Wild food

I've been eating a lot of pin cherries lately. There' s a tree that's right next to my driveway and I eat a bunch of them of as I go past. Cherries are reported to keep gout in check, and pin cherries seem to be doing the job for me.

Pin cherries are small with large stones. As far as I know, they have no commercial value. That's fine, as they have value to me. I'm told they make a pretty good jam too, so that might be worth pursuing. The nice thing about this tree is that all I for it was not cut it down. It was just another shrub that I left alone. This year it's really producing fruit. Maybe it's all the rain and heat we've been having.

It look promising for other wild berries this year too. Blueberries are early and abundant. The wild foods are making up for a poor garden year for me. One thing that's doing well is sun-chokes (Jerusalem artichokes.) They seem to thrive on neglect and poor soil. My hop plants are also doing well, so maybe some home brew is in my future. Outside of that, most of the garden is producing poorly.

The bears are leaving me along this year, so they must be getting plenty of food in the woods. Hope they save me some blueberries for pie.

-Sixbears