what you can use spruce for

Traditional uses and benefits of Spruce

• Spruce needles and resins are useful in medicinal teas and salves.
• Tea made from the boughs has been used in the treatment of colds and to ‘break out’ measles.
• The pitch from the trunk has been used as a poultice on rheumatic joints, the chest and the stomach in order to relieve congestion and pain.
• Decoction of the bark has been used in the treatment of lung complaints and throat problems.
• Needles rich in vitamin C and are used in an aromatic steam inhalation, they can clear stuffy sinus congestion from winter colds.
• Spruce resin is a useful first aid remedy to use in the field to cover scrapes and cuts.
• Resin is used to cover canker sores in the mouth.
• Spruce salve is helpful to prevent skin chafing and windburn.
• Spruce resin contains aromatic oils that are helpful in healing wounds.

Hemlock spruce is used for coughs, the common cold, bronchitis, tuberculosis, fever, pain and swelling (inflammation) of the mouth and throat, muscle and nerve pain, and arthritis. It is also used to fight bacterial infections.

Culinary Uses

• Leafy red spruce twigs are boiled as a part of making spruce beer.
• It can also be made into spruce pudding.
• Young shoots are an emergency food, used when all else fails.
• Young male catkins are consumed raw or cooked. It is used as a flavoring.
• Immature female cones are cooked and consumed.
• The central portion, when roasted, is sweet and syrupy.
• Inner bark is dried, ground into a powder and then used as a thickener in soups etc. or added to cereals when making bread.
• Refreshing tea, rich in vitamin C, can be made from the young shoot tips.
• Gum exuded from the tree as a result of injury to the sapwood is used for making chewing gum.