North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[list@ginda.us]

I bet you could extract the essential oil into an alcohol elixir with 
far less leaf than you'd need for a steam juicer.  Then you might be 
able to use something like a still to concentrate the essential oil.

I love wintergreen, and would chew far more of it if I weren't worried 
about denuding the plants.  I taste bitter, soapy, metallic, and "off" 
flavors that others don't notice all the time.  Fortunately I also 
taste sweet and sour aromatic flavors.  I suppose that's why I like 
interesting fruits.

Ginda

On Sep 20, 2004, at 8:00 PM, mIEKAL aND wrote:

> Really interesting how relative terms like sweet & bitter are.  Ive 
> been chewing wintergreen leaves since I was a wee lad & would never 
> think to describe them as bitter.  A pignut maybe...   I'd love to 
> have enough wintergreen leaves to try to extract oil or essence with 
> my steam juicer. ~mIEKAL
>
> On Monday, September 20, 2004, at 04:58 PM, list@ginda.us wrote:
>
> > The fruits are edible, but not worth eating, in my opinion.  The 
> > flavor is mild, the consistency is sort of waxy, and there's no 
> > sweetness to speak of.  I prefer to chew on the leaves, which are a 
> > little bitter and have a pronounced wintergreen flavor.  They aren't 
> > sweet, either, but I don't miss it in a leaf.
> >
> > Ginda