Search This Blog

Sunday, August 30, 2015

Fall Hunting and Berry Season Begins (Blog 257)

As much as I enjoy participating in Virginia's Urban Archery Season, which begins next Saturday in Roanoke County -one county over from Elaine's and my Botetourt County, Virginia home, I also enjoy another form of outdoor recreation that is just starting... wild fruit gathering.

Several days ago, Elaine and I picked some hackberries and wild cherries from trees growing along our rural road.  No such thing exists as hackberry cobbler or wild cherry pie (at least from our experience) because both fruits are smaller than peas and gathering many is time consuming.

But both cherries and hackberries are a nice snack, and good sprinkled over oatmeal, and are precursors to fall fruits that can provide substantial meals.  Summer grapes ripen in September and make outstanding jelly. Paw paws fall in late September and can be made into bread and cookies.

Then last to ripen, usually sometime in early November, are persimmons.  Persimmon/wild black walnut bread is, hands down, one of the best things I have ever eaten.  I killed several deer with my bow last fall that had come to feast on persimmons - it is understandable that whitetails relish persimmons as well.


2 comments:

  1. I also enjoy another form of outdoor recreation that is just starting... wild fruit gathering. duck and goose

    ReplyDelete
  2. Jeffrey,

    Thanks for the comment. The next evening that it does not rain, I will head for a wild grape patch...Bruce

    ReplyDelete