Happy November, food & foraging friends!
The weather has been primo for outdoor activities, and though mushroom season is winding down, I’m digging into other gifts of nature this month.
While most think of berries as a fleeting summer treat, some are underappreciated fall delicacies. Recently I found a gorgeous cornelian cherry tree loaded with berries – plenty to go around for all the birds and peeps like us alike. Cherry is a misnomer for this tree, which is actually a European dogwood (Cornus mas). It was a favorite of the ancient Greeks and Romans, including Hippocrates, and can easily live 200 years. Its gorgeous red berries are packed with antioxidants, Vitamin C and more, and just sings with tart, sweet flavor for things like jams and juices.
I also harvested a few pounds of rose hips for a concentrate to give me a Vitamin C boost as winter approaches. I had not harvested the cultivated rosehips (Rosa rugosa) before, which are much larger than the wild ones, and it took quite some time to scoop out the seeds and hairs from inside the tiny fruits – a good project to do while listening to a podcast or show (let me know your faves!)
Another little used fruit of the season is hawthorn berry, full of so much medicinal goodness you can buy hawthorn extract in health stores. I harvested 10 pounds with the help of some volunteers in my community garden for some cider experimentation with ANXO, still awaiting news on that outcome. In the meantime I processed some hawthorn puree for some experiments of my own, and used some of it and the cornelian cherry juice to tone down an insanely spicy hot sauce made from a mixed batch of peppers.
|
