North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Kevin Moore <aleguy33@yahoo.com>]

I find the wild black cherries around here are somewhat bitter, but they certainly don't make me sick. I find I enjoy a certain amount of bitterness in my foods as I grow older.

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From: Kieran &/or Donna <holycow@frontiernet.net>
To: North American Fruit Explorers <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Friday, August 7, 2009 9:51:28 PM
Subject: Re: [NAFEX] Wonderberries

Do not goof and try to eat garden huckleberries raw.  I got seed from Tim Peters years ago when he had a small seed co going, Peters Seed and Research I think it was.  He had the Wonderberry I think it was, and regular huckleberries, and sweet huckleberries, and some mixed genepool.  He said if you try a berry raw and it's bitter, spit it out or it WILL make you sick.  I found that the sweet huckleberries tasted fine cooked and raw, but the blister beetles ate the plants up.  the regular huckleberries tasted horrible to me even cooked.  The wonderberries were very small.  I think they are S. nigrum, and really no different from the black nightshade that comes up wild in our garden.    Donna