wild cherry?

[wattsy]

i thought these were ok to eat and good for making cherry brandy but i got told over the weekend that some are poisonous. is there any truth to this or am i ok to get out and scoff some?

cheers
matt

 

[TFan]

Well I ate several from trees alongside the Grand Union Canal last week and I'm still here. Although the area was once cherry orchards so these may well have been sef-seeded "domestic" trees. I'm not an expert.

 

[widu13]

If they are sweet they are edible. I always makes cherry pie out of the sharp ones.

 

[blacktimberwolf]

I've never heard that the fruit from a wid cherry was poisonous, .....I think it's a rumour spread by birds so they don't have to share.

 

[Geoff Dann]

Well I ate several from trees alongside the Grand Union Canal last week and I'm still here. Although the area was once cherry orchards so these may well have been sef-seeded "domestic" trees. I'm not an expert.

They must like canals. I saw a load recently by the side of the K&A, only accessible from a boat.

 

[Toddy]

The wild cherries are fine, we even find the seeds beside neolithic and bronze age hearths Sour as ooooh a very sour thing right enough though.

What you do have to watch is the cherry laurel; it's not a goodie

cheers,
Toddy

 

[The Big Lebowski]

Been eating quite a few types over the days... Mostly small and claret coloured. Sharp, but cherry like.

I found a black cherry tree today (large dark fruits) that was superb. My daughter went home with a full belly, and a purple face

Cherry pie, good call.

Num, num!

 

[Toddy]

Fresh cherries are one of my very favourite fruits

Amazing how many really tasty cherry trees are planted in parks and public places and no one forages from them at all.

cheers,
M

 

[The Big Lebowski]

LoL!

These where planted between a main road and peoples parking places... If it wasn't broad daylight, there where tons on the floor from kids playing in the tree

Night time, every pocket I had would have been full of the black one's. I may just go back for a raid tomorrow.

Regards, al.

 

[Melonfish]

soon be time for the local cherries. lovely dark things that are sweet but stain everything they touch
especially my tongue

 

[TFan]

The ornamental dark red leaved "cherry" trees very occasional produce some fruit. Certainly around my area the trees have a handful between them. They're difficult to spot amongst the leaves but will be delicious when ripe. I've got my eye on the two fruits I've seen on my neighbour's tree overhanging the pavement.

 

[wattsy]

awesome cherry brandy on the way then

 

[leahcim]

not sure what cherry you have, but all rose family Prunus, and malus spp have Cyanide in them, the smell of almonds in the seeds gives it away. Almond is a Prunus, as with peaches, and plums, and nectrarines. When heated Cyanide is destryed and makes the cherries pits, edible. The fruit of Cherries are edible accept for Cherry Laurel, but anytime you cook cherries they are safe to eat. Cherries ave some of the most bitter tasting plants, like chokecherries and black cherries, but Chokecherries are some of the best fruits for cancer, etc known to mankin, and sold as Aronia juice. But any bitter cherry should be cooked in liquid and add sugar to it to sweeten, and you will have a juice instead of berries to eat. but dont know wht plant you are talking about, so it may be poisonous.

 

[blacktimberwolf]

not sure what cherry you have, but all rose family Prunus, and malus spp have Cyanide in them, the smell of almonds in the seeds gives it away. Almond is a Prunus, as with peaches, and plums, and nectrarines. When heated Cyanide is destryed and makes the cherries pits, edible. The fruit of Cherries are edible accept for Cherry Laurel, but anytime you cook cherries they are safe to eat. Cherries ave some of the most bitter tasting plants, like chokecherries and black cherries, but Chokecherries are some of the best fruits for cancer, etc known to mankin, and sold as Aronia juice. But any bitter cherry should be cooked in liquid and add sugar to it to sweeten, and you will have a juice instead of berries to eat. but dont know wht plant you are talking about, so it may be poisonous.

How would you cook the cherries without fire ?

 

[leahcim]

Cynaide is killed by any heat, mere drying out in the hot sun is enough. laying on hot metal, etc. if you are making a joke about me not having fire on other post, I didnt say I dont have use of fire. I said I practice not using it, to learn to be masters of the enivorment. Smashing cherries with pits and stones, and drying in the sun is the native way to eat cherries, usually mashed into vension of other large game meats. I dont mind the bitterness, but others would gag at what I eat. the more you eat tannins, and bitters the less bitter they become over the years. non fire enivorment is a true survivalist.

 

[Toddy]

Oh hear ? I've got a new recipe for boozy fruits

De-pit one punnet of cherries. (give them a quick wash and dry first) I cut mine in half.
Take the weight of the cherries in sugar, and the same in water, mix together and bring slowly to a simmer.
Let it reduce by about a quarter.
Put the cherries into the syrup and stir well; remove from the heat.
Add scrubbed clean, peeled off and the white slice cleanly away, orange peel in biggish pieces.
Stir well.
Add a quarter of the weight of the original stoned cherries of cointreau or vodka or brandy to the mix.
Pour into a pretty jar and seal. I had intended to keep mine for ice cream and yoghurt, and to make crumble with in Winter, but I need to start again

Works well with plums and peaches too

cheers,
M

 

[Toddy]

Leachim this is a bushcraft forum, not a survivalist one. We're interested but the ethos is more
"Survival = get the hell out asap", while "Bushcraft = chill the hell out asap"

For the effort of a few minutes work to remove the pits and to make a much better product, I reckon it's effort well spent.
Even in our very distant past folks spat out the pits, the evidence is in the archaeological record. i.e. the Scottish Crannog centre, cherry pips found around the hearth in the floor rushes, c 450bce

cheers,
Toddy

 

[leahcim]

toddy, I spend 3/4 year in the woods doing primitive living skills, I am not a survivalist I live what I preach. dont know why you are attacking me, but if you dont like my advice then you dont have to listen to it. Your cherries are not the same cherries in America - our black cherry, fire cherries, pin cherries, chokecherries are very tiny, and smashing the pits and eating them is what we Native Americans been doing since beginning of time. commericval cherries, peaches, and nectarine pits I am not going to eat, unless I am straving. thoug we have a apricot crossed with almond, so you can have both fruit and seed.

if you ever tried removing a black cherry pit in america woods you wood quickly realize you are wasting your time, you better off rubbing them together until skin peels off, not a lot of flesh on them. but you would not know that because you dont live here so I will excuse your comment on survivalist. and if you were in these woods, for long time, you be eating pits, bark, and anything that crawled before you starve to death.

 

[Toddy]

We don't have those. We have bird cherries, we have wild cherry varieties and we have the domesticated variants of them.
We remove the stones and we have done so for millenia.
I'm an archaeologist, we find the damned stones.

And before you excuse me for commenting, take the stick out our your own eye sunshine.

I forage daily, this land is rich in food. It's incredibly seasonal though; but then, that's why farming and gardening took off as such a good idea

Toddy