I read a story to my two sons last week about an indian boy who returned from his first hunt to find his father sick with fever. He went to his dad and asked him what he could do. His father said, “Go to the dark pine part of the forest and get me the plants with small berries I showed you that live there.  Bring them back and make me a tea". The boy did as he was told and his father's fever soon went away.

 

It was not mentioned in the story but I knew the plant the author was referring to. It’s Wintergreen and its plentiful in Westwoods. Wintergreen grows low to the ground. It gets darker when its cold out, and the berries seem to appear randomly, but mostly in the late fall and spring.

 

It can be found moving north from Lost lake on the white dot trail. It’s berries are waxy and taste like Wintergreen gum. It a well known anti-inflammitory. There are recipes on the web for making a medicinal tea for a wide range of holistic treatments. Indians and early settlers used this tea for a variety of cures and treatments. Wintergreen oil is used in everything from candy to topical treatments like Ben-Gay.

 

I’m not sure how many berries you’d need to eat to equal an asprin, but it has the same blood thinning effects, and if I had chest pains in the woods, you better believe I’d be eating quite a few. I guess even the tea is not very strong, but the distilled oil can be toxic. Like eating too many asprins, or chugging some Ben-Gay, I suppose.

 

I usually treat myself to one or two, like communion, on a good mountain bike ride. I dare not try any more because I don’t want to risk a belly ache. But they are tasty little waxy breath mint-ike treats. You’ll probably want to crunch the leaves in your fingers and sniff ‘em before popping a berry. It will smell like Wintergreen if thats what it is. If not, don’t eat it. It’s most likely something else.