Evergreen Boy Scouts once made 'large washtubs full' of sassafras tea

Sassafras roots.

I received a nice note on Saturday morning from reader Larry Bryant, who said he got a big kick out of my column a few weeks ago about sassafras tea.

In his younger days, Bryant lived in Evergreen and remembers when W.P. McMillan was principal of old City School in Evergreen. During that time, in the late 1950s and early 1960s, McMillan was also head of the local Boy Scout troop, and Bryant and the other scouts went to a hunting camp near Claiborne in Monroe County every summer for their annual camping trip.

“First thing the adults did when we arrived was dig some sassafras roots and make sassafras tea, two or three large washtubs full, for us for the entire time we were at the camp,” Bryant said. “I have many sassafras trees in my property and have thought often about making some. Your article has prompted me to do that.”

Bryant and his family moved from Evergreen to Monroeville in 1963, and he graduated from Monroe County High School in 1966. Bryant noted that his parents were both from Evergreen and that his grandfather, Elmo Grace, ran the Evergreen Golf Course from the mid-1950s until his death in 1965. When Evergreen High School’s Class of 1966 held its 50^th class reunion in 2016, Bryant was invited and saw old classmates that he hadn’t seen since February 1963 when his parents moved.

On a personal note, I’m 43 years old and had never had sassafras tea until about a month ago when Mrs. Sandra McInvale of McKenzie was kind enough to supply me with a quart Mason jar of her homemade sassafras tea. I’d read a lot about this type of tea over the years, so I was pretty excited to try something that I’d only read about before. McInvale sent the tea to the office by way of her daughter, Traci Flowers, who is the office manager at The Courant.

Back in the old days, when spring rolled around folks would drink sassafras tea as a spring tonic to “purify the blood” and to get rid of winter ailments like the flu. Early settlers picked up this practice from Native Americans, who had been drinking sassafras tea for generations.

One source that I read said that sassafras was one of the first plants exported back to Europe from the Americas by early settlers. At that time, it was considered a cure-all and was served widely in English coffee shops. Some people even thought it would cure diseases like syphilis.

Based on what I’ve read, making sassafras tea was simple as long as you knew what you were doing. Bare in mind that this is coming from someone who has never prepared it himself and who has just enough skill in the kitchen to make cheese toast and pour a bowl of cereal. Maybe one day, I’ll take the plunge and make some sassafras tea of my own.

Until then, I’ll have to rely on the kindness of others, and I’m interested to hear how Bryant’s tea turns out. No doubt everyone makes it a little different and there’s bound to be some variation in the ingredients. As is often said, variety is the spice of life, and this is bound to be true to sassafras tea as well.