Sassafras reborn

My friend mentioned that I had Sassafras when I moved to the farm last fall. "Very cool! what is it?" He then went on and explained the calming effect of Sassafras tea. Being from California, where it does not grow, and being born and growing up after the government outlawed it, I had never heard of it. Have you?

It is the root from root beer, the filé from gumbo, a cure all from the new world and was the #2 export (behind tobacco) for a time. Why it was erased or forgotten is hotly debated but as far as I'm concerned this wondrous plant should be reborn in all of its glory.

What makes it so amazing is:

1. It grows like a weed very similar to bamboo (underground shoots)
2. Every part is usable, roots for tea and root beer, leaves for herbs and spices (kombo is the Choctaw name for sassafras which was translated as gumbo), and bark for medicine
3. Most farmers consider it an invasive plant so it is plowed under or cleared to make way for roads, pasture, or more corn or soybeans so you can gather it pretty easy on the side of the road or from a farmer that has it on their land

That's a summary of my knowledge and research but here's my journey and my plans for the future

First, it was fall so no leaves on the trees and my knowledge of trees last fall was literally "that's a tree, that's also a tree, that's a bush, oh there's a pine tree". The government was kind enough to send a Forester out to my property (another day for that story) and after I stroked his ego a bit, he was more than happy to educate me on what "THE" Ohio State had taught him. Now I could identify Sassafras... and it was everywhere. Basically, it stays greenish in the winter, grows in stands, and when you break a twig and as long as it's not too dry yet, it smells like root beer and you can gnaw on the twig and it tastes like root beer.

I set out early in the season to get some roots. The "season" is late winter when all the evil cancer causing addictive drug safrole is in the roots. I dug up a few saplings with thumb sized roots (btw - You'll know it when you start digging because the root beer smell is strong).

I cleaned it, boiled it, simmered it, added some sweetener (maple syrup or honey I can't remember), and drank it... Holy shit! It's warm rootbeer without the fizz and crazy additives and and and good night lol but seriously had a calming effect on me. My wife is not effected by anything said she felt nothing but that it was amazingly great for something I just dug out of the ground.

The guy in me goes crazy. I've got a ton of this shit. People are selling this on ebay and amazon for crazy $$$. I'm sitting on a gold mine!!!

I waited until the right time and collected or harvested a bunch. I've also tweaked my tea recipe (happy to share) and got a book on homemade root beer which a beer making buddy of mine came over and we made a pretty terrible batch of root beer, he wanted it to taste more like beer which it did... without the alcohol. I'm confident that if I use my tea recipe and add club soda or condense to make a hard root beer it will be amazing but I'm off to other amazing things.

I have a freezer shelf almost full of root bark. My plan for the future is to make a root beer extract to have on hand for tea, root beer, hard root beer, or to sell. I'll also gather and dry some leaves now to see what that's about and it is also now an official part of the farm's growing list of products.

So get your hands on some Sassafras and help me bring on the rebirth of this cheap wonder plant!