May have uncovered some good info on Myrica Pensylvanica Edibility

What we already had was that the leaves of Myrica Pensylvanica, aka Northern Bayberry, were used as a spice, but the fruit was not despite the fruit of closely related species having been used that way, like Myrica Gale, or other species of Myrica from South America & Europe. I think I figured out the reason for the discrepancy while researching a completely different plant- comptonia peregrina, aka Sweetfern.

The two plants are both technically safely edible in both leaves & seeds, however Sweetfern's flavor is stronger & Northern Bayberry's fruit happens to have that waxy coating. The seeds inside the fruit are edible, though. Most of the range overlaps, with Sweetfern's range being a bit more southerly & northerly than Northern Bayberry. However, Sweetfern's foliage doesn't have as good of a mouth feel as Bayberry leaves do, so it would seem that it was more common to use Bayberry leaves & Sweetfern seeds as spices for simple quality issues.

One cook who attempted to work sweetfern usage into their own cooking blog, saw a reference to sweetfern foliage being good as a seasoning with certain meats, like fish or duck, so I think sweetfern leaves may be a good candidate for a smoking herb. Native people have a more broad sense of what thy meant when they mean seasoning. The person even attempted to use it in both ways &, while both are technically safe & viable, I've seen people say that sweetfern foliage is just too gritty & they don't like that aspect. That is probably why Bayberry leaves are more preferred, in that case. If so, that brings up the amount of plants Natives were probably using to smoke meat that I am aware of in the Eastern Woodlands to Cedar, Hickory, Apple & Sweetfern, though I don't know all the specifics for what kinds of meat they would use these plants on. At the very least, we know Sweetfern is definitely good for smoking duck. It is something I want to look in to. It also made me wonder about the claims of using Sweetshrub bark as a spice- whether that may have been a smoking herb, too, since no one has ever been able to figure out how to safely eat it?

Sadly, though, this plant is also endangered. Though, I've been told they work out best around pines & blueberries & both in tree cover & along roads. I planted a couple bare root sweetferns in my woods, today & hope they will work out &/ or spread under the Hemlock trees in the one corner, but I was worried I wouldn't be able to dig them into hard soil correctly, so I ended up putting them in places that, I hope, will he dry enough for them, but don't seem to be ideal for the species. Here is hoping.