Douglas fir tips ✦

Pousses de sapin de Douglas

What it is

The Douglas fir is not a fir: its genus name, Pseudotsuga, means false hemlock, and the tree carries the memory of two rival Scots — Archibald Menzies, who found and described it, and David Douglas, who shipped the seed home to Britain. The new spring tips read closer to grapefruit than to forest floor, which is why pastry kitchens buy Douglas and cure kitchens buy spruce.

In the kitchen

Use only the soft pale tips, in the fortnight they stay bright green — older growth goes turpentine. Steep about 20 g per litre of cream or syrup, warm but never boiling, for twenty minutes.

Goes with

Cream White chocolate Rhubarb Trout Honey Blackcurrant

In season alongside

Buckler-leaf sorrel Cilantro / Coriander Hogweed shoots Kinome (sanshō leaf) Lemon balm Lemon verbena

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