Nuts and Berries

Regenerative Subsistence Flora Food & Medicine
#21

Persimmon (Diospyros virginiana) is a tree common in lowland sites in the South-East US (I’ve seen it all the way up in NY, though). It has a pretty unique form, once you learn it, and a unique bark as well. Bets of all, it’s basically the American version of a date! They grow these nice, plump little pink fruit that taste quite a bit like dates, can be dried like dates, and require no preparation to eat.

The downside: our furry neighbors love them almost (if not more) than we do.

Link to more info about the Persimmon:

#22

My wife and niece and I picked about five gals. of saskatoons today.
Gonna go looking for huckle berries tomorrow.
The red raspberries are coming on in our garden now and the thimbleberries are just starting to be pickable too, so we’re in berry heaven.
The choke cherries are loaded but still green.

#23

My son & I gorged on black cap raspberries and thimbleberries the other day! :smiley:

I love the thimbleberries sooooo much. They don’t travel well, you gotta eat em as soon as you pull them off or they just fall apart. They have such rich, velvety red–the ultimate ephemeral treat.

Last year at the end of their season, I brought a bunch of dried up thimbleberries home to plant out back, then did something stupid like washed the pants with the pocketful of treasure. This time I just pooped all those seeds off to the sewage treatment plant. Ah, the dysfunction of the city. :-\

#24

I love and favor black rasperries and thimbleberries a bunch too; last year I made a seven berry jam that had them both for main components that bursted with paleo yummyness. I forage both those berries salal and red huckle berries almost every year at Forest Park since I started loving and favoring them around 6 years ago. Fun Stuff, thanks for sharing your story. 8)

#25

Been gorging on as many Saskatoons as I can eat for the past 2 weeks, there are tons of bushes around my campsite loaded with 'em. With little to no competition from animals or other humans, I’ve almost thought of setting up a little stand and selling them by the bucketful, but I’d rather eat them and share them with the family.

#26

Wintergreen berries were traditionally harvested by the Pequot not too far from here, as one of their main berry harvests. They’re usually mixed with other fruits, as they’re not that juicy.

#27

This is a great year for the low elevation huckleberries here! My wife and niece and I got two nice buckets full yesterday and will be going back out after supper today.
Saw some big purple bear poops in the patch we were picking too. They must be lovin’ it as much as me.

#28

Im really a newbie at learning edible, inedible, and toxic berries so all this talk about them and resources online I look up is really overwhelming right now. Any advice on where to start studying?

#29

I suggest that you start by learning a few that you can eat. Trying to memorize every berry there is, from a source that is not the actual berries, before you even start, that is not the natural way to do it. The natural way is to learn plants one at a time and develop a long-term relationship with them.

I suggest starting with Rose Hips. They are very common, they are unmistakable and there is no chance of confusing them with anything toxic (I take that back, you could mistakenly eat Rose Hips sprayed with insecticide, so stay away from ornamental Roses who are strangers to you), they are very nutritious, and, very important, they remain all winter so they are usually the only fresh fruit you can pick in the winter. But I have to tell you, the taste of Rose Hips varies incredibly, from kinda crappy to incredibly delicious. The slightly hairy seeds inside are usually discarded (if you swallow them, you will find out why the Shuswaps call them “itchy-bum berries”) but, in fact, Rose Hip seeds are one of the richest natural sources of vitamin E, as well as a small amount of protein and other nutrients, so I always do eat the seeds, chewing them as well as I can.

#30

yeah, I hear you can grind them up into a powder too, I think that would work better instead of ‘itchy-bum-seeds’

#31

Ai wouldnt eat cultivated rose hips anyway, as ai’ve never encountered any that dont have incredible astringency! Also, in mai neck of the woods, there grows a plant called Christmasberry, which, as the name implies, has ripe berries in midwinter. But beware! they have much astringency until they dry. Then, they taste faintly of cherry.