Bilberry (Gaylussacia frondosa)
(huckleberry)
Bilberries are shrubs found on high, dry ridges. They have olive green, leathery leaves, resin-dotted on the underside, and pink flowers with opening leaves followed by dark blue, rather dry berries. Bilberries look much like huckleberries, but they have a white color that gives them a “frosty” appearance. They’re good raw, and in pies and jelly.
ILLUSTRATION 11 Bilberry
Huckleberry (Gaylussacia baccata)
This huckleberry is a small shrub, which grows to four feet and has reddish stems and leaf stems. The leaves are shiny green and resinous. Flowers are reddish with the opening leaves and are also glandular. Berries are very shiny black, seedy, and very sweet.
Dwarf huckleberry (Gaylussacia dumosa)
Dwarf huckleberries grow in large patches, joined together by running roots. They are six to twelve inches high, with almost evergreen leaves. White flowers appear in early spring with the new leaves. The berries are black and very sweet. Box turtles often collect the entire crop.
Huckleberry is the common mountain name for all species of Gaylussacia and Vaccinium. They are also called wild blueberries, or buckberries, and are very similar to tame blueberries, but are a little larger, darker and more sour. They are eaten plain, with cream and sugar, or used in pies, preserves, jelly, or wine. They can be dried for winter use by spreading them thinly on a tray and placing them in the sun each day until dry—they should be ready in about a week. Store in tight containers.
Florence Brooks suggests adding a little rhubarb to huckleberry jelly. “I just don’t believe huckleberries will make without Sure-jel or a little something sour added.” Huckleberries may be put up in any way that dewberries are, but they require less sugar than other berries.
Huckleberry jam: wash the berries, put them in a kettle with a little water, and boil until tender. Add ½ pound sugar to each pound fruit, and boil thirty minutes or until quite thick.
Huckleberry jelly: boil the berries in very little water until very tender; strain, and boil the juice five minutes. Then measure and add one pound of sugar to one and a half pints of juice. Return to the fire and boil twenty minutes. Jelly should always boil fast.
Huckleberry pickles: the huckleberry may be pickled just as the dewberries are.
Huckleberry puffs: one pint huckleberries; two cups flour; two teaspoons baking powder; one level teaspoon salt; two eggs; enough sweet milk to make a batter a little thicker than that used for cakes. Grease six or seven teacups thoroughly with butter. Fill them half full with the above mixture; place in closely covered steamer and steam one hour. The puffs will come out perfect puff balls. Serve with sauce. Puffs are spongy and absorb a great deal. Other fruits or berries may be used.
Huckleberry cake: one cup butter; two cups sugar; three cups flour; four eggs; ¾ cup milk; two teaspoons baking powder; one teaspoon vanilla; one quart huckleberries. Cream butter and sugar; add eggs. Add milk and flour alternately, then add baking powder, vanilla, and berries. Bake in loaf pan in moderate oven (350°) forty-five minutes to one hour. Serve with butter and sugar sauce (light brown sugar) or eat as is.
Elderberry (Sambucus canadensis)
(elderblow)
The elderberry is a tall shrub found in waste places, along streams, and in old garden spots. It has large leaves with many smooth, green leaflets. Often numerous stalks come up in a group. Bark is rather light brown and warty. Flowers appear in large, flat, fragrant clusters (ILLUSTRATION 12), followed by small, dark wine-red to black berries (ILLUSTRATION 13).
ILLUSTRATION 12 Elderberry in flower
ILLUSTRATION 13 … and mature.
Elder flowers were brewed into a tea, said to be a blood purifier, or used as an alternative for aspirin, relieving pain and inducing sleep. The flowers were also brewed with chamomile or basswood to make a wash for the skin.
Flowers are also used for fritters or wine. Elderberries are used for cold drinks, wine, pies, preserves, and jellies. BERRIES MUST BE COOKED BEFORE USING as they are dangerous to some people if eaten raw.
Rufus Morgan told us that “we have the purple elderberries in this section [of the country]. People use them for preserves and elderberry wine. If you climb up in the mountains in the higher elevations, especially in the Smokies, there is a red elderberry with a white blossom—it’s a different shaped group of flowers, like a pineapple, but smaller. The purple elderberry blossom is flat on top. They both have the white blooms, but the fruit of the purple elderberry is different.”
Jake Waldroop says, “They’re most everywhere. They’re a small berry and they grow in a cluster. They usually ripen in August. They say elderberries make the finest wine, although I never made any. They make good jelly and preserves.”
Aunt Lola Cannon’s grandmother made elderberry wine. “She was a practical nurse and midwife. I believe she used it to give to people with rheumatism, lame joints. When she went to deliver a baby, she gave this wine to the patient.”
Lawton Brooks told us that he does make wine out of elderberries. “You just put them up like you do all the berries. Put them in your churn or something like that. Then you let them work off [ferment]. Put a little sugar in them and let them work off good. Then you take them up and strain that. Add a good bit of sugar to them that time, and put them back in the churn again, and let them work off again. I don’t know exactly how long it took us to make that stuff. I got drunk on it—stayed drunk for a day or two. That was such a bad drunk that I’ve never drunk any more elderberry wine. It liked to have killed me.”
Mountain people used to make fritters out of the blooms by dipping them in a thin batter and frying them in grease.
Elderberry pie: make a crust using one cup flour and one tablespoon shortening. Roll it out thin, place in a pie pan and cook the crust before you put berries in it. For the pie, use one pint elderberries, one tablespoon cornstarch, and one cup sugar. Put them in the cooked pie crust and bake thirty minutes at 325°
Elderflower flapjacks: remove the stems from two dozen flower clusters. Wash flowers in one quart water with four teaspoons salt. Mix with a pancake batter and fry. Sprinkle the pancakes with sugar.
Elderberry drink: cook berries with sugar. Strain and serve cold.
Elderflower fritters: dip flowers in hot fat. Sprinkle with sugar and eat.
Elderberry wine: use five quarts of berries to six quarts of water. Mash the berries and let stand in a crock two weeks, stirring every day. Strain. Add as much sugar as you have juice. Let stand two weeks and then bottle.
Elderberry jam: eight cups berries; six cups sugar; ¼ cup vinegar. Crush and measure the berries, then add sugar and vinegar. Boil until thick. Pour boiling into scalded jars and seal.
Elderberry-apple-orange jam: one quart elderberries; five cups sugar; one lemon; twelve large cooking apples; three medium-sized oranges. Cook apples until mushy. Add the berries, oranges, and lemon chopped fine. Grate the rinds of one orange and the lemon. Mix together with sugar and boil thirty minutes.
Steamed elderberry pudding: four cups berries; two cups sugar; one teaspoon lemon juice; one tablespoon butter; two cups flour; four teaspoons baking powder; one teaspoon salt; ¾ cup milk. Sift dry ingredients and work in the butter. Add milk and mix well. Combine sugar, berries, and lemon juice and mix these with the batter; pour into a buttered baking dish, cover tightly, and steam forty-five minutes. Serve with cream.
Possum haw (Viburnum nudum) (family Caprifoliaceae)
Possum haw is a large shrub found in wet places—in swamps and along streams. It has oval, shiny green leaves and flat clusters of sweet-scented white flowers. Its fruits are very seedy blue berries.
ILLUSTRATION 14 Possum haw
Black haw (Viburnum prunifolium)
Black haw is a large shrub or small tree, which grows in open, rocky woodlands. Its leaves are ovate and finely toothed. Flowers appear in flat white cymes followed by black berries.
Both the possum haw and the
black haw are extremely seedy, but can be used for jelly. They are sometimes combined with wild grapes or elderberries. Some say that the viburnum fruits are best gathered after a frost.
Possum haw jelly: boil berries, strain, add sugar to taste, and boil again until thickened. Combine with crabapples, if desired.
Black haw sauce: one quart berries; ¾ cup honey; two tablespoons lemon juice. Crush the berries, strain, and cook with honey and lemon juice for ten minutes; then chill and whip.
Figs (Ficus carica) (family Moraceae)
Figs persist as bushes around old houses and garden areas, freezing back every winter in the mountain areas, but sending up new shoots again in the spring. Its twigs have an acrid, milky juice that is poisonous to some people. The flowers are very insignificant, but when ripe the figs are very good to eat. The fruits have a large sugar content, and can be dried or frozen. Some say they should always be picked in the early morning. Figs have been used not only as a source of food but also in home medicine for boils, sores, or pulmonary and kidney infections.
ILLUSTRATION 15 Fig
Fig preserves: put figs in a pan, and add sugar until it covers the figs. Let them sit overnight, then cook slowly until the juice boils to a jelly. Put in jars and seal.
Preserved figs: one pint figs; ¾ pound sugar. Cover figs with water to which a pinch of baking soda has been added to take away dust and fuzz. Add the sugar, and bring to a boil slowly, and let stand overnight. Repeat the boiling and standing three times, adding spices or a lemon slice to the last boil. On the third day, pack in jars.
Fig pudding: two cups cooked rice; two cups milk; one whole egg beaten; ¼ stick butter or margarine; one cup chopped figs; ½ cup chopped nut meats; ½ cup brown sugar; ¼ teaspoon ginger; ¼ teaspoon nutmeg; ½ teaspoon vanilla. Add the sugar to the beaten egg, and fold in rice, milk, figs, nuts, and spices. Add vanilla and melted butter. Pour into greased baking dish and bake in a 350° oven until mixture is set and slightly browned on top. Serve with cream, ice cream, or vanilla sauce.
Honey figs: peel figs and cut in half. Arrange in serving dish and pour a mixture of equal parts honey and hot water over them. Chill well and serve with cream.
Figs with ham: peel figs and arrange with finely sliced ham on a platter.
Ripe fig preserves: Place figs in the sun for a short while to harden their outer skin, then prick each fig with a darning needle. Prepare syrup (use one pound sugar in ½ cup water for each pound figs) by stirring water until all sugar has dissolved, and bring to a boil. Add fruit and boil one minute. Add three to four tablespoons lemon juice and boil until fruit is clear and transparent. Bottle and seal while hot.
Fig preserves: six quarts firm, ripe, unbroken figs; six cups sugar; four cups water. Wash figs and pat dry. Bring sugar and water to a boil, add figs, and cook until tender. Pack in jars and process thirty minutes in a hot-water bath.
Mayapple (Podophyllum peltatum) (family Berberidaceae)
(maypop, mandrake, hog apple, wild lemon)
Colonial in habit, mayapples appear in large colonies on rich bottom lands and open hillsides. The large, umbrella-like leaves hide the pretty white flowers and later the oval fruits. The lemon-yellow fruits are edible, with a strawberry-like flavor. Green mayapples can give you a terrific stomach ache. CAUTION: ALL THE REST OF THE PLANT IS POISONOUS IF EATEN.
ILLUSTRATION 16 Florence Brooks with mayapple.
Jake Waldroop described the mayapple to us. “It’ll have one stem come up to a bunch and have a broad leaf. Sometimes it’ll fork. It has a great big white bloom that sheds off and it’ll bear an apple. They’re pretty good to eat. Black draft medicine is almost all pure mayapple. The plants die in the fall and come back every year.” Mayapples are delicious candied, preserved as jam, and in pies.
Mayapple drink: squeeze out the juice from the fruit, and add sugar and lemon; or add to white wine.
Mayapple marmalade: gather ripe fruits, and simmer until soft. Strain through a colander, and boil the pulp with sugar to taste.
Pawpaw (Asimina triloba) (family Annonaceae)
(custard tree, custard apple, frost banana)
The pawpaw is a small slender tree, found in rich woods and along streams. It is always easily identified by its obovate green leaves, and its very ill-smelling twigs. Three-petaled dark red flowers appear before the leaves in early spring. The fruits are green, then yellow, and finally brown, and look like stubby bananas with a thick, sweet pulp. They are ripe in late autumn, and are about an inch in diameter. One has to develop a taste for pawpaws. Someone said they “feel like sweet potatoes in your mouth, and taste somewheres between a banana and a persimmon.” Gordon Underwood said you “eat them just like a pear. They’re yellow on the inside.”
Baked pawpaws: bake in skins; serve with cream.
Pawpaw pie: one cup sugar; one cup milk; one egg; ¼ teaspoon salt; 1½ cups pawpaws, peeled and seeded. Place in a stew pan and stir together. Cook until thickened. Pour in an unbaked pie shell and bake until done.
Pawpaw flump or float: beat up pulp with egg white and sugar like an apple float.
Pawpaw bread: add pawpaw pulp to nut bread. It gives bread a lovely rose-red color.
River plum (Prunus americana) (family Rosaceae)
The river plum is a small tree which grows to twenty feet. It has thorny branches and can be found along rivers and streams in the mountains and piedmont. Leaves are ovate and toothed. The sweet, white, five-petaled flowers appear before the leaves in early spring (April-May). The very tart fruits are red or yellow and can be dried for winter use.
Sloe plum (Prunus umbellata)
(hog plum)
The sloe plum is a small tree found in pine woods and along roadsides, mostly in the piedmont. Its bark is scaly and the leaves are oval and shiny. Its pure white flowers appear several weeks later than those of the chickasaws or river plums. The dark-colored fruit ripens from July to September. Fruits are small and tart, sometimes rather bitter.
Chickasaw plum (Prunus angustifolius)
Chickasaw plums were once native to areas west of the Mississippi River. The Creeks and Cherokees planted them near their villages and they have naturalized in old fields, roadsides, and open woodlands all over the mountain areas. The chickasaw is a small tree, with narrow leaves, which usually grows in clumps. The white flowers appear before the leaves. Chickasaws have the best-tasting plums—large red-yellow fruits that are very sweet when ripe and make superlative plum jelly, plum butter, preserves, and spiced plums.
In the old days, it was the fashion to have plum-gathering picnics, going by horse and buggy or wagon to the plum thickets to gather bushels of fruit and dry them for winter use.
ILLUSTRATION 17 Chickasaw plums
ILLUSTRATION 18
Wild plum catsup: five quarts wild plums; four pounds sugar; one pint vinegar; one pint water; 1½ teaspoons cinnamon; one tablespoon allspice; one tablespoon cloves. Boil plums with one teaspoon soda. Bring to a rolling boil, then strain through a colander. Simmer with sugar, vinegar, and spices until thick as catsup.
Plum cobbler: cook and pit one quart plums. Roll biscuit dough thin and cut in strips. Grease a pan well and add a layer of plums and strips of dough, topping with sugar and dabs of butter. Repeat until pan is almost full. Bake in medium oven.
Plum pudding: put pitted, cooked, sweetened plums two inches deep in bottom of a baking dish. Beat one cup sugar, four tablespoons butter, and one egg to a cream. Add one scant cup of milk, two cups all-purpose flour, and two teaspoons baking powder. Mix well, and pour over plums. Bake one hour at 350°.
Wild plum conserve: seven pounds wild plums; five pounds sugar; two pounds of seeded raisins; three oranges. Wash and pick over plums. Cover with boiling water, and add ½ teaspoon soda. Bring to rolling boil. Pour off the soda water, rinse plums, and strain through a colander. Slice oranges in thin slices, rind and all, removing seeds, and grind the raisins. Combine fruit and sugar, adding enough water to keep them from sticking. Simmer until
thick and clear.
Wild plum jam: Three-fourths pound sugar for each pound plums. Place in alternate layers in kettle and let stand until juice flows freely. Boil 15 minutes. Press through a sieve, return to fire, and boil until thick, stirring constantly.
Wild plum preserves: take half-ripe plums, and boil for three minutes. Pour off the water and add one pound of sugar to one pound of fruit. Boil for thirty minutes, or until the syrup is thick.
Plum preserves: pour boiling water over large plums, then remove the skins. Make a syrup of a pound sugar and a cup of water for each pound fruit. Boil, and pour over the plums. Let it stand overnight, then drain saving the syrup. Boil syrup again, skim, and pour over plums. Let them stand in this another day, then cook in the syrup until clear. Remove the plums with a skimmer and pack them carefully in cans; boil the syrup until thick and pour into the cans and seal.
Plum jelly: cover ½ gallon half-ripe plums with water in a porcelain kettle, and boil ten minutes. Pour off the juice and strain through flannel. Add one pound sugar to each pint juice and boil until it will harden when cold (about twenty to thirty minutes).
Plum sauce: gather plums, wash, and lift gently from water. Add one cup sugar for each cup fruit. Do not add extra water as that clinging to fruit is enough. Cook slowly at low heat. When mixture has thickened, strain through colander to remove seeds and skins.
OR: take ½ gallon almost green plums, wash and cover with water, and boil fifteen minutes. Pour off the water; add to the plums two pounds sugar and one cup good apple vinegar. Boil for thirty minutes. Take from the fire and flavor with one teaspoonful each of extract of cloves and ginger.
Wild Summer and Fall Plant Foods: The Foxfire Americana Library (8) Page 3
