Wild Gathered Pine Tonic

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Went wild forraging on Saturday morning at the base of Machan Mountain. 

I walked from Dongducheon Station across the nearby river. The river was covered in algae. That's a sign of agricultural run off from fossil fuel fertilizer

Some pretty Forsythia's I when I crossed the river.

I came this day to find pine needles for pine flavor tonic.

I also saw a lot of Rhododendron Malustrus. They seem to be everywhere I go, including subways and schools and now mountains.

The flowers grow around the pine trees. I couldn't find female pine trees only male.

The males have buds which will give my tonic a menthol-like flavor similar to root beer.

Here's a big bud which will be used for the flavoring. The male part of the plant contains androgens which strenghten people from petro-chemically derived estrogen pollutants.

I collected buds, needles and rhododendron flowers for a spring tonic.

  Most went into the kettle and boiled for an hour.

Some went into a gallon jar for later flavoring. 

The pine tea boiled and coolled was then placed in the gallon jar. Then the jar was filled with mountain water and sugar was added. 

The flowers contain wild yeast which will start a fermentation process. A traditional method of making alcohols, and sodas which takes longer but there are more substances in it.

The result will we a slightly alcoholic fizzy tonic like kombucha, but closer to a bitter soda.