[NAFEX] C. mas

Richard Moyer ramoyer at gmail.com
Thu May 28 16:37:26 EDT 2009


Lee Reich's book Uncommon Fruits inspired us to plant and then to 'blet' the
cornus mas fruit at room temps. The color and texture changes markedly over
two days. One day is better, 2 days at room temp is optimal, and in three
days they start to decompose.

 We put a sheet under the trees and shake gently, then gather and sort the
fruits according to ripeness. A few of them only needed to be bletted for
one day.

We freeze batches of ripe ones, then thaw, run through a food mill, and make
jam.
One of my daughter's favorite jams, unique in its flavor.

At one of the recent NAFEX meetings, met a Bulgarian who grew up eating C.
mas jam. He said many Bulgarians who grew up eating it are now getting away
from it, instead preferring the more 'upscale' fruits popular in Western
Europe and N. America. At least they are still eating fruit!

Lee also notes in his book that the 'mas' in its botanical name refers to
the fact that the tree has male blooms initially ('mas'culine), so it takes
a long time until fruit finally comes, but it then bears regularly. This has
been our experience as well.
Richard Moyer
Castlewood, VA
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