Golly! Will no ornamental plant be safe from the hunger of the adventurous?!? Next week I expect to see you munching on some pyracantha... uh oh, shouldn't have said that! :D
In all fairness, I do hope someone somewhere undertakes the task of making more tasty edible decorative cultivars. Another idea would be to have more naturally edible species more readily accepted as decorative - that would require way less selection work and more demonstration gardens :) Get to redoing that front yard of yours!
We have one in our garden, with the broad leaves. It has been speaking to us! My daughter plays with it all the time and our dog has been eating it, too. I've been googling to check the toxicity, and found your substack! Thank you for coming up with all of this research. It really is a lovely tree. The bees and hornets make it hum at some parts of the year in the spring and summer. I am wondering if the vest way to have the berries would be a syrup or jam, or sauce, rather than a tea / oil? Maybe a sweet? Like a gummie or a boiled sweet? I have never dared try it! I just keep saying that they ought not to eat it, but after we pruned it and brought it in the house, I thought I had best check the properties. It is already in many "potions" the kids make, maybe we could make our own edible elixir.
The best way of processing it is the way that will make it the best to eat for your audience. In this case, because of the cyanogenic glycosides, boiling it to make jam or gummies or syrup wouldn't be a bad way to go. Let me know how that goes!
Golly! Will no ornamental plant be safe from the hunger of the adventurous?!? Next week I expect to see you munching on some pyracantha... uh oh, shouldn't have said that! :D
In all fairness, I do hope someone somewhere undertakes the task of making more tasty edible decorative cultivars. Another idea would be to have more naturally edible species more readily accepted as decorative - that would require way less selection work and more demonstration gardens :) Get to redoing that front yard of yours!
Fabulous article, thank you for inspiring me. I will try some berries this week! Would love to try some!
I'm glad you liked it! Is there a specific species of Cotoneaster you're going to try? Please be careful and only try a little bit, either way.
There is one on a local walk, I will take a photo and try to identify. And eat only a little, got it!
We have one in our garden, with the broad leaves. It has been speaking to us! My daughter plays with it all the time and our dog has been eating it, too. I've been googling to check the toxicity, and found your substack! Thank you for coming up with all of this research. It really is a lovely tree. The bees and hornets make it hum at some parts of the year in the spring and summer. I am wondering if the vest way to have the berries would be a syrup or jam, or sauce, rather than a tea / oil? Maybe a sweet? Like a gummie or a boiled sweet? I have never dared try it! I just keep saying that they ought not to eat it, but after we pruned it and brought it in the house, I thought I had best check the properties. It is already in many "potions" the kids make, maybe we could make our own edible elixir.
The best way of processing it is the way that will make it the best to eat for your audience. In this case, because of the cyanogenic glycosides, boiling it to make jam or gummies or syrup wouldn't be a bad way to go. Let me know how that goes!