Foraging for Fall Fruit

 

Wild Grape vines

In the fall, my partner and I forage for Wild Grapes.  They grow all over our area in the wild spaces between the local walking/cycling trail and people’s backyards or between the trail and marshland.  Over the past few years we have remembered where the best grapes are to be found but weather patterns play a big part in the quality of the grapes from year to year.  We only take what we can reach and leave the high ones for the birds.  Sometimes, we are a bit late and there are lots of grapes that have shriveled and dried up.  

At home, my partner extracts the juice from the grapes and then we make Wild Grape jelly which we share with our friends and family.  Nature is generous and we give people a taste of that generosity in the early winter.  The jelly tastes like Welch’s Grape Jelly and so for anyone our age, this is a fabulous taste that magically transports us to a place of childlike wonder.

It is interesting that when you are foraging for a specific plant, you scan the wild areas looking for say, Grape vines.  They can be found hanging from trees, wound around shrubs or crawling across the ground.  Poison Ivy is along the edges of most of the trail so grapes that are touching Poison Ivy leaves are left for the squirrels and chipmunks.  It is important to be able to recognize Poison Ivy leaves and we have become very good at scanning for them.  Apparently ingesting the oily resin that causes a skin rash is an extremely bad idea.  I, for one, do not need to be told this twice.

Wild Grapes on the vine with yellowish green grape leaf at bottom,
Note the greenish brown stalks on the grapes.

The other thing we have to scan for is False Virginia Creeper.  It has totally different leaves which are now turning red but the berries look just like grapes.  The only problem is that the fruit of the False Virginia Creeper is poisonous.  Sometimes the leaves have all fallen off and your eye gravitates to the little blue grape-like berries.  This is when you have to know that the stems on those berries are bright red, like the leaves and they come out at awkward looking angles as if warning us not to eat them.

Grape leaf on left and 5 lobed reddish False Virginia Creeper leaves on right.  In front of the grape leaf are False Virginia Creeper berries that closely resemble Wild Grapes.  However, the stems are bright red and are set at awkward angles.

And then, there are the Nannyberries.  Unlike the Wild Grape and False Virginia Creeper which are vines, the Nannyberry is a shrub with single ovate leaves that are now turning orangey red.  The Nannyberries which are in the High Bush Cranberry family, hang from orange stems in a cluster.  There are no awkward angles here.  They are much more graceful looking.  And Nannyberries are edible and delicious.  They are in taste and texture like a prune with a single flat pit.  False Virginia Creeper berries are like grapes inside with many pits in a mucilaginous interior.  I know because I crushed one on the trail to check.

Nannyberries.  Note the single ovate orangey red leaves and orange stems
on the berries that hang in a graceful cluster.

This information is all very important because sometimes you can find a False Virginia Creeper vine wrapped around a Nannyberry bush.  I saw one last night.  The Creeper had lost all of its leaves already and so the berries looked like they were part of the Nannyberry bush.  But, the stems were red (not orange) and at awkward angles (not graceful).  I traced the stems back to vines that mimicked the bushes branches.  They almost had me fooled.  And there were lots of them.  I got excited to see so many but then took a closer look and discovered my mistake before it was too late.

When I am foraging and paying such close attention to the berries, I forget all about the pandemic and the fear, the fatigue and the frustration that humans are experiencing during these times.  I am totally in the moment, examining the plants for their characteristics and getting a good eye for berries.  I am renewing my relationship with these plants.  I thank them for sharing what is edible for us and for the beauty of the leaves of the poisonous ones.  The white and purple Asters and bright yellow Goldenrod along with the orange and red Sumacs, yellowish green grape leaves and the red of the Creepers and Nannyberries are a feast for my eyes.  And every now and then I pop a Nannyberry into my mouth and savour the sweetness or a tart Wild Grape that makes my mouth pucker.

Last night, we foraged alongside marshland.  Huge flocks of blackbirds swooped over our heads making loud whooshes as they passed.  The warm breeze brought the smells of the marsh and the flowers to our noses.  It was magical.

As I carefully scrutinized the leaves and berries that I came across, I thought about how we are all having to make decisions about things in our lives.  Some choices will bring nourishment and joy while other things will bring ill health and pain.  We have to scrutinize the things in our lives and in our world carefully to see which is which.  We have been fooled by people who present a look alike version or alternative facts about what is good for individuals, for communities and all the other than human life on Earth.  Sometimes, it seems too good to be true, like the Creeper berries on the Nannyberry bush.  It is time for us to look carefully at what is on offer.  After all, not every dark purple round fruit is edible

A cluster of Wild Grapes.  But you knew that by now, didn't you?