Wild Summer and Fall Plant Foods: The Foxfire Americana Library - Foxfire Students (2011)
SUMMER AND FALL WILD PLANT FOODS
BERRIES AND FRUITS
White mulberry (Morus alba) (family Moraceae)
The white mulberry was introduced to this country at an early date to help promote the silkworm industry. Silkworm culture never became very successful, but the mulberries remained, spreading naturally throughout the area. It is a small tree with shining leaves, rather rough to the touch and varying in form from whole, ovate to mitten-shaped to deeply cut or incised. Greenish catkins in early spring are followed by whitish or pinkish fruits of a rather insipid taste. Birds love them and a white mulberry tree will attract numerous bird species. The fruits are considered edible, but inferior to those of the red mulberry. Dried white mulberries were used as a substitute for raisins or figs.
Red mulberry (Morus rubra) (family Moraceae)
The red mulberry is a small, spreading tree rather common in the mountains, and often found around old homesites. Leaves are ovate, roughly hairy above, and softly hairy below. The fruits may be dark red, purple, or black. They have always been used for pies, preserves, jams, or jellies, and also make good wine.
Jake Waldroop told us that “mulberries ripen in June, about the first part. They’re a long-shaped berry, usually an inch, or even two or three inches, long. The trees have a pretty blossom of a pinkish color. The mulberries are practically all red.”
ILLUSTRATION 1 Red mulberry
Mulberry candy: crush mulberries and mix with ground walnuts. Make small balls and roll in sugar.
Mulberry pie: cook mulberries, and drain. Mix with two beaten eggs, one cup cream, and ½ cup sugar. Fill a pie shell and bake.
Wild gooseberry (Ribes cynosbati) (family Saxifragaceae)
(dog bramble, dogberry)
The wild gooseberry is a small shrub found in the rich coves, and on the rocky ledges and outcrops of the mountains. It has semi-trailing, very prickly stems four to six feet long, and slightly hairy three- to five-lobed leaves. Small yellow flowers are followed by reddish striped, prickly berries that are very sweet inside. Gooseberries were hard to find but prized for jams and jellies when available. Spiced gooseberries were served with roast fowl on special holidays such as Thanksgiving and Christmas. They also make good pies and preserves. Cultivated English gooseberry, which has berries of a greenish color, sometimes persists around old house or garden sites.
Allegheny serviceberry (Amelanchier laevis) (family Rosaceae)
(sarviceberry, sugarplum, shadbush, juneberry, currant tree, sarvis)
The service berry is an understory tree of the mountain woods. It has smooth gray bark, and rather crooked branches. Leaves are narrow and smooth, with slightly toothed edges. The flowers appear very early in the spring with the new leaf buds. Each individual blossom has five long white petals radiating from a greenish center. The red-purple berries are edible and sweet with a pleasant odor.
Serviceberry (Amelanchier canadensis)
(sarviceberry, lancewood, Indian pear, May cherry)
The Canadian shadbush grows on the higher mountains. Leaves are ovate, and the young leaves have a reddish color. The flowers are slightly pink and blossom with the opening leaves, somewhat later than the Allegheny serviceberry. Both trees are called “service” berries because their flowering branches were picked and carried into churches for the Easter service.
Berries of both species are equally good and are prized for sauces and pies. They can be canned, dried, or eaten raw. They should be picked before they are fully ripe.
Jake Waldroop told us a lot about serviceberries. “They ripen in June. They’re good food for turkeys, squirrels, bears—practically all wild game love to feed on sarvis. They’re a pale reddish color. Some sarvis trees will get very large. I’ve seen sarvis trees over a foot through. Most of them, though, are the size of your arm. You can’t harvest the berries without hacking down the tree or getting somebody to climb up and bend the limbs over. The berries grow in a cluster. There’ll be just whole wads of them. The sarvis trees grow back in the wilder mountains, back down the Nantahala River, around under Albert Mountain, Standing Indian, Ridgepole, along Laurel Creek and all those places. Sarvis trees grow along the water courses mostly. Sometimes you find’em up on the mountainsides.
“The berries are just wonderful for pies. And you can just bend down a limb and stand there and eat till you almost tear yourself apart. They’re sweet, got a good flavor. The sarvis can’t hardly be beat for anything that grows wild in the mountains.
“The sarvis is a hardwood tree, almost as hard as any timber that grows. You can’t cultivate them. They grow in the wilder country. They’re the first thing that blooms in spring of the year.”
All of our contacts agreed that it was hard to get the berries before the birds do. They’re high up in the trees and their red color attracts the birds.
Serviceberry pie: heat one pint ripe berries and ⅔ cup sugar and pour into a pie shell. Bake in a hot oven. (You may substitute serviceberries for blueberries in pie recipes.)
Serviceberry flan: three cups berries; ½ cup sugar; ¾ cup flour; 1¼ cups milk; pinch of salt; one tablespoon vanilla. Beat milk, sugar, flour, vanilla, and salt together. Pour half of the mixture in a baking pan. Heat one minute. Add the berries, then cover with the other half of the mix. Bake one hour at 350°.
Muffins: Add serviceberries to cornbread or corn muffins.
Black raspberry (Rubus occidentalis) (family Rosaceae)
(black cap, thimbleberry)
The black raspberry appears as a native in cool mountain ravines, but is most common where it has escaped from cultivation and has naturalized in old fields and gardens. This black berry has very pale, long, arching canes, and finely cut, very soft green leaves, whitish on the underside. The fruit is small, usually purple-black in color, but sometimes appears in a pale yellow form. It is very sweet when fully ripe and highly esteemed for jelly or jam. Berries were often dried to preserve them for winter.
There are several varieties of these berries, all good for jellies, jams, etc. If very light jelly is desired, the pink or white varieties should be used, and the berries gathered just before they are ripe. For jam and dark jellies, very ripe berries should be used. For preserves, gather the berries as for jelly. Ripe fruit is also desirable for wines and cordials. Fresh berries should always be used.
The leaves of the black raspberry are rich in vitamin C and were often dried and used for tea. Place several leaves in a cup of hot water and allow to stand ten minutes, then strain and serve with milk and sugar to make the tea.
Mrs. Mann Norton told us, “I like wild raspberries better than I do the tame ones. They’ve got lots more flavor. They used to be on our place up at the farm and we would go out and pick an eight-pound bucket full.”
It has been suggested that they taste best eaten fresh with sugar and cream, but they also made a good berry drink. To make this, put berries in jars with vinegar, seal, and let stand one month. Strain through a sieve and put the juice in sterilized bottles. To use, dilute with cold water and sweeten with sugar.
Raspberry jelly: take ½ gallon berries and boil them in one pint water until thoroughly cooked. Strain, and to one pint juice, add one pound sugar. Boil until it jellies, and pour into jars.
Raspberry preserves: gather the berries when they are almost ripe. Put ½ gallon in a porcelain kettle with one pint of water. Boil ten minutes, or until the berries are tender. Drain off ⅔ of the juice, add one pound of sugar for each pound of berries, and boil until the syrup is thick. Put in jars and seal while hot.
Raspberry pickles: wash ½ gallon fresh, almost ripe, berries. Place them in self-sealing jars with a half teaspoon each of cloves and allspice, and one stick of cinnamon. Boil 1½ pints of good apple vinegar with a half cup of sugar and pour over the berries. Seal while hot.
Raspberry vinegar: put two gallons ripe raspberries in a stone jar. Pour a gallon cider vinegar over them, and let stand twenty-four hours. Drain, then pour the liquor over a gallon fresh berries and let stand overnight. Strain and add one measure of sugar for every measure of juice. Boil and skim. Bottle when cold.
Wineberry (Rubus phoenicolasius) (family Rosaceae)
(commonly called red raspberry in the mountains, strawberry-raspberry)
This berry was originally introduced from Japan, but has escaped from gardens and naturalized in the mountains. The wineberry has very long trailing, or arching, canes, with orange-red hairs along the stems. The tri-divided leaves are velvety to the touch and whitish on the underside. White flowers with five petals are followed by bright red, translucent berries that taste delicious. They can be substituted for black raspberries, dewberries, or blackberries in any desserts.
Jake Waldroop described the wineberries. “They grow on a long, green vine, sometimes fifteen or twenty feet in length. The berry has a pretty round face, and is sorta hollow in the middle. They just about top them all for pies, preserves, and jellies. They really are good. There aren’t too many of them around anymore. Where they build roads through the mountains or clear off a patch and don’t cultivate anything, that’s a good place for them to grow. Raspberries grow in bundles.”
Aunt Lola Cannon says, “A wild raspberry is real red—the most beautiful color. They make a wonderful jelly because they’re so tart and a beautiful jelly because of the color.”
Dewberry (Rubus flagellaris) (family Rosaceae)
The common dewberry is found in many habitats, from open woods to old fields and roadsides. It has long runners that creep along the ground and may be prostrate, or may send up shrubby shoots. Leaves are usually divided into three (sometimes five) sections, and turn a rich purplish-red very early in the summer. Berries are solitary, round, shiny black, and very seedy, but very good for jelly.
ILLUSTRATION 2 Dewberry
Southern dewberry (Rubus trivialis)
The southern dewberry appears on road banks and in fields, with flat, creeping branches that extend up to twenty feet from the parent plant, and root at the joints. Leaves have five leathery leaflets with prickly leaf stems. The flowers are solitary, large, and often pink. The berries are good to eat, but seedy.
Florence Brooks told us, “They make a jelly with a flavor that you’ll never forget. You don’t need to add anything extra to make them jell. You pick them, wash them, cook them, and strain out all the seeds. You take a cup of sugar to a cup of juice, or a lot of people put two cups of sugar and three cups of juice. Boil it till it rolls.
“Before there were canning jars, jelly was just put in glass jars and a lid on it. Sometimes my mother took beeswax and a white cloth. She melted the wax and dipped that cloth down in it and put it right over that jelly. That’ll keep it from molding, but if jelly molds, it doesn’t hurt it a bit in the world. All you have to do is run you a spoon around it and get the mold off.”
Dewberry frosting: cook berries and strain. Use one cup juice to one cup sugar and boil until it’s thick. Add one beaten egg white and beat until it can be spread on cake.
Dewberry pie: one cup sugar; ¼ cup flour; dash salt. Fill a pastry shell with dewberries, sprinkle the mixture of sugar, flour, and salt over the top. Dot with butter and bake.
Blackberry (Rubus argutus) (family Rosaceae)
The common blackberry is found in old fields, under power lines, and where roads have been cut into the forest. It has very thorny stems which are either high and arching, or low and sprawling. The leaves have five leaflets and are a deep rich green in color. The fruit is black, juicy, and a prime favorite. Berries are eaten plain, or used for pie, jellies, preserves, cobbler, juice, wine, cake, and bread. Charlie Ross Hartley often saw them dried on strips of chestnut bark in the sun. They were then kept in sacks hanging from the rafters. When needed, the berries were soaked in water before their use.
All blackberries are rich in vitamin C, and blackberry leaves have been used for food. Mrs. Mann Norton said: “Brier leaves should be used when about an inch long, before they get tough. Wash and cut, boil and season, as you would any spring greens, or mix with lettuce or creases.”
Blackberry leaves were also carefully dried for tea, used as a gargle, or swallowed to cure “summer complaint.” A mixture of dried leaves and honey was a good medicine for a sore throat or thrush.
Blackberry cobbler: use one pint blackberries, sugar to taste, a small amount of butter, and enough biscuit dough for several biscuits. Cook the blackberries until they come to a boil. Add the sugar, then some butter, and cook until thick. Roll out the dough, cut as for biscuits, and drop into the blackberries. Roll some dough very thin, cut it into strips and place on top of the blackberries. Bake until the crust on top is brown.
ILLUSTRATION 3 Blackberry
Blackberry syrup: one quart berry juice; one pint sugar; one teaspoon allspice; one teaspoon cinnamon; one teaspoon cloves; one teaspoon nutmeg. Mix ingredients and boil for fifteen minutes. Use over pancakes.
Blackberry flummery: one quart blackberries; 1¼ cups sugar; dash cinnamon; ½ cup hot water; dash salt; two tablespoons cornstarch. Mix berries with water, sugar, salt, and cinnamon, and cook to the boiling point. Reduce heat and cook slowly until liquid begins to look slightly syrupy. Make a paste of cornstarch and three tablespoons water. Stir into berry mixture, cook until slightly thick. Serve cold.
Blackberry roll: biscuit dough; four cups blackberries; ½ teaspoon cinnamon; two tablespoons melted butter or margarine; half cup honey; half cup sugar. Roll dough to 1⁄3-inch thickness, and brush with melted butter. Combine ½ the berries with cinnamon and honey and spread them over dough. Roll as a jelly roll. Place in a large, well-greased pan. Surround with remaining blackberries and sugar. Bake at 425° for thirty minutes. Slice and serve from the pan.
Blackberry jelly: one quart berries crushed in a pan without sugar or water. Cook slowly eight minutes. Strain; measure; bring to boiling point. Add 1½ cups sugar to each cup juice gradually, so the boiling does not stop. Bring to a brisk boil, skim, and bottle.
Blackberry cordial: boil the berries until they will break into pieces, and strain through a bag. To each pint of juice, add one pound of white sugar, a half ounce of mace, and two teaspoonfuls of cloves. Do not use ground spices. Boil for fifteen minutes. When cold, strain, and to each quart of juice add ¾ cup of whiskey. Bottle and seal. Another recipe: Wash the berries and place in a tin vessel, with a teaspoonful each of cloves, allspice, and mace to each gallon of berries. Cover with brandy or whiskey, and let stand four or five days. Strain and add three pounds of sugar to each gallon of juice. Let it heat until the sugar is dissolved. Bottle and cork while hot, and keep in a cool, dark place.
Blackberry wine: cover the berries with boiling water and let them stand twelve hours. Strain and add two pounds sugar to each gallon juice. Put in jugs, taking care to keep the vessels full to the brim, so that as the juice ferments, the scum which rises may flow off. Jugs should be refilled every morning with juice from a smaller vessel kept for this purpose. Continue this for four or five days; then stopper the jugs loosely, and after ten days cork tightly. This will be ready to bottle and seal in four months. Instead of using hot water, as directed, one may squeeze the juice from the berries, and proceed at once, using one pound sugar for each gallon juice. For dry wine, wash and squeeze the juice from fresh, ripe berries. Pour the juice into jugs; keep them full to the brim for four or five days so that the scum may flow off, replenishing each day with juice kept for that purpose. This will be ready to bottle and seal in six months.
Jake Waldroop’s recipe for blackberry wine: Gather six to eight gallons of wild blackberries, wash them well, and put them in a big container. Mix in five pounds of sugar, and then cover the top of the churn or container with a cloth, tied down so air can get in but insects can’t. Let the mixture work for eight to ten days.
Then strain the mixture through a clean cloth, squeezing the pulp so that all the juice is removed. Measure the juice you have. For every gallon of juice, add one and a half pounds of sugar. Let it work off. When it stops (when the foaming and bubbling have stopped on top), strain it again, measure the juice, and again add one and a half pounds of sugar to each gallon of juice. When it finishes working this time, it is done and can be bottled. Jake keeps his in an earthenware jug with a corn cob stopper.
He makes grape wine the same way.
Blackberry nectar: select sound, ripe blackberries. Add the berries to 3 cups good vinegar in a crock or large jar. Cover the crock with cheesecloth and let stand three or four days, stirring daily. When ready, strain without crushing the berries. Measure, and add one pound sugar for each pint juice. Boil gently for five minutes. Put in bottles or jars and seal. When serving, dilute with water and crushed ice. Use less sugar if a tart drink is preferred.
Blackberry shrub: gather the blackberries, wash and select so that there will be no sour or imperfect ones. Cover with apple vinegar (two years old) and cook until soft. Strain, and sweeten the juice to taste; boil down until it is about the consistency of thick syrup. Bottle and put in a cool, dark place. When serving, use three or four tablespoonfuls to a glass cold water.
Allegheny blackberry (Rubus allegheniensis)
This is the blackberry of the high mountains, whose blossoms and fruits appear late in the season. Canes are five to ten feet high, but almost thornless. Each of the five leaflets has a dark red leaf stem. Berries are long, shiny black, and sweet when fully ripe.
ILLUSTRATION 4 Mountain blackberry
Swamp blackberry (Rubus betulifolius)
Swamp blackberry is found in thickets in low, wet places. It has high arching canes, five-part, dark green leaves, and very thorny stems. The berries are black and juicy, but rather sour to the taste.
Sumac (Rhus typhina) (family Anacardiaceae)
(shumate; lemonade tree)
A small tree of the mountains with crooked, velvety branches. Leaves are woolly-hairy, with 9-13 leaflets, which turn brilliant red in late autumn. Flowers are in large green clusters, followed by woolly red berries. The very similar smooth sumac (Rhus glabra) has stems and smooth leaves, and leaflets which are pale on the underside. The very acid red fruits are used to make a pleasing summer drink. Someone told us, “The berries are rather sour, but can be eaten plain. They can be used in jelly to add tartness.”
ILLUSTRATION 5 Sumac
Sumac lemonade: crush berries; cover with boiling water; steep until well colored; strain through a cloth; sweeten with sugar or honey and serve cold. Prepare and serve at once, for the prepared lemonade will not keep. The lemonade not only tastes good, but is said to relieve fatigue and reduce fever.
Sumac and elderberry jelly: boil one pint sumac berries in three pints water until there is one quart juice (boil one quart elderberries in three pints water until fruit is soft). Mash. Strain juice through a thick white cloth. Mix, add one cup sugar for each cup juice and cook into jelly.
Buckberry (Vaccinium erythrocarpon) (family Ericaceae)
(mountain cranberry, deerberry, currant berry)
The buckberry grows on the higher ridges and along mountain trails and old roadways. It is a small shrub, three to five feet high, with green leaves and reddish stems. The leaves turn a reddish-yellow early in August. The small, reddish, bell-shaped flowers turn into shiny black berries, very tart, but pleasing to eat. They are a good thirst quencher when hiking in the mountains, or are good in pies or jelly and can be substituted for blueberries or huckleberries in any recipe.
ILLUSTRATION 6 Buckberry
ILLUSTRATION 7 Kenny Runion with buckberry.
Jake Waldroop told us, “Buckberries usually grow on high ground. They’re a dark blue and pretty well the same size as blueberries. They grow in thickets—blueberry thickets. They get up about three feet high.”
Florence Brooks suggested eating them with milk and sugar. “For a pie, clean and wash the berries and stew them with water and sugar—about a pint of water to a quart of berries. Then sweeten them to taste. If you want a dumpling pie, just cut the dough into squares and drop it into the stewed berries while the berries are boiling. I like to put my berries in a pan and cut the dough in strips and put them on top of the berries. Bake the cobbler in the oven.”
Squaw huckleberry (Vaccinium stamineum) (family Ericaceae)
(gooseberry, dangleberry, tangleberry)
This is a spreading shrub common in oak-pine woods with very pale, gray-green leaves. The white, bell-shaped flowers are very pretty and hang down from the ends of the branches in the early spring. The glaucous green fruit hangs from a slender stem, hence the name “dangleberry.” The berries are very sour until the time when they are fully ripe, late in the season. Few people enjoy them raw, but they make excellent sauce, jelly, and jam. Jake Waldroop told us that you hardly ever see gooseberries back in the north coves. “They’re usually on the south ground, on the ridges and in flat woods. They’re a round berry and there are white and red ones. The wildlife feed on gooseberries. They grow where you can pick just wads of them by the handful. When they bear, a bush will just be bowed over with them. You hardly ever see a gooseberry bush thicker [in diameter] than my thumb. They grow pretty tall and thick, and ripen mostly in September.”
ILLUSTRATION 8 Huckleberries
Sauce is made by cooking the juice or pulp with an equal weight of sugar. Serve cold.
Florence Brooks said that “some people like to stew them and eat them with cake. To stew them, you pick them and clean them like you do blackberries. Add sugar to sweeten to your own taste. Eat on pound cake, plain cake, any kind.”
Fanny Lamb said, “Gooseberries are good to use in pies—like you would make a huckleberry or strawberry pie, or anything like that.”
Gooseberry pie: mix two cups berries with ¾ cup sugar and cook until thick, mashing berries. Make a plain biscuit dough. Roll it out and cut into one-inch-wide strips. Pour berries into a pie plate, place strips of dough crosswise on the berries, and bake at about 450° until the crust is brown.
Sparkleberry (Vaccinium arboreum)
The sparkleberry is a tall shrub or small tree found on rocky ridges in open oak-pine woods. It has a gnarled trunk, and very shiny, almost evergreen, oval leaves. It blossoms profusely in early spring, with very sweet-scented white, bell flowers. Berries are wine-red to black and rather dry and insipid. It is said they can be used for jelly or preserves, but they need plenty of sweetening.
High bush blueberry (Vaccinium corymbosum)
The high bush blueberry grows to twenty feet high in rich woods or rocky hillsides, usually in deciduous forests. It has smooth green elliptical leaves. Flowers are pinkish. The berries are blue and small and rather sour. They were often dried for winter use.
High bush black blueberry (Vaccinium atrococcum)
Another tall bush found on rich hillsides and in mountain coves. The twigs are hairy, and the leaves slightly toothed. Flowers are white and the berries are black. They are very good to eat, but are seldom found in large enough quantities for jellies or jams.
Low blueberry (Vaccinium vacillans)
This is the common blueberry of the mountains and piedmont, low-growing and colonial, found in open pine woods and along roads and trails. Greenish-pink bell flowers appear before the leaves in early spring. The berry is the familiar, good-tasting bright blueberry, prized for cooking. It can be dried for winter use.
ILLUSTRATION 9 Low blueberry
The difference between blueberries and huckleberries is more than that of color, for there are blue huckleberries and black blueberries. In general, huckleberries each contain about ten large seeds, while a blueberry has many tiny seeds. Huckleberry leaves have glands that can be seen if a leaf is held up to light or examined under a pocket microscope.
ILLUSTRATION 10 Blueberry
Blueberry cobbler: cook berries for fifteen minutes over medium heat with one cup sugar. For dough, use two cups flour and two tablespoons shortening. Roll the dough out thin, cut into long pieces, and place on top of berries in a pan. Let boil. Place in oven until crust browns.
Stewed blueberries: one quart of berries sprinkled with sugar. Cook gently without adding water.
Blueberry juice: cook berries; strain. Add dash of cinnamon or lemon and drink hot.
Hot blueberry sauce: simmer blueberries with cinnamon, nutmeg, sugar to taste, and a dash of lemon. Simmer until berries pop. Serve hot.
Blueberry dessert: one quart blueberries; two cups biscuit mix; ⅔ cup milk; two tablespoons melted butter; two tablespoons sugar; ¼ teaspoon cinnamon. Cook berries and drain thoroughly. Roll out dough, brush with melted butter, and spread blueberries over surface. Roll up and place seam side down in a greased baking dish. Bake in a hot oven (425°) about twenty minutes.
Blueberry fritters: mix up biscuit dough, add one well-beaten egg, sugar to taste, and one cup blueberries. Fill a small kettle with grease, melt, and drop in two or three fritters at a time, turning until they’re brown. Dip out and sprinkle with sugar.
Blueberry crisp: four cups blueberries; 1⁄3 cup sugar; four tablespoons butter; ½ cup brown sugar; 1⁄3 cup flour; ¾ cup quick oats. Put berries in a baking dish, and sprinkle with sugar. Cream butter with brown sugar, blend in flour and oats with a fork. Spread over berries and bake.
Spiced blueberries: five pounds blueberries; six cups sugar; two cups weak vinegar; one tablespoon cinnamon; one tablespoon cloves; one tablespoon allspice. Tie spices in cheesecloth. Boil sugar, spices, and vinegar for ten minutes. Add berries, simmer ten minutes. Seal in hot, clean jars.
Bilberry (Gaylussacia frondosa)
(huckleberry)
Bilberries are shrubs found on high, dry ridges. They have olive green, leathery leaves, resin-dotted on the underside, and pink flowers with opening leaves followed by dark blue, rather dry berries. Bilberries look much like huckleberries, but they have a white color that gives them a “frosty” appearance. They’re good raw, and in pies and jelly.
ILLUSTRATION 11 Bilberry
Huckleberry (Gaylussacia baccata)
This huckleberry is a small shrub, which grows to four feet and has reddish stems and leaf stems. The leaves are shiny green and resinous. Flowers are reddish with the opening leaves and are also glandular. Berries are very shiny black, seedy, and very sweet.
Dwarf huckleberry (Gaylussacia dumosa)
Dwarf huckleberries grow in large patches, joined together by running roots. They are six to twelve inches high, with almost evergreen leaves. White flowers appear in early spring with the new leaves. The berries are black and very sweet. Box turtles often collect the entire crop.
Huckleberry is the common mountain name for all species of Gaylussacia and Vaccinium. They are also called wild blueberries, or buckberries, and are very similar to tame blueberries, but are a little larger, darker and more sour. They are eaten plain, with cream and sugar, or used in pies, preserves, jelly, or wine. They can be dried for winter use by spreading them thinly on a tray and placing them in the sun each day until dry—they should be ready in about a week. Store in tight containers.
Florence Brooks suggests adding a little rhubarb to huckleberry jelly. “I just don’t believe huckleberries will make without Sure-jel or a little something sour added.” Huckleberries may be put up in any way that dewberries are, but they require less sugar than other berries.
Huckleberry jam: wash the berries, put them in a kettle with a little water, and boil until tender. Add ½ pound sugar to each pound fruit, and boil thirty minutes or until quite thick.
Huckleberry jelly: boil the berries in very little water until very tender; strain, and boil the juice five minutes. Then measure and add one pound of sugar to one and a half pints of juice. Return to the fire and boil twenty minutes. Jelly should always boil fast.
Huckleberry pickles: the huckleberry may be pickled just as the dewberries are.
Huckleberry puffs: one pint huckleberries; two cups flour; two teaspoons baking powder; one level teaspoon salt; two eggs; enough sweet milk to make a batter a little thicker than that used for cakes. Grease six or seven teacups thoroughly with butter. Fill them half full with the above mixture; place in closely covered steamer and steam one hour. The puffs will come out perfect puff balls. Serve with sauce. Puffs are spongy and absorb a great deal. Other fruits or berries may be used.
Huckleberry cake: one cup butter; two cups sugar; three cups flour; four eggs; ¾ cup milk; two teaspoons baking powder; one teaspoon vanilla; one quart huckleberries. Cream butter and sugar; add eggs. Add milk and flour alternately, then add baking powder, vanilla, and berries. Bake in loaf pan in moderate oven (350°) forty-five minutes to one hour. Serve with butter and sugar sauce (light brown sugar) or eat as is.
Elderberry (Sambucus canadensis)
(elderblow)
The elderberry is a tall shrub found in waste places, along streams, and in old garden spots. It has large leaves with many smooth, green leaflets. Often numerous stalks come up in a group. Bark is rather light brown and warty. Flowers appear in large, flat, fragrant clusters (ILLUSTRATION 12), followed by small, dark wine-red to black berries (ILLUSTRATION 13).
ILLUSTRATION 12 Elderberry in flower
ILLUSTRATION 13 … and mature.
Elder flowers were brewed into a tea, said to be a blood purifier, or used as an alternative for aspirin, relieving pain and inducing sleep. The flowers were also brewed with chamomile or basswood to make a wash for the skin.
Flowers are also used for fritters or wine. Elderberries are used for cold drinks, wine, pies, preserves, and jellies. BERRIES MUST BE COOKED BEFORE USING as they are dangerous to some people if eaten raw.
Rufus Morgan told us that “we have the purple elderberries in this section [of the country]. People use them for preserves and elderberry wine. If you climb up in the mountains in the higher elevations, especially in the Smokies, there is a red elderberry with a white blossom—it’s a different shaped group of flowers, like a pineapple, but smaller. The purple elderberry blossom is flat on top. They both have the white blooms, but the fruit of the purple elderberry is different.”
Jake Waldroop says, “They’re most everywhere. They’re a small berry and they grow in a cluster. They usually ripen in August. They say elderberries make the finest wine, although I never made any. They make good jelly and preserves.”
Aunt Lola Cannon’s grandmother made elderberry wine. “She was a practical nurse and midwife. I believe she used it to give to people with rheumatism, lame joints. When she went to deliver a baby, she gave this wine to the patient.”
Lawton Brooks told us that he does make wine out of elderberries. “You just put them up like you do all the berries. Put them in your churn or something like that. Then you let them work off [ferment]. Put a little sugar in them and let them work off good. Then you take them up and strain that. Add a good bit of sugar to them that time, and put them back in the churn again, and let them work off again. I don’t know exactly how long it took us to make that stuff. I got drunk on it—stayed drunk for a day or two. That was such a bad drunk that I’ve never drunk any more elderberry wine. It liked to have killed me.”
Mountain people used to make fritters out of the blooms by dipping them in a thin batter and frying them in grease.
Elderberry pie: make a crust using one cup flour and one tablespoon shortening. Roll it out thin, place in a pie pan and cook the crust before you put berries in it. For the pie, use one pint elderberries, one tablespoon cornstarch, and one cup sugar. Put them in the cooked pie crust and bake thirty minutes at 325°
Elderflower flapjacks: remove the stems from two dozen flower clusters. Wash flowers in one quart water with four teaspoons salt. Mix with a pancake batter and fry. Sprinkle the pancakes with sugar.
Elderberry drink: cook berries with sugar. Strain and serve cold.
Elderflower fritters: dip flowers in hot fat. Sprinkle with sugar and eat.
Elderberry wine: use five quarts of berries to six quarts of water. Mash the berries and let stand in a crock two weeks, stirring every day. Strain. Add as much sugar as you have juice. Let stand two weeks and then bottle.
Elderberry jam: eight cups berries; six cups sugar; ¼ cup vinegar. Crush and measure the berries, then add sugar and vinegar. Boil until thick. Pour boiling into scalded jars and seal.
Elderberry-apple-orange jam: one quart elderberries; five cups sugar; one lemon; twelve large cooking apples; three medium-sized oranges. Cook apples until mushy. Add the berries, oranges, and lemon chopped fine. Grate the rinds of one orange and the lemon. Mix together with sugar and boil thirty minutes.
Steamed elderberry pudding: four cups berries; two cups sugar; one teaspoon lemon juice; one tablespoon butter; two cups flour; four teaspoons baking powder; one teaspoon salt; ¾ cup milk. Sift dry ingredients and work in the butter. Add milk and mix well. Combine sugar, berries, and lemon juice and mix these with the batter; pour into a buttered baking dish, cover tightly, and steam forty-five minutes. Serve with cream.
Possum haw (Viburnum nudum) (family Caprifoliaceae)
Possum haw is a large shrub found in wet places—in swamps and along streams. It has oval, shiny green leaves and flat clusters of sweet-scented white flowers. Its fruits are very seedy blue berries.
ILLUSTRATION 14 Possum haw
Black haw (Viburnum prunifolium)
Black haw is a large shrub or small tree, which grows in open, rocky woodlands. Its leaves are ovate and finely toothed. Flowers appear in flat white cymes followed by black berries.
Both the possum haw and the black haw are extremely seedy, but can be used for jelly. They are sometimes combined with wild grapes or elderberries. Some say that the viburnum fruits are best gathered after a frost.
Possum haw jelly: boil berries, strain, add sugar to taste, and boil again until thickened. Combine with crabapples, if desired.
Black haw sauce: one quart berries; ¾ cup honey; two tablespoons lemon juice. Crush the berries, strain, and cook with honey and lemon juice for ten minutes; then chill and whip.
Figs (Ficus carica) (family Moraceae)
Figs persist as bushes around old houses and garden areas, freezing back every winter in the mountain areas, but sending up new shoots again in the spring. Its twigs have an acrid, milky juice that is poisonous to some people. The flowers are very insignificant, but when ripe the figs are very good to eat. The fruits have a large sugar content, and can be dried or frozen. Some say they should always be picked in the early morning. Figs have been used not only as a source of food but also in home medicine for boils, sores, or pulmonary and kidney infections.
ILLUSTRATION 15 Fig
Fig preserves: put figs in a pan, and add sugar until it covers the figs. Let them sit overnight, then cook slowly until the juice boils to a jelly. Put in jars and seal.
Preserved figs: one pint figs; ¾ pound sugar. Cover figs with water to which a pinch of baking soda has been added to take away dust and fuzz. Add the sugar, and bring to a boil slowly, and let stand overnight. Repeat the boiling and standing three times, adding spices or a lemon slice to the last boil. On the third day, pack in jars.
Fig pudding: two cups cooked rice; two cups milk; one whole egg beaten; ¼ stick butter or margarine; one cup chopped figs; ½ cup chopped nut meats; ½ cup brown sugar; ¼ teaspoon ginger; ¼ teaspoon nutmeg; ½ teaspoon vanilla. Add the sugar to the beaten egg, and fold in rice, milk, figs, nuts, and spices. Add vanilla and melted butter. Pour into greased baking dish and bake in a 350° oven until mixture is set and slightly browned on top. Serve with cream, ice cream, or vanilla sauce.
Honey figs: peel figs and cut in half. Arrange in serving dish and pour a mixture of equal parts honey and hot water over them. Chill well and serve with cream.
Figs with ham: peel figs and arrange with finely sliced ham on a platter.
Ripe fig preserves: Place figs in the sun for a short while to harden their outer skin, then prick each fig with a darning needle. Prepare syrup (use one pound sugar in ½ cup water for each pound figs) by stirring water until all sugar has dissolved, and bring to a boil. Add fruit and boil one minute. Add three to four tablespoons lemon juice and boil until fruit is clear and transparent. Bottle and seal while hot.
Fig preserves: six quarts firm, ripe, unbroken figs; six cups sugar; four cups water. Wash figs and pat dry. Bring sugar and water to a boil, add figs, and cook until tender. Pack in jars and process thirty minutes in a hot-water bath.
Mayapple (Podophyllum peltatum) (family Berberidaceae)
(maypop, mandrake, hog apple, wild lemon)
Colonial in habit, mayapples appear in large colonies on rich bottom lands and open hillsides. The large, umbrella-like leaves hide the pretty white flowers and later the oval fruits. The lemon-yellow fruits are edible, with a strawberry-like flavor. Green mayapples can give you a terrific stomach ache. CAUTION: ALL THE REST OF THE PLANT IS POISONOUS IF EATEN.
ILLUSTRATION 16 Florence Brooks with mayapple.
Jake Waldroop described the mayapple to us. “It’ll have one stem come up to a bunch and have a broad leaf. Sometimes it’ll fork. It has a great big white bloom that sheds off and it’ll bear an apple. They’re pretty good to eat. Black draft medicine is almost all pure mayapple. The plants die in the fall and come back every year.” Mayapples are delicious candied, preserved as jam, and in pies.
Mayapple drink: squeeze out the juice from the fruit, and add sugar and lemon; or add to white wine.
Mayapple marmalade: gather ripe fruits, and simmer until soft. Strain through a colander, and boil the pulp with sugar to taste.
Pawpaw (Asimina triloba) (family Annonaceae)
(custard tree, custard apple, frost banana)
The pawpaw is a small slender tree, found in rich woods and along streams. It is always easily identified by its obovate green leaves, and its very ill-smelling twigs. Three-petaled dark red flowers appear before the leaves in early spring. The fruits are green, then yellow, and finally brown, and look like stubby bananas with a thick, sweet pulp. They are ripe in late autumn, and are about an inch in diameter. One has to develop a taste for pawpaws. Someone said they “feel like sweet potatoes in your mouth, and taste somewheres between a banana and a persimmon.” Gordon Underwood said you “eat them just like a pear. They’re yellow on the inside.”
Baked pawpaws: bake in skins; serve with cream.
Pawpaw pie: one cup sugar; one cup milk; one egg; ¼ teaspoon salt; 1½ cups pawpaws, peeled and seeded. Place in a stew pan and stir together. Cook until thickened. Pour in an unbaked pie shell and bake until done.
Pawpaw flump or float: beat up pulp with egg white and sugar like an apple float.
Pawpaw bread: add pawpaw pulp to nut bread. It gives bread a lovely rose-red color.
River plum (Prunus americana) (family Rosaceae)
The river plum is a small tree which grows to twenty feet. It has thorny branches and can be found along rivers and streams in the mountains and piedmont. Leaves are ovate and toothed. The sweet, white, five-petaled flowers appear before the leaves in early spring (April-May). The very tart fruits are red or yellow and can be dried for winter use.
Sloe plum (Prunus umbellata)
(hog plum)
The sloe plum is a small tree found in pine woods and along roadsides, mostly in the piedmont. Its bark is scaly and the leaves are oval and shiny. Its pure white flowers appear several weeks later than those of the chickasaws or river plums. The dark-colored fruit ripens from July to September. Fruits are small and tart, sometimes rather bitter.
Chickasaw plum (Prunus angustifolius)
Chickasaw plums were once native to areas west of the Mississippi River. The Creeks and Cherokees planted them near their villages and they have naturalized in old fields, roadsides, and open woodlands all over the mountain areas. The chickasaw is a small tree, with narrow leaves, which usually grows in clumps. The white flowers appear before the leaves. Chickasaws have the best-tasting plums—large red-yellow fruits that are very sweet when ripe and make superlative plum jelly, plum butter, preserves, and spiced plums.
In the old days, it was the fashion to have plum-gathering picnics, going by horse and buggy or wagon to the plum thickets to gather bushels of fruit and dry them for winter use.
ILLUSTRATION 17 Chickasaw plums
ILLUSTRATION 18
Wild plum catsup: five quarts wild plums; four pounds sugar; one pint vinegar; one pint water; 1½ teaspoons cinnamon; one tablespoon allspice; one tablespoon cloves. Boil plums with one teaspoon soda. Bring to a rolling boil, then strain through a colander. Simmer with sugar, vinegar, and spices until thick as catsup.
Plum cobbler: cook and pit one quart plums. Roll biscuit dough thin and cut in strips. Grease a pan well and add a layer of plums and strips of dough, topping with sugar and dabs of butter. Repeat until pan is almost full. Bake in medium oven.
Plum pudding: put pitted, cooked, sweetened plums two inches deep in bottom of a baking dish. Beat one cup sugar, four tablespoons butter, and one egg to a cream. Add one scant cup of milk, two cups all-purpose flour, and two teaspoons baking powder. Mix well, and pour over plums. Bake one hour at 350°.
Wild plum conserve: seven pounds wild plums; five pounds sugar; two pounds of seeded raisins; three oranges. Wash and pick over plums. Cover with boiling water, and add ½ teaspoon soda. Bring to rolling boil. Pour off the soda water, rinse plums, and strain through a colander. Slice oranges in thin slices, rind and all, removing seeds, and grind the raisins. Combine fruit and sugar, adding enough water to keep them from sticking. Simmer until thick and clear.
Wild plum jam: Three-fourths pound sugar for each pound plums. Place in alternate layers in kettle and let stand until juice flows freely. Boil 15 minutes. Press through a sieve, return to fire, and boil until thick, stirring constantly.
Wild plum preserves: take half-ripe plums, and boil for three minutes. Pour off the water and add one pound of sugar to one pound of fruit. Boil for thirty minutes, or until the syrup is thick.
Plum preserves: pour boiling water over large plums, then remove the skins. Make a syrup of a pound sugar and a cup of water for each pound fruit. Boil, and pour over the plums. Let it stand overnight, then drain saving the syrup. Boil syrup again, skim, and pour over plums. Let them stand in this another day, then cook in the syrup until clear. Remove the plums with a skimmer and pack them carefully in cans; boil the syrup until thick and pour into the cans and seal.
Plum jelly: cover ½ gallon half-ripe plums with water in a porcelain kettle, and boil ten minutes. Pour off the juice and strain through flannel. Add one pound sugar to each pint juice and boil until it will harden when cold (about twenty to thirty minutes).
Plum sauce: gather plums, wash, and lift gently from water. Add one cup sugar for each cup fruit. Do not add extra water as that clinging to fruit is enough. Cook slowly at low heat. When mixture has thickened, strain through colander to remove seeds and skins.
OR: take ½ gallon almost green plums, wash and cover with water, and boil fifteen minutes. Pour off the water; add to the plums two pounds sugar and one cup good apple vinegar. Boil for thirty minutes. Take from the fire and flavor with one teaspoonful each of extract of cloves and ginger.
OR: boil three quarts of half-ripe plums fifteen minutes. Rub through a colander and add one pound sugar, one cup apple vinegar, and ½ teaspoon each of ground cloves, mace, and cinnamon. Place again on the fire and boil for half an hour.
Plum sweet pickle: take ½ gallon almost green plums and scald until the skins are tender. Drain them well and place in jars. Have ready a syrup made of two pounds sugar, one pint apple vinegar, and a teaspoon each whole cloves and mace. Pour over the plums while hot, and seal.
Salt wild plum pickle: take ½ gallon large green plums, wash and put in self-sealing jars. Make a pickle of one quart water, one teaspoon vinegar, and one teaspoon salt. Boil a few minutes, pour over the plums, and seal while hot. Keep until the cool weather and they will be ready for use.
Sour wild plum pickle: take ½ gallon green plums, and pierce them each two or three times with a needle. Put in jars. Boil one quart vinegar, two cups sugar, one teaspoon cloves, and one stick cinnamon. Pour over the plums and seal while hot.
Green wild plum pickle (imitation olives): pick plums that are grown, but not at all ripe. Boil a mixture of one tablespoon white mustard seed, one tablespoon salt, and one pint vinegar. Pour this over the plums. Repeat this three mornings in succession and seal in jars.
Spiced wild plums: boil ½ gallon plums five minutes, pour off the water and add three pounds sugar, one teaspoon each ground cloves, allspice, and cinnamon, and one pint vinegar. Boil a half hour, stirring constantly. Seal while hot.
Peach (Prunus persica) (P. amygdalus)
(Indian peach)
Indian peaches are small trees, spreading with scraggly branches, said to be descendants of those trees planted by the Cherokees around their villages. Other, more modern varieties are planted by the birds, or persist around old homesites. Leaves are very narrow and shining, and beautiful pink blossoms appear before the leaves in very early spring. The fruit of the Indian peach is white with a rosy cheek, white-meated with a red heart. Other old peach trees have small, yellowish or pinkish fruits. All have a most delicious flavor, raw or cooked. Peaches are rich in iron, and peach leaf tea was a medicine for bladder troubles or used as a sedative.
Peach and apple butters were made with molasses before the early settlers had sugar.
ILLUSTRATION 19 Terry and Teresa Tyler with Indian peach.
Pickled peaches: peel fruit, quarter, and put in a pot. Make enough brine of two parts vinegar, one part water, and two parts sugar to cover fruit. Add ground cinnamon, nutmeg, and allspice to taste. Cook until tender. When done, lift the fruit out and pack in jars. Keep brine simmering and pour into jars over fruit leaving a half inch at the top. Seal at once. (Apples can be used instead of peaches.)
Peach tarts: for the tart pastry use two cups flour; one teaspoon salt; two teaspoons sugar; two egg yolks; ½ cup sweetened soft butter; a few drops of water. Sift dry ingredients together. Place in bowl and make a hollow in center. Put egg yolks and butter in hollow and work in with the fingers, gradually blending in dry ingredients. Add a few drops of water to hold the mixture together. Wrap in wax paper and chill thoroughly. Roll out ¼-inch thick and fit loosely into an eight-inch pan. Bake, cool, and brush with glaze. Peel and slice the peaches, roll in lemon juice, drain, arrange in shell, and spoon on glaze, covering all pieces well. Chill. For glaze use ¾ cup orange juice; two tablespoons sugar; one tablespoon cornstarch. Mix in saucepan and cook, stirring until thick and clear. (Blackberries or grapes may be used instead of peaches.)
Pincherry (Prunus pensylvanica) (family Rosaceae)
(red bird cherry)
The pincherry is a small tree found in the high mountains with a shining, lenticeled bark, and slender, almost drooping branches. The leaves are very narrow, thin, and a shining green. Solitary five-petaled white flowers appear before the leaves in the spring. Cherries are small, sour, and a bright red in color. They make a particularly pretty, bright red jelly.
Wild cherry (Prunus serotina)
(black cherry, rum cherry)
The black cherry can be a tall tree (100 feet high in the mountain coves), or it can be smaller and almost shrubby on rock outcrops, along fencerows, or in old pastures. It grows in all habitats, and is a common tree in the mountains. The bark is satiny, the leaves are oval and shiny green. Flowers appear in a white raceme with the new leaves and the cherries are black on red stems.
The wild cherry has always been a “medicine” tree. Its bark was used in cough medicines and known as “lung balm” bark. To prepare wild cherry bark for tea, boil the cherry bark and make a cough syrup out of it. Take the bark and a little whiskey. They claim it’s the best medicine there is for the stomach.
Jake Waldroop says, “The wild cherries are ripe about the last of September and the first of October. They’re ripe when they drop off the trees. They’re mostly a hull and a great big round seed. They’ve got a pretty good flavor, not too bitter. They’re pretty plentiful.”
ILLUSTRATION 20 Wild cherry
Cherry wine: crush the cherries, put them in a large crock and cover with boiling water. Cover the crock and let it sit until the juice stops working. Then strain through a cloth squeezing out all the juice. Put the juice back in the crock, add three cups sugar to each gallon, cover, and let sit nine to ten days, or until it stops working. Put in bottles, but don’t seal too tightly until it has stopped fermenting completely. The wine is supposed to be very potent.
Wild cherry jelly: wash three quarts cherries, and place in a vessel with two cups water. Boil until very tender. Pour off the juice, measure and add one measure sugar to each measure juice. Boil until jellied. Put in molds and cover when cold with writing paper dipped in brandy.
Wild brandy cherries: fill a large jar with cherries. Make a syrup of a half pound of sugar for each pound of fruit. Scald the fruit in this syrup, but do not boil. Remove the fruit, boil the syrup until it is reduced by one third, and add one third as much brandy. Pour over the cherries, and seal while hot.
Southern negus: take a quart red cherries, three pounds black wild cherries, and four pounds currants. Mash and mix all together, and store in a cool place for three or four days. Strain, and boil the juice. To every pint of juice, add ½ pound sugar. Let cool and bottle. Add two or three tablespoonfuls to one glass ice water.
One-flowered haw (Crataegus uniflora) (family Rosaceae)
(haws, thornapples)
This is a small shrub found in open oak-pine woods and on rock outcrops. Its leaves are leathery and toothed. White blossoms appear in the spring with the new leaves. The haws are brownish-red, globose, and very seedy.
October haw (Crataegus flava)
This is the most common haw in this area, a shrub or small tree with rounded, serrate-edged leaves. The white flowers appear rather late in the spring, followed by reddish-yellow haws late in August-September. This haw is common in open, dry, or rocky woodlands.
River haw (Crataegus punctata)
River haw forms a very thorny shrub or small tree, found along stream banks and rich, rocky woods. The leaves are almost obovate, and its white flowers, purple-centered, are followed by bright red fruits.
ILLUSTRATION 21 October haw
ILLUSTRATION 22 River haw
Mrs. Norton described the haws as “haw berries. They’re very seedy, and they are usually eaten plain. We used to call them rabbit apples; they grow on thorny bushes, and are just little, round, red things. I’ve eaten some of them. I prefer them to groundcherries any time.”
Thornapple relish: pick over and wash one gallon thornapples. Remove blossom ends and cut the apples in half. Put in a kettle with barely enough water to cover the fruit, and simmer until soft. Drain, and strain through a colander. Add one cup brown sugar, two teaspoons pepper, two teaspoons salt, two teaspoons cinnamon, and three finely chopped onions. Mix together. Add one pint vinegar, and boil until onions are tender. Bottle.
Hawthorn jelly: ½ pint water, one pound fruit. Simmer haws, mash, and add one pound sugar to one pint liquid plus a dash of lemon juice. The result will be a brown jelly that tastes like guava.
Red haw (hawthorn): crush three pounds fruit (not too ripe). Add four cups water and bring to a boil. Simmer ten minutes and strain the juice through a jelly bag. Bring four cups of juice to a boil and add seven cups sugar. This shows a jelly test soon after it begins to boil (for test, jelly flakes rather than pours off a spoon). Pour in jars and seal.
Haw marmalade: cook haws in very little water, and press through a sieve. Use 1½ cups strained pulp and juice. The juice of a lemon or orange improves the flavor. Add five cups sugar, boil hard for one minute, and seal in jars.
Pear (Pyrus communis)
Old pear trees are found at homesites, and sometimes naturalize at the edges of open woods. They are tall trees, often with scraggly branches. They have fragrant white flowers very early in the spring. The pears are of varying size and flavor, often very hard, and need cooking to be edible. Pears can be substituted in any recipes using apples or dried for winter use.
Baked pears: put halves in baking dish, cover with honey and a dash of cinnamon. Or, scoop out the cores (but leave the peeling) and fill the center with honey and chopped nuts. Bake half hour at low heat.
Pear conserve: one cup pears and one cup apples. Grind fruit, add two cups sugar, and mix thoroughly. Boil for twenty minutes and seal.
Apple (Pyrus malus) (family Rosaceae)
Old apples persist where orchards once covered the mountains, and around old homesites. Apples also come up along fencerows and woods’ edges where apple cores have been thrown. These old apple trees may be gnarled and crooked, but often have small apples with a very good taste. The sweet white apple blossoms appear with the leaves in early spring.
Dried apples: apples are either sliced into thin slivers, or cored and sliced into rings. The rings were strung on a pole; slices were spread out on boards. They were then set out in the sun or in front of the fireplace, depending on the weather, until the slices were brown and rubbery. This usually took two or three days, and they were turned over frequently so they would dry evenly. When dry, the apples were stored in sacks for use during the winter. Mrs. Grover Bradley says, “Those make the best fried pies I ever ate.” (Peaches were dried just like apples. Small berries such as blackberries were simply spread out on boards and were not sliced.)
Apple beer: peel apples and dry peelings as above. Put peelings in a crock, and add enough boiling water to cover. Cover crock and let sit for about two days until the flavor comes out in the peelings. Strain and drink. Add some sugar, if desired.
Scalloped apples: use six tart cooking apples, one cup graham cracker crumbs, ¾ cup sugar, ⅛ teaspoon cinnamon, butter or margarine, water. Pare, core, and slice apples. Roll out crackers and add sugar and cinnamon mixture. Place in baking dish in layers, covering each layer with crumbs dotted with butter. Add hot water to moisten. Bake in a medium oven three quarters of an hour until apples are well cooked and crumbs browned.
Dried apple cake: mix your favorite white or yellow cake, and bake in four thin layers. Mix one pint dried apples with one pint water and cook until thick and the apples are mashed up. Sweeten apples to taste and add spices. Let cool and spread between layers and on top of the cake.
Fruit vinegar: Mrs. Tom MacDowell said that she used to make fruit vinegar. “We had a cider mill and we ground the apples up and made it out of the cider. Before the cider mill ever come, they mashed up the apples and put them in a barrel and let’em rot, and then drained the vinegar off.”
Apple vinegar: mash up two or three bushels of apples. Put them in a barrel or crock and fill with water, using one quart syrup to 2½ gallons water. Cover with a coarse cloth and keep in a warm place. The vinegar will make in a few months, but will not be good for pickles until it is eighteen months to two years old. Vinegar may also be made from one gallon cider using one cup syrup and “mother” from other vinegar.
Baked apples: wash, core, and fill with honey and chopped nuts. Bake at low heat.
Apples on a stick: alternate chunks of apples and pears on a stick. Broil over an open fire.
Cider apples: peel and cut apples in small pieces. Cook slowly on low heat in enough cider to cover the apples.
Apple sauce: cook peeled, cored apple slices with butter and brown sugar.
Apple grunter: use little, sour wild apples. Grease a baking dish with butter, put in two inches sliced apples, and shake on cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt. Tuck six ¼-inch cubes fat salt pork into the apples. Pour ½ cup molasses over the whole thing. Put on a biscuit dough crust. Make holes in the crust with fork tines so the juice can bubble up. Bake.
Crabapple (Pyrus coronaria) (family Rosaceae)
(northern wild crab)
The northern wild crabapple is a wide-spreading tree of the mountains, found in thickets, rich coves, and often along streams. It has oval leaves and rather spiky twigs. The beautiful pink flowers appear in early May and spread a spicy fragrance over the woods. The fruits are round, yellow-green, and very hard. They are considered the best of all apples for apple butter.
Crabapple (Pyrus angustifolius)
The southern crabapple is a small, spreading tree, usually growing in thickets, with prickly branches and very narrow, toothed leaves. The flowers are deep pink and very fragrant. The little apples are hard, shiny, and green, and will hang on the tree until January. Jake Waldroop says, “We used them mixed with other apples for jelly. The crabapples are ready now (in September). They never do get sweet. Nothing affects them—they’re always sour.”
ILLUSTRATION 23 Crabapple
Crabapple jelly: one gallon crabapples and one gallon golden delicious apples. Peel apples and quarter. Cook together for thirty minutes. Strain the juice. Put into a cooker with two cups sugar for each cup juice. Boil for one hour.
Crabapple jelly: simmer crabapples twenty minutes. Mash in a pan. Strain, and for each pint juice add one pound sugar; boil ten minutes. Add mint leaves if desired. Put in jars, and set in a dark place to thicken.
Virginia jelly: four quarts crabapples, two quarts grapes. Wash and clean fruit, cook and strain juice. Add sugar and boil until it reaches the jelly stage.
Crabapple preserves: small hard crabapples are picked from the ground in December or January. Cook with sugar and a few red cinnamon candies. Juice thickens into jell overnight.
Sweet pickled crabapples: two quarts crabapples, 2½ cups sugar, two sticks cinnamon, two teaspoons whole allspice, one teaspoon whole cloves, two cups vinegar, 1½ cups water. Wash crabapples. Cut out blossom ends, but leave stems intact. Tie spices in cheesecloth. Combine in large pot with spices, sugar, vinegar, and water. Boil five minutes. Add enough fruit to cover the surface without crowding. Cook slowly until just tender. Fill jars, and seal at once.
Crabapple butter: four quarts crabapples, three cups sugar, four cups water, two teaspoons cinnamon, one teaspoon cloves, one teaspoon salt. Cook crabapples with peelings and run through a food mill. Boil slowly over low flame until thick. Seal boiling hot.
Crabapple preserves: peel the crabapples and drop them in water. When all are ready, place them in a porcelain kettle and let them just come to a boil. Remove from the fire, pour them with the water into an earthen bowl and let them stand twenty-four hours. Then take them out of the water and remove the cores. Drain them and then pack in sugar, using one pound sugar for each pound fruit. Let them stand twelve hours; pour off the syrup and boil it twenty minutes; then put the apples in and let them boil until clear, when they will be ready to seal.
Crabapple jelly: remove the stems, wash the apples and rub them well with a coarse cloth. Put them in a porcelain kettle, cover with water and let them boil until very tender. Strain out the juice and return it to the fire and boil ten or fifteen minutes longer. Then add one pound of sugar to each pint of juice, and boil until it jellies. This will take only a few minutes.
Crabapple pickle: peel and core the apples. Put them in a jar and over them pour hot vinegar, sweetened and spiced, as for peach pickles. Let this remain twenty-four hours; then drain off the vinegar, heat it, and pour over the apples and seal.
Crabapple pickle: peel and core the apples. Put them in a jar and over them pour hot vinegar, sweetened and spiced with choice spices. Always use good apple vinegar not less than two years old. Always seal the jars with three layers of brown paper put on with a flour paste when it is not convenient to use jars that are self-sealing.
Pasture rose (Rosa caroliniana) (family Rosaceae)
The pasture rose is a familiar low bush which grows to six feet high, found in old fields, on rock outcrops, and on roadsides. It has variable divided leaves and prickly stems. The roses are single, pink, and very fragrant. The red hips are extremely rich in vitamin C.
Swamp rose (Rosa palustris)
The taller swamp rose is found in marshes, bogs, and along rivers and streams. The flowers are small but fragrant, and the red hips are equally edible. The hips of various cultivated roses such as the dog rose (Rosa canina), the sweet brier (Rosa eglanteria), and the multiflora rose (Rosa multiflora) can all be eaten.
ILLUSTRATION 24 Rose hips
Rose hip tea: cook the hips and strain off the juice. Then reheat juice with honey or sugar. It has the taste of apple. The darker the hips, the better the tea.
Rose hip juice: wash and remove ends from hips. Use 1½ cups water to one cup rose hips. Cover, and let stand twenty-four hours. Strain, and bring to a rolling boil. Add two tablespoons of vinegar or lemon juice and bottle.
Rose hip jelly: put in a boiler with water according to how many rose hips you have. Just let them simmer. Strain. Let juice start simmering and add a cup sugar for each cup juice.
Rose hip soup: four ounces dried rose hips, three cloves, cinnamon stick, lemon rind, one tablespoon white wine, one ounce flour, one ounce fat. Soak rose hips, and boil in one pint water with the lemon rind, cinnamon, and cloves until they are soft. Rub through a fine sieve. Brown flour in fat and gradually add the soup. Sweeten to taste. Add the wine and serve hot.
Haggenbutten: simmer rose hips gently. Strain the juice, and add honey. (Haws can be substituted.)
Rose hip jam: cook one pound of fresh rose hips with two cups boiling water. Press. Add pectin and sugar to juice and boil.
Rose hip jelly: boil equal parts of sugar and rose hips in enough water to keep from scorching. As soon as hips are soft enough, mash them in this brew, and boil five minutes longer. Strain, add pectin to juice and boil again.
Rose hip juice: four cups rose hips, two cups boiling water. Wash hips, chop coarsely, add boiling water. Cook five minutes. Strain. Add sugar to taste. Drink hot or cold, use on puddings, or add to cold milk to make a pudding by thickening rose juice with ground rice or tapioca. Makes a good drink with a dash of cinnamon or ginger.
Rose soup: cook hips. Strain, add ½ cup sugar and one tablespoon cornstarch. Cook until slightly thickened. Serve hot or cold.
Rose petal jam: one pound rose petals; two cups sugar; ½ cup water. Pinch white part from petals, wash, and dry. Dissolve sugar, stir in the petals, and place in a shallow pan. Cover with glass and place in the sun for eight hours. Then put in a kettle and simmer for twenty minutes.
Rose sugar: bury a fragrant rose in a glass jar full of powdered sugar. Put the top on tightly and place in the sun for several days. Use sugar in tea or on fruit.
Fried rose petals: dip in whiskey, then in batter. Fry in deep fat, dip in sugar, and serve.
Rose dew: gather roses in early morning. Pull petals into small pieces and to each cupful add two cups sugar. Mix well and pack in jars. After two months, drain off the liquid that has formed and bottle it for use in flavored drinks, whipped cream, or puddings.
Rose syrup: four cups rose hips, two cups boiling water. Cook five minutes, and strain through a cloth. Add sugar and boil until it begins to thicken slightly.
Rose petal tea: four cups boiling water over three teaspoons dried rose petals. Steep three to five minutes, and sweeten with honey. Add mint or basswood blooms for dyspepsia.
Maypop (Passiflora incarnata) (family Passifloraceae)
(wild passion flower, apricot vine, granadilla)
The maypop climbs ten to twelve feet by means of tendrils, but usually is found looped over other foliage. Leaves are three-lobed and indented. The showy lavender and green flowers are followed by the pulpy yellow-green fruit, juicy and edible when fully ripe.
Rev. Rufus Morgan told us, “The passion flower is supposed to have in the flower the various symbols of the crucified Christ—the nails and such, I’ve forgotten just what the symbols are. It is a fruit children like.”
Fanny Lamb said, “Just after frost, they go to turning yellow. Wild apricots are very different from the tame ones. They are about the size of an egg and are very seedy inside.”
ILLUSTRATION 25 Maypops in flower
ILLUSTRATION 26 … and mature.
Yellow passion flower (Passiflora lutea)
This small flowered relative to the maypop is a higher climber. It has small, deep green, blunt, three-lobed leaves that may be variegated, or streaked with white or yellow. The flowers are small and pale yellow. The purple fruits are about one inch long.
Maypop drink: pour hot water over maypops, squash out the pulp, strain, drink hot.
Maypops (wild apricots): gather maypops when they are very green. Take off the peeling, cut in halves, and take out the seed. Drop them in lime water, made in the proportion of one cup lime to one gallon water. Let them stand twelve hours. Boil fifteen minutes in weak alum water; then boil in clear water until they are clear. Drain well. Pack in granulated sugar using ¾ pound sugar to each pound fruit. Let stand twelve hours, then boil twenty minutes. Flavor strongly with ginger root. Either seal in jars or dry as crystallized apricots.
Maypop jelly: Use the seed and pulp of ripe maypops. Boil them fifteen minutes and strain. Add one pint sugar to each pint of juice and boil twenty-five to thirty minutes, or until it jells. To make maypop syrup, boil only until a thin syrup tests. It’s good with biscuits or pancakes.
Fox grape (Vitis labrusca) (family Vitaceae)
The fox grape is a high-climbing vine, with very large, rather smooth leaves. It is found in low woods and along streams in the mountains and upper piedmont. Flowers are intensely sweet scented and grapes are small and rather sweet.
ILLUSTRATION 27 Fox grape
Chicken grape (Vitis vulpina)
(possum grape, river grape, winter grape, frost grape, bull grape)
This grape is high climbing by means of dark red tendrils. Its bark shreds with age. The young leaves are pinkish in the spring, and toothed and three-lobed when mature. The flowers have the odor of mignonette. Grapes are small, black, or very dark blue, with a musky odor. They ripen after frost. The high-climbing possum grape (V. baileyana) of the mountains is a variety of the Vitis vulpina.
ILLUSTRATION 28 Possum grape
Summer grape (Vitis aestivalis)
(pigeon grape, bunch grape)
The summer grape is found along streams, usually loosely draped over bushes and small trails. It has large dentate leaves, white on the underside. Its leaves may be cobwebby when mature. The grapes ripen in September, and are blue-purple with a bloom. They may remain on the tree until they become wrinkled and raisin-like.
Muscadine (Vitis rotundifolia) (family Vitaceae)
(scuppernong, bullace)
The muscadine is our most common grapevine, climbing everywhere. It can go to one hundred feet in the trees, in all habitats. Its bark is white-speckled, and the leaves are small and glossy on both sides. Small green flowers are followed by large, thick-skinned, richly flavored grapes. Grapes on individual vines may vary greatly in texture, color, or flavor. Grapes are rich in vitamins B and C, and iron. They are said to stimulate the appetite. The wild muscadine is the ancestor of many cultivated varieties.
There is a tremendous variety of wild grapes in the mountains: possum, river, summer, fall, muscadine, scuppernong, and fox. They are usually eaten plain, or made into jelly, juice, or wine. The leaves can be used in making cucumber pickles. Place them between the layers of cucumbers in a crock, but do not eat them. They add a nice flavor and help pickle the cucumbers.
Jake Waldroop told us about fox grapes. “The Japanese beetles just killed ours out. There were a big grape. They looked like a concord, only bigger. When they go to getting ripe, they have the best smell. You can make wine, jelly, preserves. The fox grapes were something wonderful—plenty of them. They ripen in the later part of August on into September. There is also a fall grape. One vine will be in several trees, and have just bushels of grapes from this one vine. They are sweet. They can be eaten skin and all.”
Cora Ledbetter told us, “If you cooked grapes down and used no sugar at all, what you’d get would be juice but it’d be so sour you couldn’t drink it. Wild grapes made better jellies than domestic. Cook down, strain (to get seeds out) and use about two cups sugar to one cup juice. Cook till it jellies. It doesn’t take long. There’s plenty of pectin in the grapes. Seal with paraffin or put in glass jars. Not too much jelly was made back then. It depended on molasses and honey for sweetening.”
ILLUSTRATION 29 Muscadine
Dried grapes: grapes can be sun-dried for future use.
Possum grapes preserved: wash, put in jars, cover with syrup.
Grape jelly: pick about a gallon of wild grapes, and wash, removing the stems. Crush in a large pan, add a pint of apple vinegar, and some cinnamon if you wish. Cook for about fifteen minutes slowly, strain through a cheesecloth, and boil for about twenty minutes. Add three pounds of sugar and cook until it starts to jell. Put into jars.
Fox grape jelly: Wash and stem one peck grapes, drain and mash. Cook, strain. Measure five cups juice and cook twenty minutes. Remove from fire and add five cups sugar, stir until all is dissolved. Pour in glasses and let stand. It will gradually thicken and will have a good grape flavor.
Grape leaves: grape leaves can be put up in June for future use. Alternate a layer of leaves with a layer of salt until you fill a jar. Soak overnight before using.
Stuffed grape leaves: wash leaves, roll, stuff with rice and chopped chicken or ham, salt, and pepper. Broil lightly.
Rolled grape leaves: gather large leaves in June, snap off petioles. For filling, use one pound minced lamb or beef with a little suet, one cup rice, salt and pepper to taste. Place tablespoon of filling in each leaf, roll, fold, stack in pot. Add cold water to ⅔ depth. Boil gently one hour. It is wise to put a pie plate under the leaves to prevent burning.
Grape juice: Sterilize quart jars. Place two cups washed grapes, fully ripe, in each jar. Add ½ cup sugar. Fill to top with boiling water and seal. Let stand three to four weeks before straining for use. This makes a good-smelling, pale juice.
OR: pick and wash grapes, put in a kettle, barely cover with water, and cook. Strain, add ½ cup sugar to each quart of juice, boil five minutes. Pour into jars and seal at once.
Possum grape juice: Gather, shell from stems, and wash. Stew the grapes and mash them. Strain. Add a little cornmeal for thickening, and boil again.
Spiced grapes: for this relish (used with meat, bread, etc.) use seven pounds fox or possum grapes, one cup fruit vinegar, two teaspoons cinnamon, five pounds sugar, one teaspoon cloves, one teaspoon allspice. Wash, stem, and pulp grapes. Put pulp with seeds over fire and cook until seeds come free. Add skins and pulp together with sugar, vinegar, and spices. Cook until thick, and can.
Crock grapes: collect dry, sound fox grapes, and pack them in a churn. Pour boiling hot fresh molasses or syrup over them. Take two clean cloths and dip the first in hot beeswax and the second in hot tallow and tie each cloth separately around the top of the churn. Make this in the fall when the grapes are fresh and ripe, and set the churn in a cool place until winter. They can be eaten during the winter after they have mildly fermented.
Scuppernong preserves: cook grapes until seeds are free, and strain. Add ½ cup sugar to one cup juice, and cook until it jells. Pack in hot jars and seal. For spiced preserves, add cinnamon, mace, and one cup vinegar.
Scuppernong juice: wash grapes, crush, and barely cover with water. Heat until pulp is soft. Remove from heat, and let sit five minutes to deepen color. Pour in a jelly bag and squeeze. Add one cup sugar to each cup strained juice, and stir until sugar is dissolved. Heat to 180°, stirring constantly. Bottle, leaving ¼-inch head space.
Scuppernong pie: one cup scuppernongs, seeded; one cup sugar; one tablespoon flour; one tablespoon butter; one egg, beaten; few grains salt. Heat grapes, add salt. Cream butter, sugar, flour and egg. Pour over grapes, and then pour all that into uncooked pie shell. Lattice top with pastry. Bake one hour at 300°.
Grape wine: use five gallons crushed grapes and five pounds sugar. Mix grapes and sugar together, and let work nine days. Strain, and let work nine more days. Then strain again and seal loosely in jars. The wine might work a little more, and if the tops are too tight, they may blow up. When it has quit working completely, seal jars tightly and store in a dark place.
Muscadine marmalade: Aunt Lola Cannon told us that this is “the finest thing in the way of preserved fruits. You cook the muscadines until all the pulp looks like a mass of mush. Then you put it through a colander. The product is real thick. Put sugar in and cook it down like a preserve. You have to cook the marmalade a long time, unless you add pectin or Sure-jel.”
Muscadine jelly: take the pulp and juice of half-ripe muscadines. Nearly cover them with water. Boil a few minutes and strain through a jelly bag. Measure the juice, and add one pound white sugar to each pint juice. Boil until it will congeal when dropped on a cold, dry surface. This usually takes from twenty to thirty minutes.
To preserve muscadine pulps: take half-ripe muscadines between the thumb and forefinger and press the pulp into an earthen vessel; continue until the desired amount of pulp is ready. Then press the seeds from the pulp in the same way. When the seeds have all been removed, put the pulp in a kettle with just enough water to cover, and boil two or three minutes. Add 1½ pounds sugar to each pint pulp and boil twenty minutes, or until the syrup is thick.
To make a firm jelly that is nice to serve with whipped cream, put the pulps in their strained juice and add a pound sugar for each pint juice and boil for fifteen or twenty minutes.
Preserved hulls of muscadine: take the hulls, after using the pulp, and boil them in enough water to cover, until they are tender. Pour off half the water and add 1½ pounds sugar to each pint hulls. Boil until the syrup is quite thick, and put in jars.
OR: use the hulls in the same way, with one pound sugar to each pint hulls and leave all the water in which they are boiled. Seal while hot. Some people prefer these to those having more sugar.
Persimmon (Diospyros virginiana) (family Ebenaceae)
The persimmon is a common southern tree, found at the edges of woods, in old fields, and along roadsides. It grows to fifty feet, with a very rough trunk, and oval, leathery-looking leaves. Small leathery, greenish bell flowers attract honeybees. The fruits are one to 1½ inches in diameter, orange or peach colored, with several flat seeds. They are very sour and astringent until they are fully ripe, when they become sweet and edible. They do not need frost to ripen, but many people prefer not to pick them until after the frost. Individual persimmon trees may vary greatly as to the size and flavor of their fruits. Tree-ripened persimmons are best. To be good, a raw persimmon must be soft and squishy to the touch. Persimmons are very high in food energy. The leaves, rich in vitamin C, can be used for tea. Persimmons can be eaten plain, put into bread, or made into jam or beer.
ILLUSTRATION 30 Persimmon
Persimmon bread: use one cup cornmeal, one cup flour, one cup crushed persimmons with seeds removed, one spoonful of baking soda, a dash salt, and ½ cup buttermilk. Mix everything together. Add water if mixture is not thin enough. Bake like cornbread.
Persimmon beer: gather persimmons and a good number of honey locust seed pods. Wash them both well and place them in a large crock in layers until the crock is full. Pour enough boiling water in to cover them, cover the churn, and let it sit at least a week. Pour off or dip out the beer as desired. When drained, the churn may be filled with boiling water again to make a second batch.
OR: gather and wash persimmons and place them in a churn. Pour enough boiling water in to cover them and let them work. Skim off the foam, add sugar to taste, and let them work some more. The beer is supposed to be very potent.
Locust and persimmon beer: break honey locust pods into small pieces. Place in bottom of barrel or churn. Add layer of crushed persimmons, then another layer of locusts, and another of persimmons. Cover with water and let stand until fermentation stops. Drain off and bottle or use from churn. (Sometimes a layer of syrup cane pumice was added in the bottom and on top of the persimmons and locust to add more sweetening and a mellow taste to the beer.)
Persimmon pudding: 1½ cups persimmon pulp; 1½ cups sugar; ½ teaspoon salt; 1½ cups buttermilk; 1¼ cups flour. Strain persimmons through a colander. Stir all ingredients and put in greased pan. Bake one hour at low heat.
OR: two cups ripe persimmon pulp; one cup brown sugar; ½ cup white sugar; ½ teaspoon cloves; one teaspoon cinnamon; dash of nutmeg; ½ teaspoon salt; two cups flour; ½ teaspoon soda; four tablespoons melted butter; two egg yolks; two egg whites, stiffly beaten; three cups sweet milk. Remove stems, cover with warm water. Leave persimmons in water until they are soft, then drain water and discard. Put persimmons through a colander to separate pulp from the seeds. Add sugar and spices to the pulp. Mix thoroughly. Add the two beaten egg yolks. Blend dry ingredients and milk alternately. If lumpy, beat with rotary egg beater, as batter should be very thin and smooth. Add butter and fold in egg whites. Pour in buttered baking dish until ¾ full. Bake at 325° until firm (about one hour). Serve plain or with whipped cream and broken pecan nuts.
Persimmon frosting: cut and mash one cup persimmons. Add 1⁄3 cup butter, and cream together. Then add three cups powdered sugar and ¼ teaspoon vanilla. Beat until creamy.
Persimmon pie: one cup persimmon pulp; two cups sugar; one cup milk; one tablespoon flour (or cornstarch); three eggs; one teaspoon nutmeg; ½ teaspoon salt. Peel and crush persimmons until smooth. Add sugar and beat. Add three egg yolks and one egg white. Add milk, nutmeg, and salt. Beat until smooth. Pour into nine-inch pie shell and bake until done. Make meringue by beating whites of eggs until stiff. Add four tablespoons sugar. Put on top of pie and brown in moderate oven.
Candied persimmons: pack persimmons in jars, alternating with layers of sugar. Put on lids and store in a cool place until they become candied.
Stuffed persimmons: wash and stone firm persimmons. Stuff with nut meats. Roll in granulated sugar. Serve at once.
Persimmon pulp (to top pudding or ice cream): peel, strain, and mash, removing seeds. Stir in one tablespoon lemon juice. Spoon over pudding, fruit cocktail, or ice cream.
Persimmon marmalade: cook ripe persimmons in a double boiler; strain through sieve. To two quarts pulp, add ½ pint orange juice. Cook down, add sugar to taste. Bottle and seal.
Persimmon butter: cook and strain persimmons. Add ½ teaspoon soda to each cup pulp. Sweeten and flavor with spices or orange rind. Cook thoroughly and bottle.
Persimmon-nut bread: 1⁄3 cup shortening; ½ cup sugar; two eggs; 1¾ cups flour; two teaspoons baking powder; ½ teaspoon salt; ¼ teaspoon soda; one cup mashed persimmons; ½ cup chopped hickory-nut or black-walnut meats. Cream shortening, add sugar and eggs; beat well. Sift dry ingredients, add to creamed mixture alternately with persimmons and nuts. Pour in greased loaf pan and bake at 350° for one hour.
Persimmons can be used instead of prunes or pineapple for upside-down cake, or used as a topping with nuts and sugar on coffee cake.
Groundcherry (Physalis virginiana, Physalis heterophylla, Physalis pubescens) (family Solanaceae)
(cape gooseberry, husk tomato, bladder cherry)
The groundcherries are low, spreading plants, the various species differing mostly in the amount of hairiness on the leaves. These natives of Peru and Mexico often appear in cultivated gardens or in waste places. Leaves are variable in shape or form. Flowers are an inverted bell, pale yellow with a brownish center. The edible cherries, yellow when ripe, are enclosed in a papery husk. The husk also turns yellow when the cherry is ripe. The cherries are used in preserves or pies. DO NOT EAT THE LEAVES, for they have the poisonous properties of most members of the nightshade family.
Physalis viscosa is a closely related species distinguished by very sticky stems and leaves. Physalis edulis (oxocarpa) the cultivated garden groundcherry, or strawberry tomato, will also escape and naturalize or reseed itself in old gardens. This plant has slightly larger fruits with a bright yellow or purplish-red cherry.
Many people are very fond of groundcherries, others have to develop a taste for them. Mrs. Norton said, “I had a daughter who was always picking groundcherries and eating them, but I never did like them. I’d have to be real hungry to eat them.”
Jake Waldroop says, “They are a sweetish, good-flavored thing. They are small, something like the end of your little finger. They come up in the summertime and die down in the fall. You don’t use them much until after the frost falls on them. That’s when they’re really good. They’re white-looking with little stripes and have a husk on them. You take the husk off and the cherry is inside.”
Groundcherries are often dried and used for sweetening. When preserved, they need very little sugar.
ILLUSTRATION 31 Groundcherry
Groundcherry pie: one pint hulled cherries; ½ cup white sugar; ½ cup brown sugar; one tablespoon butter; one tablespoon quick-cooking tapioca; juice and grated rind of ½ lemon. Combine and bake between two pie crusts.
Baked groundcherries: mix groundcherries with eggs, milk, and a little flour. Bake at low heat until firm. Serve with milk or cream.
Groundcherry sauce: one quart washed groundcherries; two cups honey; one cup water; ½ teaspoon cinnamon; one tablespoon lemon juice. Boil.
Tops, bottoms, and in-betweens—this is a designation for a variety of wild plant foods that do not fit any specific category. We might bring them under miscellaneous but that seems a dull way of treating a most interesting assortment of plants. They are given here in botanical order.
Cattail (Typha latifolia) (family Typhaceae)
(reed-mace)
This is the familiar cattail of marshes and stream banks, with tall stalks, broad grassy leaves, and a brown flower spike. Early in the season, the flower spike is double and the top, or staminate part, rich with yellow pollen. All parts of the plant are edible, from the rhizome roots to the young green spikes. Young shoots can be a substitute for asparagus. The bulb-like sprouts can be peeled and boiled as a vegetable, or pickled for salads. The young shoots are a good substitute for poke salad. Roots can also be ground into meal or flour said to be the equal of corn or rice. Rich in pollen, this yellow substance can be gathered and used in baking.
Cattail shoots may be boiled or creamed. Cut the whole sprout up and roll in meal. Add salt and pepper and fry them. Or, boil young cattails one inch long for fifteen to twenty minutes and cover with cream sauce.
ILLUSTRATION 32 Cattail
Cattail flapjacks: two cups pollen; two cups flour; four teaspoons baking powder; one teaspoon salt; two eggs; one cup milk; 1½ cups water; one tablespoon sugar or syrup; bacon drippings. Mix and fry in a greased pan.
Cattail pancakes: boil roots into gruel, then dry. Mix with an egg, milk, ½ teaspoon salt, and margarine. Drop by tablespoons into a well-greased cast-iron skillet. Serve with cooked blueberries or stewed apples.
Cattail soup: cook in water until tender and drain. Add water, milk, salt, and pepper; top with cubes of toasted bread before serving.
Nut grass (Cyperus rotundus) (family Cyperaceae)
(coco-grass, earth almond, rush nut, ground nut)
A small weedy sedge, native of Europe, but naturalized everywhere in waste places. It has long, running rootstocks bearing small, hard tubers at intervals. These are usually too hard to eat raw, but can be cooked and used as you would use any nuts. Nuts can be ground into meal that makes a good cooked cereal.
Nut sedge (Cyperus esculentus)
(coco-sedge, yellow galingale, chufa, ground nut)
This larger sedge grows in damp, weedy places. It has rather stout stems up to eighteen inches high, with yellowish divided flower heads. Sweet nutty tubers with a tough, dry rind occur on the roots. These can be ground into flour.
ILLUSTRATION 33 Nut grass
Chufa drink: soak tubers eight hours. Mash, add one quart water and ½ pound sugar to each ½ pound of tubers. Strain through a sieve and serve as a drink.
Chufa (ground nut) bread: 2½ cups warm water; two packages active dry yeast; one tablespoon salt; one tablespoon melted margarine or butter; seven cups unsifted flour; one cup peanut butter; ¼ cup softened margarine or butter; one egg white; one tablespoon cold water; ¼ cup chopped ground nuts. Measure warm water into a warm mixing bowl. Sprinkle in yeast and stir. Add salt and melted margarine. Add flour and stir until dough is sticky. Place in a greased bowl; let rise one hour. Turn dough on a floured board. Roll half into an oblong pan, cover with peanut butter, softened margarine, and ground nuts. Cover with rest of dough. Roll up and seal. Brush top with egg white. Bake in 450° oven for 25 minutes.
Chiney-brier (Smilax pseudochina, Smilax bona-nox, Smilax glauca, Smilax rotundifolia), (family Liliaceae)
(greenbrier, ground nut, sarsaparilla, saw brier, prickly bamboo, China brier, cat brier, biscuit leaves)
The chiney-briers are weedy vines found everywhere, with tough prickly stems, oval to arrow-shaped leaves, and fuzzy, very sweet-scented green flowers followed by blue or black berries. The tips of the arching new shoots are very good to eat. Before the days of commercial gelatin desserts, the knobby roots of all four species of Smilax were dug and used for food. The berries have been used for seasoning.
ILLUSTRATION 34 Greenbriers: Smilax glauca (left) and Smilax rotundifolia (right).
Gather greenbrier shoots when tender enough to snap, and use them raw in salad, or cook into a cream soup. They can be combined with lettuce or other greens, or used as a substitute in any recipe that calls for asparagus.
Chop up or grind roots, and cover with water; strain, leaving powdery residue. This will be an edible powder of a reddish color. Mix with warm water and honey for a delicious jelly; cook into gruel for invalids; fry in hot grease for hotcakes; or use as a cornmeal substitute for fritters or bread.
Wild bean vine (Phaseolus polystachios) (family Leguminosae)
(wild kidney bean)
A slender, twining vine, found in rich, damp woodlands and along streams. It is a perennial with tri-divided bright green leaves, and small bunches of white or pale purple flowers. The beans occur in small pods, are edible, and can be used as one uses dried garden beans, but they are difficult to obtain, as the pods coil up and expel the seeds as soon as they ripen. The round, white tubers on the roots are called ground nuts.
ILLUSTRATION 35 Wild kidney bean
Hog peanut (Amphicarpa bracteata)
(wild peanut, hog vine)
This slender vine twines to seven feet over other shrubbery. It has tridivided light green leaves followed by two kinds of pods: those at the upper part of the vine have slender pods with small mottled beans; those near the base of the plant bend and go underground (like peanuts) where they form fleshy underground pods. Both are edible after boiling, but have a rather poor taste.
ILLUSTRATION 36 Hog peanut
Ground nut (Apios americana)
(sprig nut, Indian potato, bear potato)
A four- to five-foot vine found in very wet places, usually growing in great patches. Leaves have five to seven leaflets. There are clusters of maroon, sweet-smelling flowers in midsummer. The roots have a string of small rhizomes, or thickened tubers, that have a delicious, nutlike flavor. They can be roasted, boiled, or sliced and fried. Cooked in syrup, they are superior to yams. THEY ARE NOT CONSIDERED EDIBLE UNTIL COOKED.
ILLUSTRATION 37 Ground nut: flowers (left) and tubers (right).
In the mountains, the names wild sweet potatoes, or pig potatoes, seem to be given to the tubers of the wild bean (Phaseolus) or the ground nut (Apios). The hog peanut (Amphicarpa) is not as common as the other two leguminous vines, but was probably used for food where it was available.
Roast the wild sweet potatoes in ashes; or peel and slice, boil in salted water so they won’t turn dark, and fry in grease, adding brown sugar, salt, and pepper.
You can make a delicious pudding out of ground nuts by steaming them. Tie them in a cloth with a mixture of flour, sugar, and an egg and hang over your boiler to steam.
Honey locust (Gleditsia triacanthos) (family Leguminosae)
The honey locust is a small, very thorny tree found in hedge rows and waste places, woods’ edges, and rocky outcrops. It has compound leaves, and small, honey-sweet, greenish-yellow flowers in April and May. The long pods contain many small seeds, and a small amount of sweet edible pulp. These have been used to make a drink, ground into meal, or used with persimmons in persimmon beer.
The honey locust tree produces long, flat seed pods which are dark brown or black when ripe. They may be eaten raw, as there’s a honey flavor in the pod.
Honey locust beans: shell beans from pods, soak overnight, and boil.
Locust bread: dry pods and grind into meal for bread.
Jerusalem artichoke (Helianthus tuberosus) (family Compositae)
(bread root)
This tall sunflower grows to twelve feet in rich bottom lands where it has naturalized. It is also found in waste places and persists in old garden sites. The leaves are opposite, ovate, and rough-hairy. Large yellow flowers with greenish centers appear in autumn. The root tubers are high in calories and are a very desirable food. They can be used raw or cooked, and should be harvested in late fall or early spring. Attached to the roots of a tall, straight plant, they look similar to a knobby potato, and can be cooked and eaten like regular potatoes. They are good sliced raw and salted. They’re also good sliced and fried in grease. Some use them diced in relish along with peppers and onions or just boil them until they’re tender and serve with a plain white sauce.
Boiled artichokes: one pound unpeeled, shredded, or diced artichokes. Simmer in hot milk, add a pinch of salt and parsley or onion before serving.
Baked artichokes: slice thin in a baking dish, cover with white sauce and bake. Or combine with wild onions and grated cheese in a baking dish and bake.
Artichoke relish: five quarts Jerusalem artichokes; three pounds white cabbage; six green peppers; one quart onions, coarsely ground; three pounds sugar; one small box mustard; one gallon vinegar; two tablespoons turmeric; one tablespoon black pepper; three tablespoons white mustard seed; ¾ cup flour. Scrub artichokes, cut fine, and soak in one gallon of water with two cups salt for twenty-four hours. Coarsely grind the peppers, cabbage, and onion, and mix with sugar, black pepper, mustard seed, dry mustard, and vinegar. Bring mixture to boil, and cook until vegetables are clear. Add artichokes, return to a boil, and stir in turmeric. Pour immediately into hot sterilized jars and seal.
ILLUSTRATION 38 Jerusalem artichoke
Pickled artichoke: ½ peck artichoke root; two quarts vinegar; 1½ pounds brown sugar; ¼ pound mustard; one ounce white mustard seed; one ounce pepper; one ounce turmeric; ½ teaspoon cloves; three teaspoons allspice; two sticks cinnamon. Peel artichokes and sprinkle well with salt. Slice and salt a few white onions. Let stand twenty-four hours, then wash off well. Cook apple vinegar, sugar, and spices together a few minutes. Drop in artichokes and onion to heat through. Seal while hot. [NOTE: Spices may be omitted and horseradish used instead.]
Jerusalem artichoke pickle: two quarts artichokes, scraped and peeled; one pint vinegar; two onions or several white multiplying onions; 1½ cups brown sugar; two tablespoons salt; one teaspoon allspice; one teaspoon turmeric. Boil vinegar, sugar, and spices ten minutes. Add onions and artichokes, and boil ten minutes. Seal in jars.
Thistle (Cirsium altissimum) (family Compositae)
The thistle is found in damp fields, marshes, and along streams. It has a tall, straight stem from a perennial root. Leaves are sparingly spiny-edged, and a gray-green color. The showy lavender flower heads attract many bees and butterflies. Seeds are winged. The young thistle stems, when peeled, are edible and pickles can be made from them. Make them as you would a sweet cucumber pickle.
Fried thistle rings: peel young thistle stems, cut into rings. Fry in butter and serve hot.
Stuffing: boil peeled thistle stems in salt water. Use to stuff fish.