They’re all over for the foraging, but I’ve never known them in person before, so don’t want to try the, without some confirmation.
2 Likes
Yes.Brady
2 Likes
Well, this is exciting. I love fruit trees that everybody uses for landscaping, but nobody knows they can eat.
2 Likes
Just as a second confirmation, yes, they are.
2 Likes
Yes. Those are Juneberry aka Amalanchier aka Saskatoon aka Serviceberries.
1 Like
Tasty!
If I’m still alive in the morning, I’ll be taking the kids on a few free pick-your-own walks.
2 Likes
I survived!
One thing that worries me a little: that almond after-taste that they have? That’s the same flavor as apple seeds.
I know you’re not supposed to eat apple seeds, but I didn’t know that when I was younger. Are we sure that flavor isn’t amygdalin? Or are the doses so small that it doesn’t matter?
1 Like
serviceberries have been a major food staple for native americans, settlers, and foragers for hundreds of years, and I am unaware of any poisonings. I also suspect when they were abundant sometimes people ate pounds per day historically–you can dry them certainly but I suspect people gorged seasonally, like they would with any other seasonal bounty
2 Likes
Thought someone might want some different varities Products – OIKOS Tree Crops. I grow a 30 foot row of one variety myself that grows well in Kansas but others I’ve tried did not do well. The type I grow never exceed about 3 feet tall.
1 Like
Is your successful variety commercially available? It sounds cool.
2 Likes
They were one of the basic ingredients of pemmican. PS, enjoy them now, because anytime now a flock of starlings will darken the sun, and after they leave there will not be a single one left.
1 Like
Yes, they are also a robin magnet. Never saw a robin up here in 20+ years until the service berries started coming in…
BTW, they are also know as shad blow (sp?). Supposedly the shad were running in the Connecticut River when they bloomed.
1 Like
So cyanide tastes like almonds? Hey! Is that why my girlfriend keeps trying to feed me almonds?!?
Awesome you made that connection. Juneberries do have hydrogen cyanide in them. You’d have to eat a lot of them to be toxic though. I think like 4-8 lbs of seeds if what I looked at and my math was right. Lima beans have more cyanogen content than juneberries. The leaves and twigs at bloom time have higher levels at bloom time that can kill cattle so don’t eat those 
Cooking is supposed to eliminate it if you are worried.
If I ate a couple pounds of serviceberries, I’d be more worried about having enough toilet paper than I would be about the cyanide.
3 Likes
My son calls them “Snackberries,” since the city uses them a lot for landscape street trees and he can grab a quick snack off them as he walks/runs/rides along!
1 Like
It’s only commercially available from www.byronnursery.com and the genteel mans name I deal with is Gene Redlin. He will ship to anyone but he only handles large orders. One of my friends @39thparallel has a nursery/ orchard close by so I can contact him and see if he can try and propagate them if you want.
1 Like