 teaspoon of roasted, ground chicory root per cup of “coffee” and we sweetened our drinks with honey. Chicory root is one of the main ingredients in the Teeccino Herbal Coffees (which are yummy!). And chicory root is one of the ingredients in the Daily Health Herb Tea recipe that a friend shared with us. Now I’ve figured out why that tea is as warming and rich as coffee!
According to an herb book I have, chicory root helps to cleanse the blood and improves the health of the liver. Frontier Herbs points out that chicory root is very high in Vitamin C, but it is most notable for what it does rather than what it contains. The special carbohydrates in it (inulin and oligofructoses)
“feed the symbiotic bacteria living in the intestine rather than the human body itself. They allow the healthy bacteria in the colon to produce short chain fatty acids that help prevent colon cancer, but they do not serve as a food source of pathogenic bacteria. The bacterial fermentation of fructans in the intestine changes its chemistry so that the human body absorbs calcium and magnesium much more readily from other foods, so much so that consuming endive and similar vegetables demonstrably builds stronger bones. These complex sugars also lower cholesterol and triglycerides.”
What do you think? Are you game to try some chicory root coffee? Have you read anything interesting lately?
Note: The book link in this post is an affiliate link to Amazon.com. If you choose to buy the book via my link, I’ll earn a commission. But I don’t care about that too much. The point of this post is for us to share inspirational words. That’s my sincere disclaimer. Thanks for reading.
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Hi, Wardee,
I’m not sure where to ask this so I’m just going to do it here, even though it’s not about chicory root coffee (which sounds delicious, by the way!). It’s about sourdough. I tried it for the first time a couple weeks ago and it is going great…I have a terrific, active starter and the bread is wonderful. My question is…the recipe that I use says to feed it one cup of flour and one cup of water every day. At that rate, I have to bake bread about every third day in order to keep the starter from getting too huge. We can’t eat that much bread. Could I feed my starter a smaller amount– say, half a cup of flour and half a cup of water so that I only have to bake once a week, or would that somehow ruin the starter?
Love reading your blog!
.-= Leah´s last blog post… menu monday =-.
Leah, you don’t have to feed the starter every day. I feed mine about once a week, and store it in the fridge. I feed it more often if I’m using it more often. You could store just a small amount in the fridge, then on baking day, pull it out and feed it the amount you need to get it up to the volume you need for the recipe. But you do want to be careful not to overwhelm the wild yeast. Like, don’t go feeding it 10 cups of flour at one time! 😉 If you’re going to build it up to a big quantity, do a little at a time, and space out the feedings by several hours. My “safe” rule is that if I have two cups of starter, I don’t feed it more than that amount of flour. Then I wait a few hours and add more. When I’m building it up, I do it at room temp, but you can do it in the fridge, too. Hope this helps!
I used to like chickory coffee, which is chickory mixed with coffee and is popular in New Orleans. I don’t much care for the Teeccino coffee, maybe I made it wrong or tried the wrong flavor. I do like the Mountain Rose Herbals “herbal coffee” which has chickory, carob, and maca root. I’d be interested to try straight chickory coffee. I’m trying to be coffee-free and I really miss the taste of it!
.-= Rebecca´s last blog post… Menu Plan Monday – Week Of 11/23/2009 =-.
Rebecca, I have been wanting to try Mtn.Rose’s herbal coffee, so I am glad you mentioned you like it. I love the sound of how chicory coffee is made in New Orleans. Yumm! Thanks for sharing that.
Rebecca – Well, oops, rereading my comment and yours, I see the New Orleans drink is mixed with coffee – which I really do like, but like to avoid more. 😉 I must have read your comment too fast the first time (I was expecting company) and I thought the maca and carob were in the New Orleans coffee, too!
Tiffany – I noticed that when I added teeccino to my chocolate sourdough cake – really made the chocolate yummier!
I recenlty purchased Roma a grain “coffee”, it has roasted chicory in it. Very good. We used to drink the good ol’ Postum, but they no longer make that.
I also add about 1 tsp of Roma or Postum or Pero when I am making chocolate cookies, brownies or cakes. This really enhances the chocolate flavor.
YUM!
This was a good read, I’m going to have to check that book out.
Wardee, I am here to let you know that you’ve been chosen to receive 2 blog awards. Head on over to http://seedsofnutrition.com/?p=4018 link at my blog to pick them up.
Your blog is very one of the best.
Pamela
.-= Pamela @ Seeds of Nutrition´s last blog post… Blessed to be honored with….. =-.
Thank you, Pamela! You’re a sweetheart!
Wardee, you may find this interesting: http://theadventurelearningcompany.blogspot.com/2009/04/dandelion-coffee.html. both your blogs are by far the most charming blogs I read. I bet you would like this one.
.-= Sustainable Eats´s last blog post… Thanksgiving Dinner Menu =-.
Sustainable Eats – I enjoyed that and am going to add that blog to my RSS! The authors of the Wilderness Cooking book included dandelion coffee, too. I’m putting it on my list to forage in the spring. 🙂 Thanks for the sweet compliment.
That books sounds interesting. I’ll have to see if I can get it at the library. I don’t have any real food cookie recipes. My husband has a family cookie recipe, I wonder if I can change it to make it real foods.
Michelle – I hope you will – I’d love to see your family favorite redone in real foods!
Hey there! I just now noticed the happy goats video up there that was SO precious!! My daughter made me watch it a dozen times..We have La Mancha, no ears to flop around! You really do have an awesome blog! Thanks so much for so much great info all the time!
Hi, Sarah! I’m glad you and your daughter enjoyed it! We’ve watched it a million times ourselves. 🙂 I just put it in the sidebar a couple days ago, so you found it right away. I’m sure you have as much fun with your goats as we do with ours!
hi Wardee! i hope you are a little warmer today. we were so excited that our place got up to 30, briefly, at midday!
i was thinking of getting this book for my son for Christmas. he loves wilderness/survival stuff. but your link doesnt seem to work and on amazon it is a whopping 50$ for an old used copy. any suggestions?
thanks!
gab
Hi, Gabrielle- I will try to figure out my mistake with that link. Thanks for letting me know. I think we’ll probably have to look around for another copy of that book for you, or else I might consider parting with mine. It is in perfect condition.
Yay! to warmer temps – I think we saw 34 today!
Gabrielle, I fixed the link. I had misspelled it. 🙂 I still don’t think it is available on amazon but used and for that price. 🙁 Let me know if you don’t come up with anything – because I would consider passing my copy on.
thanks Wardee! i actually found it elsewhere for a couple of dollars. alibris and abebooks have it. i had just assumed that if amazon didnt have it, it would be hard to find. im glad i was wrong!
Wardee, did I miss where you got your chicory root for coffee/tea?
I would love to try some….
Thanks
Jami – I got it from Azure, in the herbs and spices section.