This page will soon provide information and links on identifying, harvesting, and using wild fruit as part of your food source. I come from a long line of berry-pickers, and this native sensibility finds its way into my songs. Since I am a UWEX Master Gardener, part of my mission is to learn about plants and to teach people what I have learned. As I research the big topic of native plants and permaculture, I will share my learning here.
When waltzing through the woods, you can recognize the beautiful black cherry even in winter by its dark gray scraggy bark. Huge for a fruit tree, it is nevertheless a medium-sized upright tree that grows as a native in Western Wisconsin woodlands amongst the more imposing oaks, basswoods, and maples. If you have seen the cover of my first cd, "Wild Fruit," you have seen there the photocopy image of a black cherry leaf that I picked in the woods out back by the river, whilst being scolded by the local chickadee tribe. Hence the song.
"About the Black Cherry :
The Black Cherry tree, Prunus serotina, is native to eastern North America, Mexico and Central America. It typically occurs in both lowland and upland woods and along streams. It is also known as a wild cherry or wild rum cherry tree. It is one of the largest of the cherries, typically growing to 50-80’ tall with a narrow-columnar to rounded crown. This deciduous tree is most noted for its profuse spring bloom. Their fragrant white flowers in slender pendulous clusters appear with the spring foliage. The flowers are followed by drooping clusters of small red cherries that ripen in late summer.
Black Cherry trees produce fruit that are bitter and inedible fresh off the tree, but the fruit can be used to make jams and jellies. Fruits have also been used to flavor certain liquors such as brandy and whiskey. The glossy green leaves turns to attractive shades of yellow and rose in fall. Mature trees develop dark scaly bark. Bark, roots and leaves contain concentrations of toxic cyanogenic compounds, hence the noticeable bitter almond aroma of the inner bark. The Black Cherry tree produces hard, reddish-brown wood that takes a fine polish and is commercially valued for use in a large number of products such as furniture, veneers, cabinets, interior paneling, gun stocks, instrument/tool handles and musical instruments." - Nature Hills website
All that being said, I wonder how it is that a person can get the ripe fruit off the tree at the right time? I have never really arrived at the tree at that moment where you might shake perfectly ripe fruit off onto a sheet, like I do with plums. If you have experience with wisely harvesting the fruit of this comparatively tall tree, could you please drop me a line and fill me in?
This summer (2008) I read a tale in the Country Today newspaper, about picking wild black cherries. The kids used to drive the horse and buggy up to the tree, and stand up on the buggy seat in order to reach the fruit for picking. My advice? Use a ladder, bring a partner to help hold you up there, and wear tough clothes!
My best luck personally, living as I do in bluff country, involves seeking out the black cherry trees that grow along steep ditches or gullies. Then I can keep my feet on the ground, work up and down in elevation, and reach quite a few branches that way. The ladder is problematic in that you need to get to the outer branches, not the center of the tree.
Again, since we all don't have horses and buggies, if anyone knows a better way, drop me a line!