FREE: Sassafras seeds (10)

Wildman said it best......
Note: You may have heard that sassafras has been banned by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) because it causes cancer. Huge quantities have given to rats over took periods of time give the rodents cancer because they change the molecule sassafrole into a cancer-causing one. Humans don't do this, and no one has ever gotten sick from sassafras. Sassafras was banned because there are a lot of rats in the FDA!

Now I'll get off my soap box and talk about making sassafras tea. Well if you find a sassafras tree in the woods and don't want to kill it for just the roots, you can dig around the base of it and find some of the sucker roots and dig them up but leave the main tap root in tact. Most of the trees I find in the forest are small trees and you can get the whole tree up and use the whole tree actually. Take the roots, wash the dirt off good, put the roots in a cook pot, put on a lid, cover the roots with water and bring to a boil. Simmer the roots for at least 1/2 hour. Strain off the liquid and there you have sassafras tea. Don't throw out t he roots! You can get three boilings off that one batch of roots. Just repeat the process. Very flavorful tea. You can even make tea from the bark on the tree too, but there again you kill the tree. Or the twigs can be used, if you don't want to kill the tree. I tried eating some of the berry/seeds once. I don't know why the dang birds want them so much because they taste horrible in my opinion and leave a nasty taste in your mouth. So much for eating what the birds eat....and my chickens will eat anything too. I fed them briar berries yesterday and they gobbled them up like they were candy. Now not all briars have edible berries but these were the black kind and tasted pretty good to me too but I'll try to eat just about anything in the woods at least once, twice if I like it and three times to make sure.

Oh Marie don't blow up the house LOL.. I don't know if I can get the seeds to grow. I hope so but right now I am after those roots.....

Marie do either of you gals every do any dowsing? if so what kind of tools do you use? AND what type of jewelry and stuff do you like? working on that box LOL need imput..............

hay not fair LOL I want a place like that

You have to camp out under or beside the trees. The birds strip them off as fast as they get a little blue color. I get lucky sometimes in some of the real remote areas. Best place to get the ripe seeds is on top of Starr Mountain, McMinn County, TN. There's so many trees up there that a whole flock of birds can't eat them all.

Man,these grow all over here,and I have yet to ever find a single seed from them!

Oh you are so right I could see it when I read your message. I know right where it is . problem is I have moved . But if you really want it I will tell you where it is.. It is in the grape harbor behind the house on Delvin St in Kingman AZ about 4" down in the sandy part of the soil. I could walk right to it I bet . because I could see it as plain as day. LOL But I am not driving for 2 days to ask the new owners if I can play in there back yard. although they are very nice people and would let me. BUT we do still own some other houses there so if we do have to go down for some reason I will get it and send it to you. thats only fair you found it. ROFLMAO. oh by the way I am trying to put together a little box for you and Angela will let you know when I send it.

If you live in the same house that all ya'll lived in, was there a special place in the yard they called their "fort"? If so, go dig down at least two inches and you might just find the lost treasure. You can also ask the kids, but I've found most kids get "selective amnesia" when asked about stuff they borrow from Granny and loose. I once lost a huge quartz crystal to a neighborhood boy who actually stole it from my sister and I and then lied about it. We heard him and some of his friends discussing the treasure hunt with the "diamond" and when I went to tell his Momma, she called him in and he told her he didn't have it and she believed him of course over us girls. So, there you have it. Two inches down in the fort area wherever that is or was. Ask the grans where the fort was and that's where you will find it. No joke. hahahahahahahahahahahaha

ya My Mom and I went on 2 cruises and I just loved them.........

OMG that is to funny... Because I am sure your right my oldest daughters kids lived with me for about 2 years while there Momma got well. and I can just see them doing it............ ROFLMAO

randolmckinney, did I also mention I'm a "psychic" or was it "psycho"...anyhow I can tell you what happened to your large herkimer diamond crystal.....I'm laughing so hard I may have to go change my clothes.....the kids or grandkids found it and decided to play "treasure hunt" with it and it's somewhere in someone's yard under dirt and grass. Now you can look in every crevice of your home and/or garage and look in boxes of stuff and you will not find it, but it will give you peace of mind to know it's not in the house or garage or outbuilding. Then you can ask the kids or grandkids which one one them played treasure hunt with and and if they can remember where they left it. I'm still laughing, but I already know what the answer will be. "What crystal?" We don't know a thing about that......ROTFLMAO. My grandkids came over night before last and had every crystal, yard rock, fossils, etc. that I own all scattered all over my desk, coffee table, and found some on the floor. If your herkimer diamond turns up (one in a million chance of that) I'd love to buy it if it 's for sale at any price. It has a special meaning to you I'm sure though. Wish I could visit Belize one time before my time is up on Turtle Island though. I've always wanted to go and never had the $ to do it. Now, I know the $ won't fall out of the sky and I quit looking under rocks for it so I guess I'll just watch it on TV like the rest of my Baby Boomer friends. ; ) Big grin and wink.

ya Lol I seen you talking about in on a different auction. That's why I was telling ya about the silver wire.... I use to have a big on that would fit in the palm of your hand. My Mom and I got it in Balize one time when we were on a cruise.. But I don't even know what happened to it. It might even be around here somewhere. I have so many rocks there is no telling LOL

Talk about herkimer diamonds. I found one at an estate sale I went to in Florida last trip I went to Gville, FL. I got it and it's so pretty I've been looking for some real silver casings to make a pendant out of it. Beautiful stone! Would never put it on Listia though as it's just too pretty and I'd wear it.

I sure need to pay better attention to the two of ya'lls auctions.. I keep missing good stuff. Have you ever seen any of the herkimer diamonds done in the sterling silver wire wrapped? I like to use the half round or the square but they sure do come out pretty...and showcase the double points wonderfully..sorry just had to throw in my 2 sents worth..............

I did some checking and I think they will grow here. I sure hope so!

http://vaughnshire.com/agrarian-life/making-homemade-root-beer-from-sassafras-roots/
This recipe is for the folks in this country who are tired of the FDA telling them what to drink and what not to drink because a boat load of it was fed to a laboratory rat who died from consuming said boat load of the item in question.....

This is an easy recipe to follow. I might also add that when I was a baby I was weaned on sassafras tea that my Daddy made and I'm still alive at age 66 and have a batch of roots brewing on the stove today.

I brewed up a gallon of sassafras tea. Going to add some birch bark tea, yeast and sugar. If I don't blow the roof off my double-wide, it might make some good old fashioned root beer.......I'd rather have a Bud Lite, but hey root beer is ok too.

Hi! Marie well I got the necklace... now I am here to stock this one LOL so we will see what happens. Happy New Year!

Hi Gail, see youre on here bidding, lol. Hope you're doing well....and having a Happy New year.....hey, another one of my friends is coming to check out this auction too......great.....I'll help marie spend all them credits, haha

Which reminds me of the time my last husband, my son Daniel and I were out in the forest looking for ginseng. My son stepped on a yellow jacket nest and they covered him up. Well, he started running like a crazy person through the woods and I swear his feet never touched the ground! It looked like he was sailing over the ground so fast he was flying. I don't think he got too many stings but I laughed so hard I almost had to change clothes if you know what I mean....

I've not had yellow jacket soup yet, but it sounds pretty good. The black bears in TN will suffer the stings to get the yellow jacket nest, but I'm going to let Cantankerous go at 'em cause I can't out run the little suckers and she can.

The USDA Forest Service considers sassafras "waste wood" and want to spray chemicals in the Cherokee National Forest to kill them. Why? Because they can't harvest it for the wood/lumber. There was one fellow who gave a speech to a group of folks in the Forest Service and tried to advise them how to utilize "waste wood."

Producing and Merchandising from Underutilized Waste Wood Resources
(presentation length 63:43)
Thom Labrie talks about ways to recover and add value to wood resources that might otherwise be wasted. Labrie is the president of Auburn Enterprises LLC, and an award-winning veteran of more than 30 years in the wood business. view » http://www.na.fs.fed.us/ Scroll down and click on "view". It's an hour long but worth listening to.

well if cantakerousoldlady (angela) & revmaiet11 (marie) think its pretty good stuff and I trust both a great deal, I'm going to w & b and hope i get it, then wonder how to make the tea, i heard it was wonderful...

You can have sassafras tea with your yellow-jacket soup, lol! My Mom also gave us this tea- in the spring, as a tonic. She also made some darn good root beer and I have found the tea to be delicious hot with honey. Thanks for sharing! You have a wealth of valuable info!

and the leaves can be crushed and used as a spice very popular in cajun country. They use it in their gumbo.

BTW, sassafras seeds are very difficult to obtain because the birds will snatch them just as they become ripe on the tree. I've sat in my car and watched a flock of birds completely strip one shrub of all of it's seeds in less than 15 minutes time.....