are cornelian cherries good for anything other than birdfood? Bumper crop this year.
old guy
I personally love how they taste, and am hoping to grow them for that reason. But it probably varies quite a bit from cultivar to cultivar
I like them a lot. I only eat them when they are dead ripe. Only when they fall off the tree. With most of them, however, I gather them up, freeze them on a cookie sheet, and save them for the winter months. 5 of them makes a great snack. Lots of flavor, you don't have to eat a giant amount of food. Maybe that's one of the reasons why we have an obesity problem. We have bred the flavor out of all of our food, so we end up eating too much.
John S
PDX OR
A celebrated local gardening writer I know here puts them in a heat oriented juicer thing and I think adds sugar, so that he can make it into jam, syrup, etc. anything you want. The problem is the pit is long,so a machine and softening works. However, I don't want to do that because by cooking them you kill a lot of vitamin C and antioxidants. I don't want to do that, so I freeze them and eat them as a snack, removing the long pit as I eat each one.
John S
PDX OR
I have yellow star and red? something. I like both but they are tart, which some people don't like. Elegant is another variety. Which do you have?
I have a beautiful tree but the fruit isn't tasty.
I would love to graft another cultivar to some of the branches if I could
find one with good fruit.
…knowing nothing about cornelian cherries; here’s a photo for others like me:
…full-up with (at the moment 7 loaded fig) trees …I doubt I’ll plant any, but they look more substantial than I expected for a “cherry.â€
The ones I tasted at One Green world tasted like.... well, they had the consistency almost of an olive, but they were creamy with a hint of sweetness. I liked them a lot.
Hi John - Any chance of trading for scion wood of your good tasting variety? I have viable pawpaw seeds. Thanks for all your posts.
Sure, remind me in the winter. They do grow from cuttings, or they can be grafted. I don't need paw paw seeds, but I could use some scions. Do you have named varieties? Mine are seedlings.
John S
PDX OR
Thanks John
My named varieties of pawpaw are too small for use as scions at present but perhaps in one or two years- davis, rebeccas gold, sunflower, overleese and green river belle. I have a seedling that shows promise-good taste, ripens in august, 3 to 5 ounces-might be good for practice with good tasting fruit when successful. If you are interested, I'll send some in late winter and you can return the container with cornelian cherry scions.
Fine John- give me an address for mail and let me know your preference as to diameter of scion by next Feb
I wandered into cornelian cherries on another thread so thought I would bring that here:
Re: shaking trees to harvest, that is how I harvest my cornelian cherries. I just put down a clean tarp, shake the tree, then pick up the tarp, and repeat every few days until all the fruit is harvested. Now I just need to find a good use for the fruit. Although I did just this week try putting some in the blender mixed with water. It easily separated the flesh from the pits, with hardly any pieces of pit chipped off (the pits are VERY hard). Probably a bit hard on the blender, but the blender is pretty tough. It tastes great in a smoothie.
I'm curious how others use cornelian cherries?
I just freeze most of them and eat them in winter. I eat a lot of them fresh, but I'm real careful to make sure they are really ripe. Some animal came in and wiped out all of my yellow ones just before I got ready to harvest them. I have read that a similar species is extremely healthy. It's considered a nutraceutical in SE Europe, where its from.
John S
PDX OR
I am reading a book on Georgian cuisine, and this kind of cherry makes several appearances. Apparently they like sour fruit sauces there.
Tasting Georgia : a food and wine journey in the Caucasus
by Capalbo, Carla. If anybody is interested.
Sounds interesting. The older I get, the more I'm interested in making sauces for food. Both for flavor and adding nutrition. I may try that next year.
I saw a movie about that area. I think it was called Tangerines. Pretty good.
John S
PDX OR
I checked that book out from my ibrary cmullin,
It's really interesting! I like how they combine history, culture, horticulture, and cuisine.
THanks for the recommendation.
John S
PDX OR