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Cedar Tips Western Red Wild (Thuja plicata) 1 lb: C
This is Starwest's nitrogen-flushed double wall silverfoil pack. Western or Giant Red Cedar is an evergreen ornamental and timber tree of the cypress family, native to western North America. The fragrant tips are popular for adding a smoked flavor to fish and meats when cooked with them. Cedar is also used to make sweet-smelling cabinets, garden and pet bedding, potpourris, sachets and a purifying incense for meditation and magic. http://www.botanik.uni-bonn.de/conifers/cu/th/plicata.htm: ''Redcedar has been called 'the cornerstone of northwest coast Indian culture' and the large-scale use of its wood and bark delineates the cultural boundary of the northwest coast peoples within its range. ... Few cedar trees were actually felled before European contact. Instead, fallen logs or boards split from standing trees were used. To split off cedar boards for house planks or half-logs for canoes, a series of graduated yew-wood [Taxus brevifolia] or antler wedges were pounded into living trees along the grain. The power of the redcedar tree was said to be so strong a person could receive strength by standing with his or her back to the tree. Redcedar was used for a variety of ailments. It is called the 'tree of life' by the Kakawaka'wakw and is still held with highest respect by all northwest coast peoples for its healing and spiritual powers. A Coast Salish myth says the Great Spirit created redcedar in honour of a man who was always helping others: 'When he dies and where he is buried, a cedar tree will grow and be useful to the people -- the roots for baskets, the bark for clothing, the wood for shelter' '' (Pojar and Mackinnon 1994). To appreciate the material, medical and spiritual value of cedar to Northwest Coast peoples, consider the diversity of uses cited by Gunther in her 1945 review of ethnobotany among surviving western Washington native peoples: ''Throughout the whole Northwest the wood most extensively used by the Indians is cedar. House planks, house posts, roof boards, and canoes are made exclusively of this wood. Boxes, including those with bent sides [see photo], and dugouts [canoes] are of cedar. ... The Quileute make the hearth of the fire drill of cedar, as well as the spindle for spinning mountain-goat wool. The Squaxin make the herring rake of cedar. The charcoal of cedar wood mixed with salmon eggs is used by the Quinault to rub on canoe paddles, which are held in pitch wood smoke and then rubbed with green grass to produce a lasting shiny black. ''Equally as useful as the wood is the bark of the cedar tree, in fact there is no single item so ubiquitous in the Indian household. The shredding of bark is a constant bit of busy work for women, done by the Chehalis with a deer-bone chopper. It is shredded fine enough to be used as padding for infants' cradles, as sanitary pads, as towels. A coarser grade is plaited into skirts and capes, later into complete dresses for women. The Lower Chehalis use cedar b
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