Hawthorn Berries When To Pick – Hawthorn berry picking is a new one for me this year. They are sweet and sweet if you get them at the right time, and in years past I tasted them too early in the fall. This year, the Washington hawthorn was soft and sweet in late October. But at that time, the single-seeded hawthorn began to bloom, so next year I will look for those in mid-October.
I owe some credit to Josh Fecteau’s recent post, which inspired me to try the fruits of Abruzzo again. As Josh points out, there are many species of hawthorn, perhaps 50 in New England. And, in all of North America, possibly a thousand species, according to George Symonds (from his wonderful book Tree Identification Book: A New Method for the Practical Identification and Recognition of Trees.
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Hawthorn Berries When To Pick
, my favorite guide to learning tree ID). Fortunately, you don’t need to be able to identify particular species. You just need to know that it is a hawthorn, because all hawthorns have edible berries. HOWEVER, like apple seeds, hawthorn seeds contain cyanide, and should not be eaten. You don’t want to be scared; just spit out the seeds.
Hunter Gathering: Wild & Fresh Food: The Strange Properties Of Hawthorn
Why bother with white people? They are beautiful, interesting and tasty wild edibles with known health benefits. Some people use the berries to make hawthorn jelly, but I have not tried this. The berries, leaves and flowers can be used to make a tea. Scroll down to the bottom of the page to see how to make hawthorn berry extract.
I would like to describe two species here, to exemplify the general characteristics. That should help you recognize a hawthorn when you see one, but i
If you are unsure that you have a hawthorn when foraging, please check with additional sources until you ARE sure, before eating the berries.
This grows as a small tree or large shrub, and bears clusters of white flowers in late spring. The berries are red in September (here), but sweeten later. By October 31, they were sweet, and maybe a little past peak. Each berry has 3-5 seeds.
Pharm Education: Hawthorn
The leaves are lobed and toothed, as you can see in my photo above. Many other hawthorn species have similar leaves. The tree is heavily armed with long spines, up to about 3 inches in length. However, with reasonable caution, you can easily pick the berries, which tend to hang from the branch. It is even easier later in the season after many of the leaves have fallen and no longer darken the spines.
Also called the common hawthorn, this is a European native that escaped cultivation and naturalized in North America. Sometimes it is marked as an invasive plant, but I don’t find it very often, and when I see it, there are not many in one area. Maybe it’s invasive in other parts of the country, but it doesn’t seem to be particularly aggressive here. Like the Washington hawthorn, the single-seeded hawthorn grows as a shrub or small tree, and bears clusters of white flowers in late spring. The oval red berries ripen a little earlier (there is the Washington hawthorn) in the fall and contain only one seed (hence the name). The toothed leaves are more deeply lobed than those of the Washington hugger, but the spines are much smaller, only about 1/2 inch to an inch in length.
Hawthorns are common in the woodlands here in Massachusetts, but these are thin specimens that don’t fruit well. There is too much shade in the forest. To find hawthorns laden with fruit, look in sunny places, such as shrubby fields and woods, at the edges of pastures, and along streams. They are often planted as ornamentals, so if your friend has one and you don’t mind picking some berries, you have an easy foraging experience at your fingertips.
This is my first experience with Abruzzo berries, and I used them to make an extract, with the same process that you use to make vanilla extract. I hope to use the hawthorn extract as a flavoring in cooking and baking. I filled a clean canning jar about 3/4 full of berries, covered with vodka 80 proof, and capped the jar. I’m not sure how long it will take to get enough flavor from the berries, so I’ll check every day. I know other extracts, (like vanilla extract) take weeks, so that’s what I was expecting here. Planting in autumn or spring is best for hawthorn, but, as for all trees, the ideal period is always autumn.
Hawthorn Berries: Gin, Brandy Or Tincture?
The choice to plant in autumn allows root development before winter, and growth in spring will be stronger.
The Hawthorn is very easy to care for, and only needs a little attention when it is installed correctly.
Pruning hawthorn is not necessary unless it is part of a hedge. If it is, you will need to prune regularly.
Often used in defensive curtains, the hawthorn is even more than that, as it has ornate leaves and flowers in abundance, making it a very beautiful tree.
Late Harvest Treat: Haw Jelly
Hardy and easy to care for, this tree will also give you satisfaction as it will adapt to the soil and climate of where you live.
The leaves take on varied shades from spring to autumn, and the magnificent berries will decorate your hawthorn from late summer to early winter.
Although edible, gooseberry berries taste bland and mealy when raw, but birds are wild for them.
If you need to discourage people from crossing your garden, use hawthorn because its thorns are real!
Foraging In September: Edible Wild Plants And Berries
(all editions by Gaspard Lorthiois): Lots of hawthorn berries (also on social media) by Christel Funk under the Pixabay license Blooming Hawthorn by Les Whalley under the Pixabay license A few berries on the hawthorn by Michaela below the Pixabay license Leaves and berries (also on social media) by Rosalyn & Gaspard Lorthiois, own work Almost two weeks ago we had a very hard frost event. There were several seed crops that hadn’t finished ripening, so we covered what we could with a blanket of ice and kept our fingers crossed that everything would go well.
The cold spell meant that the seed crops ended earlier than we expected too, but for the most part all went well. Chris finished harvesting almost all of the seed crops this past week.
Today, he started the very big process of getting the harvested seed ready to ship to Germany to the Jelitto Perennial Seed Company, which is the company we have contracted to grow our seed crops.
That hard frost has put the roses and blackberries in the perfect place to be picked now. It is important to wait until a good strong frost happens before harvesting berries like these, as the frost helps to “set” the Vitamin C complex and stabilize it. In this way, you can dry the fruits of roses and hawthorns, and as long as you keep the berries whole, and do not crush them until you are ready to use them, and store them well, they will keep their nutritional value a lot. good for one year in proper storage.
Hawthorn Berry Decoction
Now that this hard frost has happened, it’s a good time to pick your roses and blackberries to dry and use them for tea, medicine, stew as a winter fruit, make jam or jelly – any kind of delicious things!
I had a wonderful lunch visit with one of my oldest and dearest friends last week. We live over two hours away from each other, so our “in person” visits don’t happen often enough, but when we do get a chance to get together for a visit, it’s so nice.
Amy sewed this gold mandala and gave it to me on our visit. It is beautiful and amazing! It has a place of honor on my wall right above the photo of the baby owl that I also really like. Thanks again, Amy, for this beautiful piece of art!
We had two school groups visit the farm last week and what a great time we had!
Hawthorn Berries Harvesting Photos
The 5th grader from Harrison School almost ran away completely after his visit before he could take a photo to document his farm visit. You can see just a few of them as they started their walk back to school. The school is close enough to us that the kids typically walk to make their visit, instead of riding a bus.
We also had the 2nd grade from Mountain View Core Knowledge School visit. The kids had just finished shelling and planting their “Painted Pony Heirloom Bean” seeds when I got a photo of them getting to work planting.
It’s been a busy week for Lizz as well. He collected honey from the hives and there was a good yield this year. You can see it at work in the photo above and below is a picture of one of the honeycomb frames full of honey that he harvested.
There were a bunch of perennial seedlings ready for transplanting too, so that’s another task that filled Lizz’s work time.
Harvest Hawthorn Berries For Antioxidant Rich Jam
I cooked up a pot of ‘Winter Red Flesh Crabapples’, which is one of my favorite varieties for