I Found The Original Root Beer Tree
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- Опубліковано 21 лип 2024
- In this video Matthew Hunter describes the edible and medicinal uses of Sassafras, the original root beer tree. Sassafras roots were historically used as a spring tonic to thin and purify the blood, and they taste delicious! The leaves of sassafras are known as "filé", and are still used as a seasoning in gumbo to this day.
Video correction: I was incorrect in stating that the rhyme at the beginning of the video was an old Appalachian folk song. Apparently it was actually a song that was used to promote sassafras as a medicine at one time.
To get my free guide to medicinal plants of the Southeast, click here: www.legacywildernessacademy.c...
Chapters:
0:00 Sassafras Introduction
0:50 Identification
3:01 Edible Uses of the Leaves
4:34 Time of Year and Sustainable Harvesting
6:10 Digging Technique
7:40 Processing the Roots
9:06 Tips for Making Tea
12:13 Other Things to Make with Sassafras Roots
13:13 Medicinal Uses of Sassafras
16:04 Safety Concerns: Is Sassafras a Carcinogen?
I,m 85 year old Ozark hillbilly and gtew up drinking sassadras tea in the spring to thin the blood after winter, at family reunions and clan camps the younger generation are still amazed that i can just return frok a walk and mae tea from roots for them. I also harvst some 50 different herbs and roots for my clans medical use.
Why is it good for one to thin their blood, and why is this good to do in the Spring? Never heard of that before. Probably more of the good ol knowledge our great grandparents once knew lost to time.
@@ChristopherJones16Blood thinners are commonly prescribed to prevent heart attacks and stroke, the drug probably most commonly taken for this is aspirin. I don't know about the spring time, maybe it's just easier to dig up the ground to get at the roots after the winter freeze thaws
@@ChristopherJones16 don't know but i made it 85 years with out ever having a cold or other medical problems, The VA has me on a BP pill now tho :(
@@ChristopherJones16 Also us kids were given JELLO in the fall to thicken our blood to prepare for colder temps/
I have been digging the roots of the sassafras trees, and drinking the tea for years now.
When I was a child, sassafras root was our candy. We would just chew on it. We did not actually eat the root, just chew on it. It was yummy.
Well how cool is that! I've been looking for a sassafras tree but haven't found one just yet:(
@@stacystepp7914Where do you live? It's pretty common here in lowcountry South Carolina. 🤔🤓🍻
@@alsaunders7805
I live in central Oklahoma. I believe they're in southern Oklahoma but I haven't found one yet:(
@alsaunders7805 yes it is. Te queen had sir W.R. bringing it back by the ton . They were using it to "cure" syphilis back then. Yes this is a historical fact
@@stacystepp7914look in clearing near water. I have seen saplings with those leaves growing inches apart in muddy areas near lakes in TX.
Yes .make that root beer video.
Thank you.
and root beer candy, I love root beer and had almost forgotten about the root beer flavored candy. Haven't seen in forever. thank you!!
I was born in 53 and I made sassafras tea and also chewed on the roots as a kid. I remember when people started saying it was bad for you. I also remember when they said cranberries would kill you. That put a damper on thanksgiving. Turns out they were only bad for you if you ate more than five pounds a day for twenty years. Guess I’ll harvest some sassafras this year thanks for posting
Thanks for watching!
In 1966 my grandma showed me and my brother how to gather sassafras roots, cat nip and ripe may apples. We made tea and drank some other tea’s from woods ! Those were heavenly times! Great job
When you steep the roots, put the plate or lid on the pot while the root releases its flavor. My covering your pot, the oils won't evaporate.
Sassafras contains several compounds that have been studied for their potential heavy metal chelation properties. Some of the compounds in sassafras that are known for their chelating abilities include safrole, eugenol, and myristicin. These compounds have been shown to bind to heavy metals such as lead, cadmium, and mercury, helping to remove them from the body.
Thanks so much for the info!!! I did not know that
I wish I could actually get an email from you I have a comprehensive breakdown on each compound from the sassafras and what each compound can be used for and the case studies...I have many breakdowns not just for sassafras..I have notes on these compounds and anti cancer studies using them
I healed my dog dying of parvo with extract I made using dmso and dried sassafras root to cleanse her gut and help with nausea. I just thought I would add that too
I live in Arkansas, I remember my grandfather making this tea whenever he didn’t feel well. He lived well into his 90s. I’m going to start looking for this plant. Thanks for the video. You got yourself another sub.👍
Sasafras! My grandmother kept a bag of roots in her kitchen cabinet for tea! And file't is ground leaves for seafood seasoning!
The price of sassafras root bark is high; I would love to find a tree that I could legally harvest. Your video is the first one I've watched that explains exactly how to harvest the root from both a mature and a young tree. It is nice to know that you can harvest root from a mature tree without killing that tree. I make root beer kefir using sarsaparilla bark plus other ingredients. It tastes and foams just like bought root beer, but it has the health benefits of kefir. Water kefir has two ferment periods; the 2nd period is to infuse it with flavor and increase its fizz. This is my recipe: for a 1/2 gallon glass jar (filled 3/4 full with 1st ferment), add 2 Tb sugar, *2 Tb molasses, 2 whole cloves, 1 tsp anise seed, 2-3 heaping Tb ginger root (peeled or not, and chopped), 1 Tb sarsaparilla root (I bought from Jovvily on Amazon - I am not associated with them), 2-3 drops wintergreen essential oil (the wintergreen is not optional - it greatly helps the flavor). Depending on the type of fermenting caps used, the jar may need to be burped several times a day. I have had it foam up and out of the jar while burping. Hence, I always had another empty jar ready for the overflow or opened it after first placing it in a pot. Lately, when I asked my husband to burp the kefir, he unscrewed the cover the slightest bit to allow the pressure to escape gradually - so no overflow. *Note: I typically add a @ 1/2 tsp of molasses to my 1st ferment for the sake of adding good minerals, so my 1st ferment already has a darker color. More molasses may be needed to make the 2nd ferment darker to make it look like "real" root beer, though I would rather adjust it only for the sake of flavor and not how it appears.
Thanks for the info!
Thank you.
If you are ever on the Eastern shore of MD, reach out, you can come dig up all the sassafras trees you want. We have them ALL over. They are one of my favorite trees. We have giant ones and babies literally everywhere.☺️❤️
Sassafras is hard to transplant, I planted sassafras for close to a decade before I got two to take root, they grow fast and mine are fruiting this year. The ones I got to take at last I bought off of Etsy. They are gorgeous in the fall. I discovered they survived one fall looking at the bright orange in the far tree line (I am on 59 acres) stuck out like a sore thumb. Found a nest of wild turkey eggs under it last year too. Wild life always were found to dig up my plantings. We planted 500 trees that year from the state department of environmental conservations tree nursery and I squeezed the sassafras in. Animals got full eating everything else.
@@Skitdora2010 Are you saying they're difficult to transplant because animals eat the transplants, or do they not survive for another reason?
I was working cutting up trees for firewood and I came across the sassafras tree and The Roots. I cut up some of them for firewood. When I burned them they gave off a wonderful root beer Aroma to the whole cabin. They smelled delicious and brought back memories in my childhood when you could buy a 4 oz bottle of root beer extract and make your own. The extract was made by hires or A&W
Sassafras. As a kid in Jacksonville, Florida, we would pull up the little ones and take our little hunting knives to the root and scrape off the bark and then chewed on 'em. And I'm still here. Oh yeh ... I'm 76.
I drank a lot of sassafras tea in my early years. Loved it. Still do. However, I just turned 80 and I can report that sassafras is bad. Very bad. My hair fell out, my beard turned gray, and I've got wrinkles all over. Got memory issues as well. Fair warning!
@@clarencegreen3071 sir, the FDA says you are actually very sick... And I always trust the government
@clarencegreen3071 😅😂🤣 Well done, sir.
😂😂😂😂@@clarencegreen3071
I love your videos ❤
Yaaaasssss on the root beer video please!! A lot of sassafras grows here in the Deep South.
It’s logical that if human subjects were given doses,proportional to rats,that the saffrol or its metabolites would appear in urinalysis,also.In my 50’s Appalachia childhood,my Grandma used to make this strong Sassafras extract and tea.There are dozens of these saplings on my property.I think I’m going to experiment a little with it this spring.Thank you for the tutorial.
👍❤️ Yes , Let's see the root beer making
Grew up drinking sassadras tea every late fall. We used it to ward off the winter flue. The leaves once dried and ground was used in soupes and gumbo as a thickener.
When I was a kid we always had a bottle of Zatarains Root Beer extract which was made of sassafras. We drank that instead of Kool-Aid. The stuff made now is nothing but chemicals...I still make my file'. As for the roots we always just peeled the bark off and brought it to a boil then simmered them.
I've seen other vids on utube that boil a 1 inch piece of the whole root. you did not? How do you make the file? Just dry the leaves and powder?
@@JanineMJoi I dry the leaves and grind it to a fine powder.I like to take the smaller roots and boil them.
We have used sassafras root bark for pulling abscesses of all kinds. For teeth abscesses... Boil water, remove from heat. Put 2 generous teaspoons into an 8 ounce cup. Pour boiled water over this and cover for 10 minutes. Strain. Cool to taste. hold in mouth for as long as possible . Do not swallow! Spit out! Do this with whole cup. You will spit out the abscess.
Yes I would love to see a natural soda made with this!
Been there , we use to drink homemade sassafras tea- like flat root beer😂…yummy….a shot of carbonation and boom….rootbeer soda….😉👍☺
You are bringing back a lot of memories of mine as a kid .I lived in the 50's when kids were verboten to have gum in school but most boys had pocket knives. If you took a root of sassafras and used your pocket knife to cut a number of thin discs that would fit in the coin pocket of your wallet you could slip one under your tongue and have that root beer taste of the sassafras without chewing or giving yourself away.
You got yourself a new subscriber.
I watched because I love root and have fond memories of Grandmom's homemade root beer from sasafras. It's on my list of things to find on my property.
I remember the tea made by my grandma back in the 70's. Still have gobs of them on my property.
We'd love to see a video of you making carbonated rootbeer!
Love sassafras…dang…use to gather it in Ala. but can’t find it or grow it in central Texas…miss it dearly….😢
Sassafras jelly is great on pork chops.
Just thin the jelly with water and put on the chops when they are just about done. Over rice, it's so good!
I have also used mayhaw jelly on chicken.
Forager Dr. Mark Vorderbruggen ( Merriweather Foraging Texas) is a chemist by trade. I've taken classes from him. He doesn't have a problem with consuming sassafras.
Also, the leaves will dry for file very quickly even without a dehydrator. BUT it takes a huge amount for a small amount of powdered file. I just blitz mine in a coffee grinder until it's the size as other dried spices instead of powdering it. I add it at the end of cooking gumbo.
I've learned a lot from Dr. Vorderbruggen. I took a walk with him once back when I lived in Texas. He's awesome.
@@LegacyWildernessAcademy yes, he came and did a walk through of my property with me.
I'm enjoying your videos very much 😊
I used to love drinking sassafras tea when I could still get the bark. hard to find these days.
My grandmother, who lived her whole life in Western Kentucky, made us grand kids sassafras tea at least once that I can remember. It seems like she boiled the roots but then had to remove the scum on top once or twice. I'm 67 now, so my memory might be fuzzy, but that's how I recall it -- I also remember that in the '60s we could get sassafras extract in a bottle at the store. Still, today, I'll pull off a leaf to chew on while hiking or camping.
I just found this channel. Good job.
Great and fair presentation on a wonderful plant. This is one of a small handful of plants used in various root beers presenting that distinct smell and taste.
There are two types of sassafras roots. White root is or was normally used for tonics as well as medicine. The red root was more about removing toxins from body and make the best flavor and medicinal use.
One of my favorite trees ever! Sassafras tea, file' powder...made all of it! Its a BEAUTIFUL tree even if you don't use it for food/medicinal purposes. We have huge ones and they have the most amazing canopies...just love everything about them! Thanks for doing this video! Definitely deserve a follow!!👍❤️🌳
I'm 73 and have been drinking sassafras tea for all my life. My dad had a grove of sassafras trees but you couldn't drink too much as it can be used just like aspirin. Cheers from eastern TN
I would like to hear additional information about making root beer. Great video!
I've made root beer, tea, and candy from sassafras roots. Chewing on the leaves is refreshing. I thought they were a little citrusy, but good coolant for hot summer days..
Thank you! Looking forward to finding these friends!
I drank a lot of sassafras tea when I was a kid in the 50's. No problems just a lot of enjoyment! Plus it grew in the St. Louis area where I lived--so, that far north.
Root beer recipe - Yes please!
So so happy to have stumbled on your video! I'm an old hippie, as my daughter says, and dearly loved the advent of the home medicine, homemade foods resurgence of the 1960s and 70s when I was young. I'm even happier to find you young folk marrying real science and ecology/biology today. So much smarter. I have missed homemade root beer. Can't wait to see your recipe. Ooh, and bayberry candles and oil for Christmas, maybe. Thanks.
Thank you for teaching us about Sassafras. I appreciate it. My brother used to make tea in the early 1970's.
I'm loving this. Thank you!
Awesome, thanks for watching!
I'm so gad you did this video. I wasn't sure how to identify the tree. Great info. Thank you ❤
Awesome! I hope you can find some this year!
Used it. Know where to find it in multiple places. Great tree!
Really like these short concise and easy presentation to actually learn. New subscriber.
When I was a kid we had sassafras all over the property. I’d go out with my Dad and dig up some around Easter and make tea. I miss that stuff.
Awesome video! Thank you for this content... sooo needed today!
I’m glad you informed me that the volatiles boil off for another reason too who’s is that I’d heard that hummingbirds don’t like mint, yet I had a bag of Ricola candy and wanted to have that melted in to my hummingbird feeder, for the flowery flavors and perhaps benefits. It was a hit with the hummingbirds!
Thanks for the solid information and reasonable explantion! More people need access to such information. Great job!
Thanks for watching!
Just found your page. So informative. I’ll definitely pass this on to friends and family 😊
Thank you! Glad you found it helpful
Love the smell of fresh sassafras.
Your videos are great friend. Thank you for the knowledge and all the hard work you have put in.
Thanks for watching, I appreciate the kind words!
Very cool. Hope you do root beer vid.
We always harvest sassafras root. sometime Spring sometimes early Autumn .We make little 3 or 4 inch length bundles (2 or 3 roots split in Half. Tie them together with butcher string. Steep them in a tall tea pot of water for about 20 minutes on the stove. When done steeping just let the bundle dry on the stove top over night ,or until next use. We usually have the root bundle make about 3 full tea pots before they are no longer useful.
The trick to making it GOOD TASTE like root beer is to add 4 or 5 drops of vanilla extract!. Add a teaspoon (or less) of sugar to each hot cup of tea along with the few drops of vanilla extract.
I make SUN TEA by the gallon in a jar in the summer. Once steeped all day in the sun... I take out my bundles of roots and let dry for another day...I add my sugar to the whole gallon and add a teaspoon of vanilla extract to the whole gallon jar... I shake vigorously for about 3 minutes and stick it in the fridge where I will have cold homemade root beer for 5 or 6 days.
Good info and presentation. Thank you!
Thanks for watching!
Awesome video. Thank you!!
Thank you! what a great video. So well done 🌱👍
Enjoying your videos. They are Very helpful!!
Thank you for watching!
Great video!
Great video. Thank you.
Thank you very much for sharing your knowledge of making root beer,and tea.We have a lots of sassafras trees in our property so I will do my best to make root beer and root beer tea. Thank you again for sharing.👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺☮️☮️☮️☮️
Id definitely like to see you make root beer. I have done it before with mixed results. Id love to see your process.
Thanks for the content you provide.
This is the first root I've seen that does best with infusion over decoction. Thanks for the info!
I would love to see you make root beer
Grandmother let boil for 10 min then let steap for 4 hours. Add sugar or cream and serve warm. After first brew, course chop and brew again. Then chop again and brew 2 times more. Saved tea in jars in refrigerator and could be stored up months. She had this tea once a day for 70 years without any issues and can remember only maybe 4 times being sick even with the flue.
We dug sassafras roots in the fall when the sap is low and the flavor is best. Love sassafras tea
I'm definitely not a "foodie". I rarely go to much trouble to consume things just for the pleasure or flavor of things, but I really enjoyed this video! I love plants and animals and I love learning about them. You are extremely good at presenting and teaching! Pleasing style and no clickbait foolishness. Have you covered licorice root before? I have a lot of entertainer and musician friends who swear by it to sooth a sore throat and preserve their voice.
They just chew on the root. No fuss.
Extremely well done. I am impressed. Now I want to go find some sassafras 😏
I would love to see a video on making soda! Thanks.
Our land here in virginia is thick with these trees. Walking through the woods, it smells so good
I live on property that sassafras grows there I've been making root beer from this tree I am 70 years old no liver problems
I live in California my grandfather was form Texas he had a son who went backest a large part of sassafras root that was in 1959 I stall have a little l stall have some of it .
Also stronger for you in spring time
how do you make the rootbeer?
I miss digging up a root and enjoying a wonderful glass of sass tea!! I would still be drinking the wonderful tea but I moved out of the mountains and away from the source.
I've chewed a very small sassafras sprout's root after rubbing it off on my britches. Didn't swallow it, just the juice. Out in the woods dehydrated and cramping it seemed to help. It definitely tasted better than the dandelion root I chewed on the other day, lol. Woo! You gave some good advice in that people taking any pharmaceuticals must be even.more cautious. Anyway, thanks for the video. Very informative.
I love the color in the fall.
I loved (well I guess I still love) the big sassafras in my yard. Then dozens of them started coming up on the other side of the yard. I remember sassafras sticks, sassafras tea, and root beer from my youth, and went online to find instructions and recipes. That is when I learned about the FDA ban.
Great video, Matthew, thank you! Oh, the FDA...smh
Thanks for watching brother!
FDA....another 3-letter agency we used to trust!
GOD made will Always be Better than any FDA chemical cocktail
What does that even mean?
8 Whitby healthier for you and it's natural and not made of chemicals
IM from as far south is Louisiana as you go, DuLarge -Louisiana -My grandmother was what’s called a “treatuer “ and used sassafras among other items to treat wounds, infections ,colds etc. We lived among the Houmas Indians and were very familiar with them. Had lots of good friends. She was a catechism teacher for the Catholic Church and prayer was a big part of the healing process. We always put file in our gumbo . To me its not gumbo if there isn’t any sassafras ground up leaves. I make my own and make sure to use the tiny leave stems too.
Thanks for video, enjoyed it. Would like to see one on wild cherry bark. I have been drinking magnolia tea, waiting on tincture.
Wild cherry is on my list for this year! I got footage of the flowers a couple weeks ago, but I'm waiting until the fall to harvest the bark because I've read that's when the prussic acid is highest. Thanks for watching!
Grew up with sassafras... amazing aroma!
Yes definitely a video on real root beer !!!!!!
We have sassafras growing all down our driveway. Please make a video about how to make real root beer!
I remember having sasafrass tea when i was sick as a kid.
Just had to have a Sassafras tree cut down, loved the smell !!
What probly happened was that it had serious healing properties so they flawed the study to stop prople from getting it. Great video .ty.
That makes perfect sense.
What I noticed as I'm researching herbal remedies. "There is a study" or "There was a case"..... and then the medical community completely blows every herbal treatment out of the water.
The studies are bogus just as Matt pointed out because they deliberately isolate one thing and overdose rats. I could write a book on how animal studies do not predict what happens in humans and how flawed the studies are. The studies are designed and probably funded by the FDA and Big Pharm to remove alternative medicines from the market.
Here is my recent experience, I developed a sinus infection that was moving into my ears. For years, I would get an antibiotic, then another and sometimes a third course to knock it out. This time I wanted to treat it with herbs and did some research, settling on oregano as my choice to start. I have dried oregano but also oregano essential oil. I did some quick research on ingesting the EO and all kinds of flags came up, "Don't ingest it, it damages the liver". So then I researched for warning on ingesting oregano plant. Guess what. No where could I find a warning that you should limit your oregano intake in dishes or salads etc. So I eventually used the EO. 1 drop in a teaspoon of honey from my fermented garlic. 3 times a day, which I did for a week to make sure it was gone. The next day I was 90% better. No aches, no feverish feeling, no fugue, just some sinus pressure which was gone by day 2.
Study Rockefellers they're part of the blame
Exactly.. Would cut into big pharma profits
They extracted only one compound and fed it to mice in large doses.
I've read the dose was something like what a dose would be for a 300 lb person over years and years.
Pro tip: If you're in an area where you can get a pressure washer, they work great for moving dirt around roots. We had to lay an electric line on our property and I didn't want to move a gumball tree because of the valuable shade it provided the structure we were attempting to power. The pressure washer did a fabulous job leaving the roots in tact and removing the dirt for our trench. (We used sturdy conduit and ran it right under the tree). Since that success, we've been using it for everything from digging post holes to removing sod from our expanding garden.
Interesting idea, thank you for commening!
I am a carver and have collected Johnny Appleseed wood across the Midwest where he roamed 😎
Thank you so much 😁 you seem like a wonderful human
Tastes just like root beer. Cows love to eat the leaves too.
My granny taught me to harvest the young roots, peel them, & boil in water 15 mins for a spring tonic or a root beer drink. (Your way probably better) I never experienced any bitter taste, but I only used short, "new" root tips.
We only drank it seasonally. I'm 75 & pretty healthy...didn't hurt me!
hi great video. have you done a video on parsane or purslane? not sure how it is spelled but i have lots of it in my yard but i also know there is another plant that isnt good that grows with it.. thanks keep it up..
We dug sasafrass every spring for my grandmother. She made a tea for a spring tonic that tasted like root beer. We all drank it for the peace of mind it gave granny.
Some years back I was hiking along a marshy inlet on the southern shores of Lake Ontario when I noticed a lot of sassafras leaves brushing against me. And ever since my gramma taught me how to identify and harvest it over 60 years ago, I now can't resist taking a handful of leaves and carrying them until the scent fades. So I grab a handful only to notice that they are attached to a tree more than TWO FEET in diameter, FORTY FEET high. And it was one of a dozen or more trees in a cluster. What a revelation. I'd only ever seen trees maybe 10 feet high. Now try to imagine the amount of root bark on such a behemoth. Ah, I can almost smell and taste it. My gramma's mind would be blown.
Great info
My very favorite!!!
I've used the 2nd year, hardened, but still green, stem bark to make a soda that tastes a lot like lemon lime soda If you use the fresh shoot bark it acts as a thickener like file, so using the 2nd year bark is important.
On a side note I noticed that the root looses most of it's flavor when boiled. So, I used warm everclear to extract the flavor. Obviously leads to an alcoholic drink, but you can cut it down with other things because the extraction method is very effective.
And oh, as a molecular biologist, I can say your explanation for the reason why Sassafras isn't a carcinogen concern very well. I looked at those papers as well and you're spot on. Rat livers != human livers.
Unfortunately, here in Southwest Mississippi we have lost all our large sassafras trees to “laurel wilt”. We have a couple patches of smaller trees. This disease also kills the larger trees roots. What we have surviving are from the root systems of larger trees that were cut down years ago, along the yard/wood line and along the pond/field area.
Heck yeah I wanna see your methods for making root 🍺 🍺 THAT AWESOME!!!!
I grew up making sassafras tea and jelly. Now, I am living in the Ouachita Mountains of Oklahoma and there are no sassafras trees here. I have one growing in a large pot and now, that it is three years old, it is time to transplant it into the ground. Would love to see the revival of the sassafras tree in this area as they've been gone for about a hundred years here.
Had one of these trees in my yard once , every once in awhile I would hit an exposed root with the lawnmower and it smelled so good .
Yes, I would like to see you make Root Beer!
My Grandma made sassafras tea every spring. If you can find them after a good wet spell in the spring you can just pull them up.
I use filè for my gumbo all of the time. Grew up chewing on the stems and drinking sassafras tea. No ill effects after several decades.
Grows all over Long Island NY. We used to chew the roots