Sassafras Diggin’ time is here. And the folk of the hills, who cling to some of the old customs, are searching out the tender roots of the tree that in another age rated with the spices of Ormuz and Araby as a precious substance.
They are the ones who take sassafras tea, or sass tea as a spring tonic. They will tell you that it thins the blood and prepares the body to better stand the coming heat of summer. But some are so foolish about the flavor of sassafras tea that they drink it throughout the year. For the roots can be used fresh or left to dry for later use.
Sassafras tea is simple to make. Just put a handful of the roots into a kettle, add a bit more water than you want tea, and boil it until it turns a nice red color. Take it straight or sweeten to taste, and drink hot or cold. The same roots can be used to make tea several times before the flavor is expended.
Some folks – mostly those who didn’t grow up on sass tea object to the medicinal flavor of it. Actually they have things backward. Some medicines are flavored with sassafras, but this merely mean some medicines taste of sassafras and not that sassafras tastes of medicine.
The role of the sassafras in folklore and early exploration is unique. About it have hung fantastic hopes and promises of gain and superstitions that have not yet wholly departed.
The wood appealed to the pioneer for fences, because it has less shrinkage in drying than any other hardwood and because it is durable.
Its odor was reputed to drive away bedbugs. Hen-roosts made of sassafras are supposed to keep out chicken lice.
Mountain women who used to make their own soap wouldn’t think of turning out a batch without stirring the kettle with a sassafras stick. They argued that the difference between good and bad soap was the sassafras stirring stick. Stirring with a sassafras stick did give the soap a sassafras scent.