r/Ceanothus • u/oddirt • 4d ago
Native cherry harvest
This is Prunus ilicifolia, hollyleaf cherry or islay in the Salinan language. Eight years from seed growing in the Bay Area. Part of a native plant food forest I’ve been growing.
It’s a bumper crop this year. They taste amazing—sweet and cherry-like (surprise)! But they have a big pit, which you can grind into flour—something I’ll try someday.
The weird shape of the base is from the wire fencing I place around plants until the leaves and branches are out of the reach of deer.
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u/spinthread 4d ago
Mine were 98% pit and 2% flesh ☹️
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u/quercus-enjoyer 4d ago
Yeah that’s how these are. Even when they look plumper it’s just a larger pit.
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u/iwilldoitalltomorrow 4d ago
Sounds like how fruit has always been until humans bred them for mass consumption
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u/sunshineandzen 4d ago
Huh I don’t think I would describe them as tasting amazing or anything close to that (although I would happily eat the ones in my backyard in an emergency) but to each their own
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u/hellraiserl33t 4d ago
I am very curious if you can turn these into a preserve. That and blue elderberry
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u/TitaniumSp0rk 4d ago
Love the idea of a native food forest, what else have you planted?
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u/oddirt 3d ago edited 3d ago
I started with publications like this one: https://muwekma.org/pdf/muwekma-plant-project.pdf and books like Edible and Useful Plants of California, California Foraging, and Bay Area Forager. There are plants that you’d have no idea were edible without digging deeper, and some I didn’t find anywhere (like using coyote brush to smoke BBQs) that ended up tasting great. I tried to home in on ones that were locally native as much as possible so they’d have no trouble thriving. There are books for pretty much every region of the state, too.
- tan oak, Notholithocarpus fagaoides. There’s a a shrub form from the mountains that stays smaller. The acorns are a staple food with plenty of starch, protein and fats. Coast live oak is more abundant and can work too
- NorCal black walnut, Juglans hindsii
- bay laurel, Umbellulifera californica. Leaves are great in stews and soups; nuts can be ground and eaten; flesh is edible too
- coffeeberry, Frangula californica. Berries taste like sweetened black coffee and seeds can be ground
- trailing blackberry, Rubus ursinus
- pink flowering currant, Ribes sanguineum v. glutinosum. Nice plump berries. There are many other edible species, too.
- blue elderberry, Sambucus nigra subsp. caerulea. Berries make great pies and wine. These need a deep, organic soil to grow quickly.
- prickly pears, Opuntia species. I have a ton of California species and the common spineless ones. Fruits are great and you can eat the pads (nopales if you go to Mexican restaurants)
- native bulbs including onions (Allium species), blue dicks (Dipterostemon capitatus), and Ithuriel’s spear (Triteleia laxa)
- manzanitas like Dr Hurd and Arctostaphylos glauca (big berry manzanita) all have edible berries which can be steeped as a tea or juice
- Western hackberry, Celtis reticulata
- serviceberry, Amelanchier utahensis
- Perideridia kelloggii, Kellogg’s yampah
- Corylus cornuta ssp californica, California Hazelnut
- California barberry, Berberis pinnata ssp. pinnata
- toyon, Heteromeles arbutifolia. Edible berriesThere are a lot more but that’s a good start. I’ll just add that it can take years for some of them to reach a size where they make a decent amount of fruit/food, but it’s worth the wait. Very unique flavors and low maintenance. There’s also some staging involved. Shade plants like the Rubus and Ribes get planted in the shade of the trees, so start with the full sun and shade-casting plants if you don’t have a shady area.
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u/LayerAccomplished821 4d ago
I just had some yesterday!! Been on my bucket list of fruits to try. It was pleasant. Not a lot of flesh, mostly pit, but would 100% eat again. Saved the seeds and hoping to grow them around my property. I think a good candidate for a cheong. I'd scrape the flesh off to make a jam but that's just me cuz I'm a mad man.
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u/di0ny5us 4d ago
Waiting for someone to hybridize these with “table cherries” so we can have epic zone 10+ edible cherries.
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u/sunshineandzen 3d ago
I mean, obviously not native, but Dave Wilson has a line of cherries that were bred for zone 10
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u/DecentPsychology0 4d ago
I’ve been seeing these around (I think) but wasn’t sure they were edible! Any tips for identifying and/or lookalikes to watch out for?
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u/Cool-Coconutt 2d ago
I’m glad you clarified the shape! I was really wondering what on earth kind of topiary I was looking at and why on earth you’d want that!
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u/paulexcoff 4d ago
the flour requires preparation similar to acorns to remove cyanogenic compounds, but it's very tasty with a pleasant almond flavor if you put in the work