Food & drink - Christmas tree punch and pine needle foccacia
Pine needles in foccacia, Christmas tree punch and lemony cone water from the spruce - Marion Putensen surprises with particularly creative ideas for the festive season. The cozy Waldkräuterey in Amelinghausen has a Christmassy smell of freshly baked bread and hot drinks with fruit. "I eat my Christmas tree, healthy, sustainable and delicious," says the certified nature and landscape guide and laughs. And she means it.
In her experimental room in the Lüneburg Heath, she serves up vitamin bombs from nature. "All conifers have so much vitamin C power," explains the expert, who now trains herbalists herself on courses in South Tyrol. Very important for her extravagant blends: all ingredients are unsprayed.
The punch - prepared over 24 hours from an extract of spruce needles or fir branches - topped up with sea buckthorn, quince or apple juice and served with cranberries, blueberries, sloes or cornelian cherries is surprising. "But there's alcohol in it?" asks a visitor. Putensen says no, the taste is deceptive. "Everything we cook quickly has to be sweetened. Fruits that simmer slowly develop their sweetness," explains the owner of what she claims is the only forest herb farm in Germany.
And when she breaks the needles of the trees, essential oils are released. This is so special for the seasoning of her dishes. In the small restaurant in the forest with a manufactory, she also serves dips she has designed herself to go with the warm Italian flatbread with small pine needles: a spicy spread made from wild horseradish and beetroot, a wild herb quark with nettle seeds and spruce needles and a Christmas tree butter with finely chopped needles plus lemon peel. The preparation is time-consuming, but the taste is more intense than with conventional food.
Forest herbs
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- Marion Putensen, located in Amelinghausen, offers unique festive dishes such as pine needle foccacia and spruce-infused punch, creating a delightful aroma of freshly baked bread and hot drinks.
- In her experimental room nestled within the Lüneburg Heath, Putensen crafts vitamin-rich dishes using unsprayed conifers, highlighting the natural power of these plants.
- Putensen's punch, made from 24-hour spruce or fir extract, sea buckthorn, quince, or apple juice, and served with cranberries, berries, and sloes, astonishes visitors with its surprising taste and absence of alcohol.
- Foraging through the Lower Saxony forests, Putensen gathers various wild ingredients to incorporate into her solid and flavorful spreads, including spicy horseradish and beetroot spread, nettle-seed-infused quark, and lemony Christmas tree butter.
Source: www.stern.de
