Spruce tip pecan pesto
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What are spruce tips?
Spruce tips are the young, tender, bright green needles that emerge in a clump at the ends of spruce branches in early spring.
Unlike the mature needles which we also use in recipes (like our spruce needle creme brulee aka Christmas tree creme brulee), spruce tips are very tender and have a unique, bright, herbal citrus-like flavor. They’re also loaded with Vitamin C.Â
Spruce trees are pretty rare in our area (Greenville, SC) so we bought our own blue spruce tree a couple years back. It’s still too small to harvest tips from, but thankfully we know the location of a few mature spruce trees we can harvest loads of spruce tips from!
Species variability
All species of spruce produce edible spruce tips, but the flavor will vary from species to species.
We’ve eaten growth tips from black and blue spruce, and there are subtle differences. However, they could be used interchangeably in recipes.
Harvest window
Spruce tips have about a 2-3 week harvest window in the spring from the time they just pop out of their papery husk to the time when they’ve gotten too tough and fibrous to use whole in recipes.
We’re in Zone 8a and our spruce tip harvest window is usually from the first through third week of April.
For sustainability reasons, only harvest spruce tips from the lower branches and harvest no more than 20-30% of the tips on those branches. That’s because spruce tips are the new growth the tree is developing for the year, so removing a tip means that node of the branch will not put on additional growth that year.Â
Poisonous lookalike: Yew
Spruce trees and tips are very distinctive looking, but a novice conifer connoisseur might confuse them for yew trees, which are highly poisonous. The picture below shows growth tips on a poisonous Japanese plum yew.
If you have any doubts about identification or safety, do not harvest and eat!
Are there other edible conifer tips?
Fir, hemlock (Tsuga species, not poisonous hemlocks in the carrot family), and pine trees also produce good edible tips. Of those, fir and hemlock tips are most similar in taste to spruce tips.
Pine tips offer a different flavor profile entirely. Helpful references:
- Our YouTube short about harvesting and eating pine catkins and growth tips
- Our complete guide to identifying and using edible conifers
Spruce tip pecan pesto recipe
There are lots of recipes you can make with spruce tips. One of our favorites on the savory side of the equation is spruce tip-pecan pesto. The flavor is bright and citrusy thanks to the truly unique flavor of spruce tips. We hope you love this pesto as much as we do!
Spruce tip pecan pesto is equally good on pasta, bread, as a spread on crackers, or eaten by the spoonful all by itself.
Spruce tip pecan pesto
Equipment
- good blender or food processor- we use a small Ninja
Ingredients
- 1 cup spruce tips
- 1/2 cup freshly grated parmesan cheese (weight: 2oz or 58gm)
- 1 garlic clove
- 2/3 cup pecans
- 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oilÂ
- 3 tbsp fresh lemon juice
- 2 tbsp good white wine, we use a Chablis
- 1/4 tsp salt
Instructions
- Put all ingredients in your blender or food processor and blend until smooth. You'll likely need to open and scrape the sides of your device, then re-blend a few times before the consistency is right. If you're having trouble getting things to blend until smooth, you can slowly add a bit more of the liquid ingredients to help (olive oil, lemon juice, wine).
Did you like this recipe? Please comment, share, or drop us a rating!
Thank you,
-Aaron & Susan
