Picking Wild Berries

Interestingly enough we started out our berry picking adventure with finding a large bush of Elderberries then near this bush grew a wild Black Choke Cherry tree. Then one day while looking for some more Elderberries we discovered a Wild Current bush and another red berry tree called the Northern Ash Berry. I made an observation one day that one type of berry led us to another type of berry and so on until we ended up with all of these wonderfully foraged berries. Last but not least we decided to pick wild Plums on the land, which we plan to turn into a delicious plum wine. It is our plan with all of our berries to try to use all parts of the fruit.

Meaning the juice will be used for various things like medicine, jelly and jam, and for making wine, also the skins and pulp will be collected and dried for medicinal purposes and the seeds will be collected for replanting. During processing I have been very careful to use cold methods to extract the juice from the berries, so that the seeds are still viable. It is my plan next year to start many of these wild fruit bearing bushes and trees and plant them throughout the fields and forests in my area. There are many insects, animals and birds that rely on these fruits as a source of food before and during winter. We felt doing this was a responsible and conscientious act of environmental conservation that we could commit to and that would benefit both us and the animals.

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