Important
- We must not consume fruits that we do not know well.
- Edibility and toxicity data are only illustrative.
- Anyone who eats these fruits (or other parts of the plant), does it under his responsibility.
Edibility:
Here we can talk knowledgeably about edible berries.
Edible
Edible, excellent
Edible, disliked, fad, tasteless
In order to make them edible, some of these fruits need a previous preparation:
- - Bletting (overmaturation): the serve (Sorbus domestica) and the medlar fruit (Mespilus germanica; ca: nespla) [-→NOTE] have to be consumed when they have nearly gone off, when they are bletted. Bletting is done on top of straw or naturally, following a hard frost.
- - To remove irritating hairs: rose hip (Rosa sp.).
NOTE (on nespla, nespra): the loquat or Japanese medlar fruit is nowadays a much more common fruit. It is consumed fresh. It is the fruit of the planted tree Japanese medlar (Eriobotrya japonica; ca: nespra (or nispro, micaco, etc.).
Some of these fruits can only be consumed with caution, i.e. only in small quantities, such as those of winter cherry (Physalis alkekengi), bog bilberry (Vaccinium uliginosum) and guelder-rose (Viburnum opulus). Eating them frequently or in large quantities can have toxic effects and cause vomiting or diarrhoea.
Also the consumption of unripe fruit of certain plants may have toxic effects, such as fruits of elderberry (Sambucus nigra) and others.
In addition to eating these fruits fresh, they may be consumed converted into:
fruit preserves (jams, marmalades, etc.)
Juices or syrups
Spirits and liqueurs, such as those obtained by the distillation of fermented fruit juice (kirsch of wild cherries) or by using the fruit as a flavouring (gin with juniper, patxaran with sloes, crème de cassis with blackcurrant and mirto, liqueur with myrtle berries).
They may also have specific medicinal uses, although we will only deal with the most common food consumption here.
