Smoking Willow Bark

jazzlover · Mar 23, 2013

I read on the Internet that Native Americans used to smoke the underside of willow bark in their pipes. I tried it today and it was surprisingly good! It had a light, sweet flavor. I used the bark from a tree in my back yard. I'm not sure what kind of willow it is but I'll post a pic soon so you can all see.

juvat270 · Mar 23, 2013

No thanks. I'll stick with tobacco.

4dotsasieni · Mar 23, 2013

See any visions?

jazzlover · Mar 23, 2013

I first read about it in Mark Twain's "A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court". Then I double checked on the internet. Sure enough, Twain was right. I had always assumed Native Americans only smoked tobacco but they smoked many other things as well, one of them being willow bark. Like I said, it tasted surprisingly good. I know this sounds weird but it had the faint flavor of banana.

jazzlover · Mar 23, 2013

I carefully shaved off a few small strips, chopped them up and first tried it in a small corn cob that I use as a tasting pipe but I had a hell of a time keeping it lit. I solved this problem by mixing it with my tobacco (Peter Stokkebeye's nougat); about half bark and half tobacco. Then it smoked great!!
I don't have any pics right now but I'll post some tomorrow.

bigvan · Mar 23, 2013

Aren't there many different kinds of willow? Did you use the same sort of bark that the Indians supposedly did?
I'm sorry, but this seems just so incredibly unwise.

bigvan · Mar 23, 2013

I understand your point, Mike, but there's a difference between a calculated risk done to solve a problem using lessons learned from previous experience and doing something like this for no real reason (none that I can understand anyway).
Besides, it's not like there's a shortage of really great tobacco requiring us to resort to something like THIS.

jazzlover · Mar 23, 2013

I wouldn't have tried it unless I knew there was a lengthy and safe tradition of people doing it. By the way, here's the link where I read about it:
http://home.teleport.com/~howieb/smoking/smoke3.html

kashmir · Mar 23, 2013

Yes, but did you inhale?

jazzlover · Mar 23, 2013

No, I didn't inhale and I never inhale pipe tobacco either.

bigvan · Mar 23, 2013

"people are prone to doing wacky shit for no good reason"
You just described my late teens to early thirties, Mike.

sparroa · Mar 23, 2013

Hell, I wouldn't be the first to smoke tree bark but I applaud anyone who finds satisfaction in it and lives to tell the tale. I've been reading about local edible plants all day today and more than once I came upon a plant that was cited as a component of herbal tobaccos. I can't blame you for wanting to try what the Native Americans might have smoked - they had a lot of great remedies so its not out of line to want to try their other "preparations"... Smoking tobacco isn't that reasonable to a lot of people, but we all know to take those opinions with a grain of salt, now don't we?

sparroa · Mar 24, 2013

Picking wild mushrooms is a good way to die - there are so many poisonous varieties that are nearly identical to the edible ones. Your son did the right thing by playing it safe.
Mike, I am a little too timid myself to take the chance on wild mushrooms because I surely do not want to have one of those experiences - no matter how enlightening!
(Nor do I want to smoke them! That is another exercise best left for the daredevils among us)

misterlowercase · Mar 24, 2013

I think it's pretty damn cool that you tried this out. I'm amazed about how such things have come into our daily lives, y'know? The act of smoking seems rather strange and whoever started sampling various plantlife and trying to smoke them was the sort of curious adventurer who forwarded our collective knowledge and opened new doors to our perceptions of the natural world...
pretty neat about Kinnikinnick, and they actually used it the same way you did, cutting their bacco because back then it was so strong, so your intuitive senses are highly alert dude!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kinnikinnick
...and a good page from a google-book
I think listening to good jazz definitely helps!!! :D
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GrQMj1Ya83c

nsfisher · Mar 24, 2013

Willow bark(underside) is also good for reducing fevers. And the pulpy inner bark of Aspen contains Vitamin C.

nsfisher · Mar 24, 2013

Willow bark(underside) is also good for reducing fevers. And the pulpy inner bark of Aspen contains Vitamin C. Cob webs can be used as a clotting factor on cuts to slow and reduce bleeding....... I can go on and on. Drop me off in the middle of the woods and I would be quite happy. Of course you must include couple pounds of Coffee and a few tubs of baccy.

nsfisher · Mar 24, 2013

Willow bark(underside) is also good for reducing fevers. And the pulpy inner bark of Aspen contains Vitamin C. Cob webs can be used as a clotting factor on cuts to slow and reduce bleeding....... I can go on and on. Drop me off in the middle of the woods and I would be quite happy. Of course you must include couple pounds of Coffee and a few tubs of baccy.

sparroa · Mar 24, 2013

Mike,
You are right. You are lucky that you didn't lose function of your liver or kidneys (or worse) from that mistake. I've been very cautious about foraging over the years and it is only know that I am digging deeper into the subject. While I am curious of "herbal tobaccos" and edibles and even mushrooms I am still very cautious and prone to erring on the side of caution. It's better to be safe than sorry and I'm not confident enough in my own abilities to accurately decipher the differences each and every time just yet!
Still, I am eager to hear if anyone else discovers "smokeables" in the woods - let us know your experiences...

tjameson · Mar 24, 2013

I think it's pretty cool you tried this! I was camping once with my friend who is a serious spiritualist (hippie really) and he wandered off into the woods and came back with a white mushroom about the size of my fist. I ate it and it was delicious and I didn't die. He's the kind of guy where I'm not sure if he actually knew what he was looking for or if the mushroom spoke to him from the forest floor and said, "Eat Me!" I may or may not have had other mushrooms that weekend and I may or may not have had a long intense argument with a red squirrel :rofl:

jazzlover · Mar 24, 2013

Here's a pic of the willow tree and the bark I smoked.
http://pipesmagazine.com/members/jazzlover/album/picture/8143
http://pipesmagazine.com/members/jazzlover/album/picture/8142

Smoking Willow Bark

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