Guelder rose??

ceridwen

Hi,

I've just been pointed in this direction to pick your collective brains.

I was foraging some red berries this afternoon - and I think they're guelder rose - as in virtually certain that is it....

They're from a shrub and hang in clusters in the same way elderberries do. They're red instead of black though and just marginally bigger than elderberries. They are soft - like elderberries are. There isnt so many of them per cluster as elderberries.

'Fraid I'm unable to post a piccie - as I dont have a camera of any description to my name. Does that sound correct though?

If so - any suggestions as to what I can do with them (of the edible type that is.....:D). I havent got very many and would like to do something healthier than jam (all that sugar:eek:)...

Errata

Have a google for guelder rose recipe, there's several reccipe suggestions on the front page.

MacsReturns

http://www.pfaf.org/database/plants.php?Viburnum+opulus

Jam is probably the best thing you can do.

ceridwen

ceridwen wrote: »

Hi,

I've just been pointed in this direction to pick your collective brains.

I was foraging some red berries this afternoon - and I think they're guelder rose - as in virtually certain that is it....

They're from a shrub and hang in clusters in the same way elderberries do. They're red instead of black though and just marginally bigger than elderberries. They are soft - like elderberries are. There isnt so many of them per cluster as elderberries.

'Fraid I'm unable to post a piccie - as I dont have a camera of any description to my name. Does that sound correct though?

If so - any suggestions as to what I can do with them (of the edible type that is.....:D). I havent got very many and would like to do something healthier than jam (all that sugar:eek:)...

Follow-up on this. I've only been able to find a couple of recipes to do with them - both Russian. So right at this moment I've completed stage 1 of the drink recipe I am trying - ie I've blitzed the berries and covered them with cooled boiled water and left them to "marinate" for 12 hours. Stage 2 is straining this and adding sugar:eek:.

Still keeping my fingers crossed that they ARE actually guelder rose berries. For further identification purposes - when I opened the box I had gathered them in there was a distinct "musty" type smell (and not because I had let them go off - thats obviously how they are). The seeds inside them are white/take up about half the volume of the berry and said seeds resemble a flattened orange pip - ie white and that sort of shape.

Does that sound about right?

oliveoyl

I'm going out to collect some sloes today and will pick up a few g/r berries to have a look at the pips... so if you wait until tonight I'll let you know. I haven't bothered collecting any in the past as they're not really recognised as being good to eat.

Charco_2

OK, so you can post a picture of your own, but could you not look up google images and see what they look like to make a decision for yourself - it'd be a shame if some day you jusy stopped posting here, people would wonder "whatever happened to that guy?"

ceridwen

Thanks Olive - I'll await your response on that then.

Charco - I've looked up Google images and, as far as I can see, I have identified correctly - but I'm a bit nervous here - particularly knowing I havent followed the instructions of a teacher on foraging course I once went on - ie to watch the relevant plant throughout the year at all its stages to be sure and certain of correct identification:D
- and thanks for the concern. I'm a woman actually - of "a certain age" - and maybe I need to contact a mediumistic friend of mine on this Forum if I end up drinking something I shouldnt - for her to pass on a message from me to my virtual friends on this Board....if that was the only way left available to communicate.....:D..just to say "au revoir" on my behalf:rotfl::rotfl:

oliveoyl

I got some... the pips are white and a bit like a squashed version of an orange pip, or a bigger, slightly fatter version of a pepper pip.... and the berries do smell slightly unpleasant.

Let us know how you get on (and of course that you're still alive!).

ceridwen

Thanks for that Olive - I reckon that sounds pretty positive identification to me there.

Will now go off and try and summon up my courage for trying my latest little experiment......

Charco_2

Well it was a fifty/fifty i was taking on the gender thing, but the message is the same: perhaps just a small drink at first to see if you react badly - may still be time to save you! (Leave the front door open and dial 9-9- on your phone, if anything goes wrong, dial the final 9 and cross your fingers! Perhaps leave a note of what you've done too!)

Alternatively, knock it all back, turn up the your favorite record and rock it out!

Good luck!

ceridwen

Whew! Yuk!....and that was just me remembering summat about these berries only being edible if cooked and sitting there thinking "but that Russian recipe didnt mention anything about cooking it at any point". Then sat there pondering which part of the berry ISNT edible if raw - whether its the seed or the flesh. Decided that it wouldnt matter if it was the seed - as that gets sieved out anyway in the course of the recipe - but it definitely WOULD matter if it was the flesh.

Came home and got cooking - put the drink in a saucepan and boiled it for 5 minutes and felt sicker by the minute. Came to the conclusion that it looks revolting - a rather lurid pink colour. It smells revolting - even uncooked and you shoulda been in my kitchen just now smelling it cooking:eek: and, by now, I was pretty darn sure it would taste revolting as well. I dont think it even comes in the category of "survival food" somehows...:rolleyes:. No "stomach-filling" about it - leastways I've only come across recipes to date for using it to make drinks with (not actual food one can eat). A friend of mine pointed out that even a drink might have its uses - as in: containing Vitamin C. I have no idea how much Vit. C guelder rose has in it - but there are some things that just plain arent worth it and IMHO guelder rose berries are one of them.

So - conclusion = I wimped out at the final hurdle - as the first two were bad enough, ie of the revolting appearance and revolting smell.

I have a feeling somehows that the Russian idea of making drinks with guelder rose berries comes into the same category as:
- Chinese idea of birds nest soup
or
- Arabic idea of sheeps eyes for the honoured guest.

So - thats a definite NO sirree from my direction:p:lipsrseal - you know that gesture of "stick fingers down throat" - yep...that one....:D