I LOVE the jelly I make every autumn from the bushes growing wild on my land. I've never been able to get anyone to tell me officially that the berries were not toxic and many people are afraid to use the berries for that reason. I assume that the berries are just not commercially viable due to the berry size and therefore no one has ever paid to have the research done. Do you know more? I've used 100 year old recipes and I steam cook the berries for juice that I turn into jelly. I understand the seeds have some toxin and it's not wise to eat them yet I've heard older people say they use to eat them all the time as the original all natural 'pop rocks; due to the loud pop the seeds make when chewed. They were still alive and not sick after all those years of eating them. I still would love to know what research has been done for human consumption. I do and will continue to make and love (my favorite) jelly but it would be nice to know the facts.
We defer to our friends at UF/IFAS on how edible the berries and other parts of the plant are: blogs.ifas.ufl.edu/escambiaco/2020/08/19/weekly-what-is-it-american-beautyberry/
I live in a GA town that's a mile from the border of North Florida, Withlacoochee River area. We have them everywhere and they're starting to appear now! Come September they'll be ripe. Never knew my whole dang life that they were edible until I got a book off Amazon about edible FL native plants 😮 it has a recipe for beauty berry jam. Now the leaves make an excellent bug repellant. You can boil them down like a tea and then make a spray or just crush and rub them in you.
Unless you're making jelly with sugar they don't taste uh..edible. But the leaves make excellent bug repellant and the Indians here where I lived, the Timucuan, used them for that as well. Or so I've read.
I LOVE the jelly I make every autumn from the bushes growing wild on my land. I've never been able to get anyone to tell me officially that the berries were not toxic and many people are afraid to use the berries for that reason. I assume that the berries are just not commercially viable due to the berry size and therefore no one has ever paid to have the research done. Do you know more? I've used 100 year old recipes and I steam cook the berries for juice that I turn into jelly. I understand the seeds have some toxin and it's not wise to eat them yet I've heard older people say they use to eat them all the time as the original all natural 'pop rocks; due to the loud pop the seeds make when chewed. They were still alive and not sick after all those years of eating them. I still would love to know what research has been done for human consumption. I do and will continue to make and love (my favorite) jelly but it would be nice to know the facts.
We defer to our friends at UF/IFAS on how edible the berries and other parts of the plant are: blogs.ifas.ufl.edu/escambiaco/2020/08/19/weekly-what-is-it-american-beautyberry/
I live in a GA town that's a mile from the border of North Florida, Withlacoochee River area. We have them everywhere and they're starting to appear now! Come September they'll be ripe. Never knew my whole dang life that they were edible until I got a book off Amazon about edible FL native plants 😮 it has a recipe for beauty berry jam. Now the leaves make an excellent bug repellant. You can boil them down like a tea and then make a spray or just crush and rub them in you.
So wait, these are EDIBLE? I've gone my entire life listening to my dumb monke brain tell me "nah dude, those things look hella poisonous"
Unless you're making jelly with sugar they don't taste uh..edible. But the leaves make excellent bug repellant and the Indians here where I lived, the Timucuan, used them for that as well. Or so I've read.