An Adventure of Spring Detox: trying young leaves of conifers in spring

In temperate climate of Yokohama, conifers we find in forests are mainly cedars and cypresses. Majority was afforested around the 1950s to satisfy strong demand for post-war reconstruction. After the trade liberalization for construction materials in the 1960s, the business of nurturing domestic conifers was bankrupted, at least in Yokohama. So, many cedars for the greenery of the city are now 60 or 70 years old, without chopping. It’s the age similar to 20 or 30 years old for humans, i.e. vigorous, still getting bigger, and prime to procreate. That’s the reason we have serious hay fever problem in spring (; my posts for December 2, 9 and 16, 2016). The trees spew lots of pollens. My eyes are itchy. My nose is congested …

Thanks to COVID-19, since spring 2020, we wear masks. Our struggle with hay fever has been softened, I guess. “Always look on the bright side of life.” Still, we’re now like, “It’s important to strengthen immune system of our body.” Lamenting seasonal problem and popping pills for allergy may not be enough. It is a time for spring detox! Is there any way to achieve purifying body and treating spring hay fever at once? I encountered a recipe. It’s simple. (1) nipping young leaf-buds of confers for snack in our forest. And, (2) brewing tisane from fresh leaves of confers. Hmmmmmm …. An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.

Like many other plants, confers have their leaf-buds in spring at the tip of branches. Sometimes, in Yokohama, we can encounter young conifers in broadleaved area next to the afforested parts. They are not so tall as their afforested parents. At their tip of boughs and branches, we find fresh pale green which is young buds of leaves. They taste like a fresh herb, with slight sweetness. To my surprise, the soft leaf-bud did not have much tartness. It’s almost once a year treat in our forest. Aaaaaaaaaaaaah, detoxing …

Limited version of Forest Snack

Next is tisane from cedar leaves. Until this experiment, I did not know there is such a thing, tisane made of leaves of cedars. Though, with a casual googling, we can find many makers selling such product via internet. Customer reviews in Amazon.co.jp say it may have medicinal effect of alleviating hay fever. Hmmmm ... As a forest volunteer, I have chances to collect fresh leaves of cedars. No need to order them from Amazon! So, I gathered fresh cedar leaves in forest, washed them well, and brewed tisane.

I threw washed leaves of cedars in my unglazed pottery pan.

After two hours of brewing with very weak heat …

Cedar tisane after 2 hours of brewing had tartness. I added lots of honey to the concoction. Voila! The smell of sweet tisane was refreshing scent of forest. It now tasted soft, or softer than red tea. The cup had surprisingly no distinctive feature, other than noble aroma. Ahhhhhhhhhhh, detoxing … With a bit more googling, I found cedar tisane contains terpenes that can cause gastrointestinal disturbances … Naomi took about a teacup of it a day, and had no apparent effect for my bowel movement … Well, refreshing smell able to induce flushing out from our body … it is perfect spring detox drink, I suppose … If you’re ready to a small adventure, please try. 😉

My cedar tisane with honey.
 I stored it in refrig and finished in 3 days.

If you find a problem in the greenery of north-half of Yokohama, please make a contact with

Office for the Park Greeneries in the North
北部公園緑地事務所
Yokohama Municipal Government Creative Environment Policy Bureau
横浜市環境創造局
Phone: 045-311-2016
FAX: 045-316-8420