Saw Palmetto Berries
A small, dark berry from a scrubby palm native to the American Southeast, long steeped as a traditional herbal tea and still one of the more storied botanicals in folk herbalism.
What It Is
Saw palmetto grows wild across the coastal plains of the Southeast, from Florida up through the Carolinas, producing clusters of deep purple-black berries each fall. Native peoples used the berries as food and medicine long before European settlers arrived, and they have stayed in continuous use in herbal tradition ever since.
The dried berries have a rich, slightly waxy quality and a flavor that is earthy, faintly sweet, and a little unusual. They are used almost entirely as a brewed herb rather than a culinary ingredient, and they have a long track record in folk herbalism as a daily tonic.
What To Do
To make a simple tea, simmer one teaspoon of dried berries in two cups of water for about twenty minutes, then strain. The flavor is mild and earthy on its own; a little honey or a cinnamon stick in the pot rounds it out nicely. Some people combine saw palmetto with other dried herbs like rose hips or licorice root.
Store the dried berries somewhere cool and dry, away from light, in a sealed container. They keep well for a year or more that way. This is not a cooking spice, so your kitchen uses are almost entirely in the cup.
