Basswood flour

Hey folks,

I made some basswood (tilla or linden or lime tree) flour last year. About 450g (16 oz) worth (1.6l). Before chopping, the compressed leaves filled a paper grocery bag.




The stuff has a slight smell of basswood flower, but mostly smells grassy. Maybe a bit like nettle.

I tried incorporating a little of it into bread (I make sourdough whole spelt/rye bread) and the bread turned green and got a grassy taste. I don't mind my bread being green, but with all the nettles I'm eating I cannot stand having another thing taste like grass.



As you can see the flour is quite coarse. I couldn't really feel it in the bread though.

So have you ever used basswood flour? do you mind the grassy taste? what would you do with it?

Hey Victor - I know it's been a while since you posted this, but I was very interested in your thread. I'm gluten-free and don't usually make bread (haven't found a good recipe) and these are the things I'd do with it:

Add to soups, stews, cream-style sauces (bet it would be awesome in a stroganoff), scrambled eggs, scrambled egg muffins, (any egg dishes, really), herb pancakes (I usually make mine with coconut flour), salsas, mix with cottage cheese or cream cheese, add to pesto...I do all these things with my dried greens (collards, chickweed, kale, nettles) and they add an extra boost of texture, flavor and nutrition. Good luck!

p.s. how did you grind yours?

Laura Sweany wrote:Hey Victor - I know it's been a while since you posted this, but I was very interested in your thread. I'm gluten-free and don't usually make bread (haven't found a good recipe) and these are the things I'd do with it:

Add to soups, stews, cream-style sauces (bet it would be awesome in a stroganoff), scrambled eggs, scrambled egg muffins, (any egg dishes, really), herb pancakes (I usually make mine with coconut flour), salsas, mix with cottage cheese or cream cheese, add to pesto...I do all these things with my dried greens (collards, chickweed, kale, nettles) and they add an extra boost of texture, flavor and nutrition. Good luck!

p.s. how did you grind yours?

Hi Laura! I must say I had long since given up any hope of answer. What a pleasant surprise!

I'll give you the full recipe.

1/ I sawed a branch off the tree (that was actually to collect the flowers in order to make jelly. Were it only for the leaves, I could very well have picked them from a low tree.)
2/ I laid some sub-branches on my paved backyard and let them there for 1-2 week to dry. I suppose drying the leaves until they get really crispy is essential.
3/ Picked each leaf. I'm not sure whether I did let them dry some more at this point.
4/ Ground the leaves in an old cast iron hand-cranked grinder (such as that one). Moving the crank was really hard and it was all pretty messy. The veins tended to stand out at this point and removing the big bits was fairly easy. I also think they tended to rise whenever I shook the bowl.
5/ Re-ground the already ground leaves in a blender. This made the flour fairly fine.

I think that's about all I know.


Food-wise you do seem to be much more imaginative than I am. I did not know about scrambled egg muffins, these do look mighty, hah.
As it happens I still have most of the stuff, sitting quietly on a shelf. I might give the herb pancakes a try.
I'm not sure what it would be like in a sauce or soup. I feel that it would be weird. Well maybe not, I guess I should just give it a go.

Thanks for the reminder!