A friend of a friend has a large cattle ranch that encompasses the Lost Pines area, which has pine trees that are totally unique and not found anywhere else.

At our analytical food science lab, we have now confirmed very high levels of shikimic acid in loblolly pine needles. This is a huge find, and it means there's natural medicine growing everywhere in the Lost Pines forest in Central Texas.

So I spent part of the day harvesting pine needles (with permission) from several pine trees. I only snip a small amount from each tree because I respect the trees and want them to keep producing.