Mugolio pine cone syrup!
Pinus mugo
This isn’t strictly foraging, as this pine is growing in the garden but the principle can apply to any edible cone - in my defence, the pine trees around me seem to all be ancient (great for mushroom season!), making fresh cone collection nigh on impossible with how tall they are.
Mugolio is a highly prized and expensive syrup that’s traditionally made from Pinus mugo where it grows in Italy. The cones are rested and fermented in sugar during the summer, before being filtered and aged before cooking with more sugar to a dark syrup.
You can however make a version at home, and with any other edible cones. Even just the initial syrup after summer is 👌
I’ve done this with Scot’s pine before (where by chance I stumbled upon some young cones), but I happened to realise just this week that the pine in the garden is producing cones… and it appears to be the very mugo pine from the original recipe (it’s sometimes grown in gardens here). The resulting syrup has a deep pine fragrance. I have yet to cook down last years come syrup, but I may well just use it as is!
