Sweet Sassafras

manumuskin

Piney
Jul 20, 2003
8,552
2,465
59
millville nj
www.youtube.com
the woods down here and my yard is full of it.Makes a right nice tea too and I have my grandkids digging roots and scratching them for the smell.Been meaning to learn how to make potpourri out of the roots but never tried it.I also have em sniffin bayberry,sweet fern,crushed pine needles and hay scented fern when i can find it .
Al

PS

I'm sure if you stuffed enough mashed potatoes down a rats throat it would probably give them cancer after awhile too.I doubt sassafras tea is near as dangerous as all the crap they put into a twinkie to keep it fresh.
 

jburd641

Explorer
Jan 16, 2008
410
22
Port Charlotte, Fl.
the woods down here and my yard is full of it.Makes a right nice tea too and I have my grandkids digging roots and scratching them for the smell.Been meaning to learn how to make potpourri out of the roots but never tried it.I also have em sniffin bayberry,sweet fern,crushed pine needles and hay scented fern when i can find it .
Al

PS

I'm sure if you stuffed enough mashed potatoes down a rats throat it would probably give them cancer after awhile too.I doubt sassafras tea is near as dangerous as all the crap they put into a twinkie to keep it fresh.
 

Gibby

Piney
Apr 4, 2011
1,640
442
Trenton
I was curious to see what part of the tree contained safrole. It seems only the root-bark and fruit contain it, not the leaves. I have been using file' in my gumbo and other creole cooking for years. File' (fee-lay) is made from ground sassafras leaves which is carcinogen free. Good thing I haven't been making rootbeer soda, I might need to go get a check up!
 

woodjin

Piney
Nov 8, 2004
4,338
326
Near Mt. Misery
the woods down here and my yard is full of it.Makes a right nice tea too and I have my grandkids digging roots and scratching them for the smell.Been meaning to learn how to make potpourri out of the roots but never tried it.I also have em sniffin bayberry,sweet fern,crushed pine needles and hay scented fern when i can find it .
Al

Don't forget having them smell teaberries. My little guy is a teaberry smelling maniac. one part of the woods on my property is full of teaberry. How is it that you have grandkids Al, aren't you in your 40's?
 

manumuskin

Piney
Jul 20, 2003
8,552
2,465
59
millville nj
www.youtube.com
I have the grandkids eating teaberry though I specify they are to eat nothing out of the woods unless I see it first.
Yes I'm 47 and my oldest step daughter now 29 made me a grand dad for the first time at age 35 which is entirely ridiculous.My oldest grandaugher will be twelve in december/I have three of each.11,10,7,7,6and3this means I will no doubt be a great grandad prior to reaching 60.Kids want to play and have no idea how rapidly they age their elders by doing this:-(
Al
ps have a beard full of grey now and just found my first silver moustache hair,have arthritis and not many chewin teeth left,my Granny is 86 and tells me it's not going to get any better.
 

Spung-Man

Explorer
Jan 5, 2009
976
656
64
Richland, NJ
loki.stockton.edu
Yes, it is a great Pinelands plant! We’ve always included sassafras roots when making home-made root beer. This beverage was mildly fermented for carbonation in gallon jugs especially for Easter. Raisins were added for the wild yeast found on their skin to jump-start the process. Inevitably one or two jugs of each batch would explode with load rapport. Old blankets provided a makeshift flak-jacket-like covering to keep any resultant glass shrapnel in place. The smell was heavenly, like spicy bread candy. Richland General Store still carries the safrole-free Hires extract.

As I understand, sassafras was part of Charles Hires’ original recipe. He was a Cumberland County druggist, which both Vineland and Millville claim as their own. His pop was offered as an alternate to alcohol, although the “beer” part irked some in the Women’s Christian Temperance Union. Vineland was a center for the temperance movement, which later morphed into the women’s suffrage movement. A ghost, said to be that of the suffragette Ms. Davis, continues to ply mischief to adjoining neighbors.

Like with Gibby, crushed sassafras leaves or filé were added to soups, to thicken their stock in a manner similar to okra. Hank William’s song “Jambalaya” sings its graces, “...crawfish pie, filé gumbo.” Br’er Rabit was collecting sassafras roots for sick siblings when caught in Farmer Brown’s field. My daughter’s nickname is Sassafras. Its vibrant fall-coloring hues are second to none for chromatic gymnastics. Sassafras is in decline, probably due to bacterial leaf scorch.

S-M
 
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Got plenty of it in my yard. Each year I get tons of seedings coming up everywhere. I should probavle pot 'em up and sell 'em in the nursery.

Al - I am also 47, and after that knee surgery, I have to agree, it doesnt get any better. My knee arthritis, which I didnt even know I had until the meniscus tear and it showed up on the MRI, is now a daily companion. Yet I take the pain rather than the Motrin, coz I dont want to mess up my liver as well.
 

manumuskin

Piney
Jul 20, 2003
8,552
2,465
59
millville nj
www.youtube.com
Got plenty of it in my yard. Each year I get tons of seedings coming up everywhere. I should probavle pot 'em up and sell 'em in the nursery.

Al - I am also 47, and after that knee surgery, I have to agree, it doesnt get any better. My knee arthritis, which I didnt even know I had until the meniscus tear and it showed up on the MRI, is now a daily companion. Yet I take the pain rather than the Motrin, coz I dont want to mess up my liver as well.

I didn't know motrin messed up your liver.I take it when I need it but I don't like popping pills so only do it when I hurt enough to get mean and take it out on those who don't deserve it.I'm not nice when I hurt.
 

manumuskin

Piney
Jul 20, 2003
8,552
2,465
59
millville nj
www.youtube.com
Yes, it is a great Pinelands plant! We’ve always included sassafras roots when making home-made root beer. This beverage was mildly fermented for carbonation in gallon jugs especially for Easter. Raisins were added for the wild yeast found on their skin to jump-start the process. Inevitably one or two jugs of each batch would explode with load rapport. Old blankets provided a makeshift flak-jacket-like covering to keep any resultant glass shrapnel in place. The smell was heavenly, like spicy bread candy. Richland General Store still carries the safrole-free Hires extract.

As I understand, sassafras was part of Charles Hires’ original recipe. He was a Cumberland County druggist, which both Vineland and Millville claim as their own. His pop was offered as an alternate to alcohol, although the “beer” part irked some in the Women’s Christian Temperance Union. Vineland was a center for the temperance movement, which later morphed into the women’s suffrage movement. A ghost, said to be that of the suffragette Ms. Davis, continues to ply mischief to adjoining neighbors.

Like with Gibby, crushed sassafras leaves or filé were added to soups, to thicken their stock in a manner similar to okra. Hank William’s song “Jambalaya” sings its graces, “...crawfish pie, filé gumbo.” Br’er Rabit was collecting sassafras roots for sick siblings when caught in Farmer Brown’s field. My daughter’s nickname is Sassafras. Its vibrant fall-coloring hues are second to none for chromatic gymnastics. Sassafras is in decline, probably due to bacterial leaf scorch.

S-M

Are you from Richland?Remember Archie and Antoinette that owned the general store?And the tall skinny guy that owned the deli across the street,forget his name.I used to work at Richland Glass and made the company lunch runs everyday and the store runs too.
 

Spung-Man

Explorer
Jan 5, 2009
976
656
64
Richland, NJ
loki.stockton.edu
Manumuskin,

Archie (Junior) and Antoinette are doing fine in retirement, and still live in town. I have fond memories as a wee lad buying penny candy there. That was my dad’s feed mill across the street where the deli now stands. Richland General Store, the last of its kind in the Pines, remains under good stewardship by an owner who really cares about preserving its rural character. The store began with the gravelling of US Route 40 around 1910. Although laid out in 1817, the straight road remained unimproved and was often impassible due to the numerous wetlands its course traversed.

With road upgrade the Pocatagea(?) family from Alabama opened a tiny store in the front room of a small farm cottage. This home with shop was sold to the Guideri family, who in turn sold it to the Amici family. The establishment expanded and became a general store trading as Henri Amici & Co. Amici’s jacked up the original cottage to the second floor, and combined three homes into the single building you see today. The family carried groceries, hardware, feed, hay, and poultry supplies. It became Rchland General Store in 1942, when it was purchased by Lincoln, Archie (Senior), and Joseph Mazzoli.

Under Mazzoli management the store had become a “mall,” with a barbershop, pool room, butcher-shop, grocery, feed store, clothing store, shoe shop, and ice-cream bar all under one roof. The butcher-shop and grocery store later moved next door to become the R&L Market. The Clothing store relocated to the Richland Hotel, as did the barber shop. The barber, Spudsy, gave me crew-cuts there as a kid. My last hair cut in the hotel was around 2002. R&L Market continued until 1980 when the owner of two Vineland supermarkets purchased R&L and closed it for good. It is now a municipally-owned parking lot. The ice cream parlor and pool hall moved down the street to Billy Banks' place, recently demolished.

The deli/post office was purchased by Buena Vista Township in 2005 as part of a Redevelopment scheme. A local resident continues to provide excellent fare there (esp. cheese-steaks & Reubens). However, unlike past operators who owned the land, the current occupants rent from the government. I am saddened to see the Richland I grew up in drift away, as local control is quietly eroded by outside forces. About half of the Village core is now in public hands, presumably being bundled to give away to some outside developer. Despite lip-service to the contrary one by one old structures in “historic” Richland are torn down, or are simply allowed to decay beyond salvage. We really need to have frank, open discussion as to the future of Pinelands Villages, and government’s role as an agent of change.

S-M
 

Spung-Man

Explorer
Jan 5, 2009
976
656
64
Richland, NJ
loki.stockton.edu
M,

The fire hall truly was a local landmark, and the location of many important community events. It is a shame that the Pinelands cultural heritage remains under-appreciated. I even found between $30–60-thousand in CRDA funds to help preserve or move the structure, and had the support of the local historical society to boot- but pleads fell on deaf ears.


The building was erected in 1925 by a group of local volunteers after a horrible fire burnt down a general store, a butcher shop, and a private residence on Main Avenue the year before. The edifice was retrofitted from an earlier railroad-era clothing factory. It may even have been the one built at the adjoining Jewish colony of Ruskville midway between Richland and Mizpah. That Om Alam village was abandoned because of unexpected flooding due to the area's high seasonal water-table. Not one stick remains of that settlement.

Richland Fire Hall.jpeg


Excerpt from Buena Vista Township Centennial: 1867–1967 showing an early photograph of the structure and a brief history. Although the article provided a build date of 1925, it is believed to have been retrofitted from an earlier clothing factory.
 

manumuskin

Piney
Jul 20, 2003
8,552
2,465
59
millville nj
www.youtube.com
That is ashame.we had several family christmas parties there as well.I live a half hour from there but the folks that ran it were real nice and the price wasn't bad so for several years in a row we rented it. Are they replacing it?
 

Spung-Man

Explorer
Jan 5, 2009
976
656
64
Richland, NJ
loki.stockton.edu
Sadly, it appears that Richland General Store no longer stocks safrole-free sassafras extract. During today's visit I did find goodies like sarsaparilla, birch beer, and root beer extracts - next to the spruce-beer essence. Amazing. Oh, and that penny candy mentioned above, it was sassafras flavored. It's also my daughter's nickname.

RGS.jpg
 

Spung-Man

Explorer
Jan 5, 2009
976
656
64
Richland, NJ
loki.stockton.edu
M,

Sure, I bet they still carry traps. If not, Gary can get what you need in a jiffy. Archie was (and still is) pretty cool. He love's taste-testing heirloom tomatoes. The name Archibald is popular around Buena, a vestige of the Swedish tar-kilners of Clan Campbell. The clan’s badge was a sprig of bog myrtle, and their motto “do not forget.” Of course, with all the Archibalds around these parts it makes some genealogists shudder. His mom, Jenny, was another fixture at the store. She was part of the Ukrainian/Russian community that settled along Main Avenue, Old Landis, and Tuckahoe Road. This group started to arrive before the First World War to chicken farm.

We have a long tradition of home brewing in the Pines, which helped us through the Depression. A freshman at Cook in ’78, I was the first student granted permission to practice zymurgy at Rutgers. At first the dean thought I had a still. Pineys. That was the year silly Prohibition rules finally changed to allow the head of a household to home brew. Before that revision in the law, malt-can instructions were written in such a way that made their contents legal. Labels went something like this, “do not add 5-gallons of water, do not add hops, do not boil for one hour, or else the resultant product would be beer...

S-M
 

manumuskin

Piney
Jul 20, 2003
8,552
2,465
59
millville nj
www.youtube.com
Related to clan MacGregor myself.Long story goes with them.Their motto was "MacGregor despite Them" Their name was outlawed and they warred with the Campbells,of course centuries late me and Archie got along just fine:)
 
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