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High bush cranberries...gems of the woods
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High bush cranberries in a bowl and in the wild.
September is prime time for harvesting wild fruits. Plums, grapes, chokecherries, currants, raspberries and high bush cranberries top the list.
We can’t classify fruits as herbs, yet other parts of the shrubs and vines that produce fruit, as well as the fruits themselves, have been used medicinally. Raspberry leaves have astringent and tonic properties, grape seeds can reduce bruising, grapes have anti-inflammatory properties and currants have anti-asthmatic compounds.
American high bush cranberries, though not actually cranberries, have the flavor of cranberries and are available to the wild forager. High bush cranberries are members of the viburnum (trilobum) shrub family. According to Sam Thayer, author of The Forager's Harvest: A Guide to Identifying, Harvesting, and Preparing Edible Wild Plants, high bush cranberries can be picked any time after they turn red and will stay on the bushes after the leaves have fallen. Thayer recommends mashing the berries to a pulp and straining out the flat seeds. The pulp can be used in jams or simulated cranberry sauce.
The bark of the high bush cranberry has been used traditionally to treat menstrual cramps gaining the name Cramp Bark for this native North American shrub.
I picked a gallon of high bush cranberries yesterday. They’re growing along the grove a short walk down the road. That area is often marshy although with little recent rain, the area is dry now. High bush cranberries don’t grow in water yet they seem to like places that are wet. The berries hang in clusters and it’s easy to gather quite a few in a short time. We’ll be making wine and wine-vinegar from this picking. I’ll be checking the back woods for more.
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