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Wild Fruit Plates

© Gregg Pasterick

Well, I've written about salads in the wild and I've written about starches, how about fruit? There are a lot of familiar things growing out there in the woods, along fence rows, in fields, stuff like blueberries and cranberries and raspberries and blackberries and strawberries, but there are other fruits I, for one, wasn't always aware of. Huckleberries, for instance.

The only huckleberry I was ever aware of was a cartoon dog we all knew as Huckleberry Hound Dog. He's the furthest thing from anyone's mind here, on the coast of Washington, where huckleberries (as well as cranberries and blueberries) are a big deal.

Black Huckleberries (Gaylussacia baccata) are a northerly species, and the berries ripen from July into early autumn, depending upon location. Dwarf Huckleberries (G. dumosa) are a more southerly species. Black Huckleberry bushes prefer pastures and clearings, usually in dry soil, but can be found in boggy places. Dwarf Huckleberry bushes, while they grow in wet thickets and peat bogs in the northern portion of their range - New Jersey and southern Newfoundland - they are usually found in pinelands and sandy soils in the south.

Huckleberries are great used instead of, or mixed with blueberries.

One of the weirdest places to find a tasty fruit is at the end of a Prickly Pear Cactus (Opuntia spp.) They are just as prickly, barbed and hairy as the plant so must be harvested with care, and then peeled. But the juicy pulp is worth it.

They are common in the tropical regions of the continent, spreading further north in some places. I found Prickly Pear Cactus growing in the dunes of Indiana, near Lake Michigan.

Another unusual place to find edible fruit is dangling from the May Apple (Podophyllum peltatum), which is a poisonous plant. The fruit, which repines late in the summer, is pulpy, seedy, and has a tough skin. They can be eaten raw, but may not settle well in delicate tummies. Cooked fruits are much more palatable, or the juice can be squeezed from the fresh fruit and mixed with sugar or lemonade.

It's something I've never tried, even though May Apples were abundant in the woods near my home in Ohio. I guess I was never brave enough.

And then there are Rose hips, the small, bright red fruit that follow the fragrant flowers on Wild Rose (Rosa spp.) bushes. Folks, whose only exposure to roses is the cultivated pom-pom explosions of color variety, are surprised to discover that rose bushes do bare fruit. The fancy, schmancy cultivated types often don't produce fruit. I was one of those, then I had rose hip tea and wondered what the heck a rose hip was and voila! Fruit from a rose!

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