North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

["Mark Lee" <markl@nytec.com>]

Forest Farm nursery in Oregon has a number of barberry species including
Berberis aristata (Nepalese barberry) and Berberis wilsoniae.

Here is a quote I grabbed from the Plants for a Future database
(http://www.scs.leeds.ac.uk/cgi-bin/pfaf/arr_html?Berberis+aristata&CAN=LATI
ND )for Nepalese barberry, a zone 6 plant:
"Edible Uses
Fruit - raw or cooked. A well-flavoured fruit, it has a sweet taste with a
blend of acid, though there is a slight bitterness caused by the seeds. The
fruit is much liked by children. It is dried and used like raisins in India.
The fruit contains about 2.3% protein, 12% sugars, 2% ash, 0.6% tannin, 0.4%
pectin. There is 4.6mg vitamin C per 100ml of juice. The fruit is about 7mm
x 4mm - it can be up to 10mm long. Plants in the wild yield about 650g of
fruit in 4 pickings.
Flower buds - added to sauces."

Sounds like a good edible landscaping plant.
-Mark Lee, Seattle

Ginda Fisher wrote:
>I'm getting curious about all these edible barberries that folks use.
>Does anyone know of an on-line site with pictures?