North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Richard Moyer <ramoyer@gmail.com>]

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