Trash Panda's Urban Forage: Cornelian Cherries

Cornelian Cherry Dogwood (Cornus mas)

Harvest time (Seattle): Late August through early October
Flavor: Real tart with nice floral and red fruit overtones
Uses: Jam, jelly, syrup, and flavoring fruit butters or leathers
Harvest method: Individually by hand, and it's kind of a pain in the ass. You usually don't need a ladder to get a bunch, and you don't need more than a few cups of them to add flavor to your preserve or fruit leather

Trash Panda believes in using what's at hand, and man are cornelian cherries on hand this time of year. Cornelian cherries are kinda hard to miss - they look like bundles of little red jewel berries covering a small tree. And often on the ground all around said tree.

Cornelian cherries are not quite ripe when they're bright red. They're almost ripe when they're deep red, and have just a little give to them instead of being hard like the bitty little ruby bullets. I have read that they are only truly ripe once they've dropped off the tree. Since they're real tart either way, I don't worry too much about getting them right at peak of ripeness because I'll be adding sugar to what I'm using them in either way.

Processing cornelian cherries is kind of a pain in the ass, much like how gathering them is. I simmer them in a little water until they soften up. Then I either laboriously squeeze as much juice and flesh as I can off them through a sieve, or I just pour them into a cheesecloth bag and squeeze all the juice out.

A Little Light Reading

From Practical Self-Reliance: Growing and Using Cornelian Cherries
From Uncommon Fruit: Cornelian Cherry

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