There's something very friendly about a Beech tree for me, perhaps it's the smooth gray bark that reminds me of human skin or maybe the love from all the forest creatures who derive food from its harvest of nuts. I love to see Beech trees, nibble the twigs, salad the young greens, and eat the nuts. I know I'm not alone in all of this.

Beech trees are members and evidence of a climax hardwood forest growing in rich moist soil and living for a good while. They are well respected by people and wildlife who live near them. Even the forest soils appreciate how the Beech roots aid air circulation and the leaves add potash, thus conserving the productive quality of the soil better than any other tree

Best known of the Beech gifts are the nuts. Enclosed nl a 3/4" burr-like husk are two or three pyramidal nuts inside their own individual shell that looks like a buckwheat seed. The nuts are delicious eaten raw, sprouted, or roasted. It was common to dry them and grind them to flour. Roasted they make a good coffee substitute.

Well-ripened nuts yield up to 20% oil which is non-drying and is used for cooking and as a butter substitute. The remaining cake can be added to baking or fed to livestock. Only the Northern Beeches produce large quantities of nuts, and they must be gathered after the first frosts in autumn before the squirrels and chipmunks get them . Some folks have found that eating quantities of Beech nuts eases the pain of kidney stone and helps the passing of the gravel and sand.

As an internal medicine, 1 teaspoon of the crushed leaves (or 1/4 tsp. of granulated bark) is steeped in 1 cup of boiling water and taken three or four times daily, one hour before each meal and before retiring at night. This tea has been found to be soothing to the nerves and stomach, alterative, antiseptic, astringent, tonic, diuretic, and helpful for the liver and kidney. It's been used as a remedy for diabetes and to help restore a body weakened by dysentery and life in general.

The leaves when chewed and held in place have been helpful for chapped lips, painful gums, and canker sores.

A decoction of the leaves is used externally as a cleansing skin wash with antiseptic and cooling qualities for cold sores, feverish swellings, sores, wounds, frostbite, burns and skin diseases. Steeped a good half hour, the strong tea should be applied as a poultice or a very frequent skin bath.

A skin ointment with properties similar to the decoction above can be made by boiling the leaves in good oil, even Beech nut oil.

The Rappahannock Indians steeped a handful of the bark from us north side of the Beech tree in a pint of weak salt water for a poison ivy remedy that was applied thrice daily. The Hurons drank the sweet and pleasant sap when thirsty.

 
SPEAKING OF BEECHNUTS:

One spring day I went with the children of the Killaloe Alternative School to visit some big old trees on Fern's Hill. While walking about, one child looked down and asked, "What's that?" It was a sprouting Beech nut.

After one taste, the leaves under and near every Beech tree in sight were being overturned and the search was on.

Beech nuts are yummy, perhaps the best nut in the world. That's my opinion, anyway, and there are innumerable squirrels who seem to agree with me - it's a race with them every autumn to get any Beech nuts. Sprouted Beech nuts that you find in the spring are even better, and the shell is even pre-cracked for you.

We also turned up sprouted Maple seeds and Basswood seeds. Both were good, and a definite improvement on the unsprouted variety.