I’ve not been bumbling about like my usual self over the last few days, mainly due to no Internet access and the 24Hour flu. Thankfully the connection to the interwebicles has been re-established and I’m o’er the dreadful flu.

Pine needles may not help the poor bast*rds clinging to a slippery telephone pole while fixing my internet, but they sure do provide me some much needed sustenance. Pine needle tea is the best cold suppresser since sliced meat.

Heck, my grandmother that lived off the mountains taught me how to survive off the land, make wild berry cough syrup (an ounce of the stuff could put the toughest alcoholic on his or her ear.), and the best darn tea a man could ask for.

Someone recently asked me if I went to a nutrition store to gather pine needles to which I replied, “Heck no, I just pick needles off the pine trees in my backyard”.

If you’ve got a cold or a bit of a sniffle, just fix yourself up a cup of pine tea. I usually add a bit of honey and a slice of either orange or lemon for flavour. Pine needles have up to 8 times more vitamin C than an orange.

Also, if you can knock a lively pine cone out of a tree, then you can enjoy a tasty yet small pine nut treat filled with vitamin C. Then again, if you’ve got the flue, you’re not going to be able to pick up a rock to throw at the bloody thing, now are you?

I guarantee you’ll never look at a white pine the same, after savouring the fruits that it bears. You see, nature offers up so many remedies for what ails us, if we only take the time to look and listen.

I’ll be around to bug the lot of you tomorrow! You’ve been forewarned…