November 4th SWEET FERN
After finishing up a few errands in town we stopped at one of our favorite spots along the Hudson River to collect sweet fern leaves. Sweet fern (Myrica peregrina) is a shrubby plant with leaves that look very much like fern leaves, bracken in particular. The leaves are attached alternately to a woody stem growing to a height of two or three feet. It grows in poor soils and often in large stands. Each slender leaf, from four to six inches long, is neatly and evenly lobed the length of the leaf along either side of a prominent midrib.

Related to bayberry, the plant is highly aromatic. The dried crushed leaves can be used as stuffing in a sachet or pillow. At this time of year many of the leaves have already turned brown, curled up, and fallen from the plant. It was by the intense fragrance alone that I was able to locate the shrubs. A few of the plants still had their leaves in tact, some even still green, and it was one of these that I used as a drawing model. After my sketch was done I gathered up a bagful of the fallen leaves to make into a pillow.

Being so fragrant, I was sure it would make a delicious tea. It is even listed in many of the wild food guides as such. But it was disappointing. Bradford Angier suggests brewing it in the sun for at least three hours, but even after three days in the sun it was still agonizingly weak. The agonizing part was that the faint flavor that was there was deliriously sweet, yet infuriatingly unavailable. Brewing it with boiling water was even less successful.