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["Brungardt, Sam" <Sam.Brungardt@state.mn.us>]

Title: Message

If you're referring to Solanum nigrum when you speak of deadly nightshade, I assure you that there are strains of this species whose berries are low in alkaloids and safe to eat.  My grandparents, who emigrated from the Volga River Valley of Russia, brought to Kansas a strain of nightshade that figures prominently in the traditional cuisine of the Volga Germans.  The berries are most flavorful and palatable when they are dead ripe.  They may be eaten raw (as any Volga German child will attest) or they are used, when mixed with sugar and flour, as a topping for dumplings or Kuchen or as a filling for Maultaschen, a type of boiled dumpling similar to vareneki or pierogi.  When the Volga German immigrants learned to make American-style pie, they found they could use these Schwartzbeeren or Nachtschatten as a filling.  This species is not the same one as what is known in the U.S. as garden huckleberry; while the plants of the two species strongly resemble each other, the berries of Schwartzbeeren are smaller, ripen throughout the summer and fall, and do not have to be cooked with baking soda to be palatable. -- Sam Brungardt, St. Paul, Minn. (USDA Zone 4b)

 

-----Original Message-----
From: nafex-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org [mailto:nafex-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of Lucky Pittman
Sent: Wednesday, December 01, 2004 8:51 AM
To: North American Fruit Explorers
Subject: Possible SPAM::Re: [NAFEX] What's safe to eat and what isn't

At 09:54 
PM 11/30/2004 -0500, Ginda wrote:

>  The other red fruit I 
>   wouldn't try is deadly nightshade.  (Some plants have black berries, but 
>   many have attractive red berries.)  I've read of people who cooked the 
>   ripe berries into pie and ate it without harm.  And I expect that like 
>   tomato (to which it is related) the toxins in the fruit break down as it 
>   ripens.  Still, personally, I would avoid it
Ginda,
We've 
discussed the 'edible' Solanum species here from time to time in the past.  
Several of the garden seed catalogs offer "Garden Huckleberries" - usually 
S.melanocerasum, and/or 'Wonderberries', which encompass a number of species, 
but if memory serves me correctly, Lon has indicated that S.burbankii is the 
best of the bunch.
I've grown S.melanocerasum in the past, and the plants 
produce prodigious amounts of beautiful big (1/2-3/4") blue-black berries - but 
even after following preparation recommendations of boiling/leaching, and 
treatment with baking soda - and addition of large amounts of sugar & grape 
juice(these things have no taste to speak of on their own), the resulting jams, 
pie filling, etc., still had an uncomfortable metallic aftertaste that was quite 
disconcerting.
I've seen Lon write encouragingly about the flavor of 
S.burbankii, right off the plant, but I've got some other acquaintances who've 
grown them and thought they were awful - maybe their seeds were not true to 
identity?

Along those same lines - of unusual edibles, sometime back I 
was drawn into a discussion/search for a source for "Germanberries", which 
turned out to be a species of Hibiscus, which produces an edible pod.  
Never have tried 'em, but here are a few links, if anyone is 
interested:
http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/BODY_MV126 
> 
> http://www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/morton/roselle.html 
> 
> http://www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/duke_energy/Hibiscus_sabdariffa.html 
> 
> http://www.echonet.org/tropicalag/plantinfo/Hibiscussabdariffa.pdf 
>
if you want some, the seeds of that hibiscus may be ordered 
http://echonet.org/shopsite_sc/store/html/SeedtoSeed.html

Lucky