foraging in the hedgerows.
 

Hi my 1st post..

Well today ive been out and about collecting berries from the highways and byways around where i live, i managed to nearly fill a 5ltr bucket with blackberries,
http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i2.../garden035.jpg


However i came across a few bushes loaded with berries that i thought might be blueberries? i took a twig home to try and identify, any help on this one would be great many thanks.

http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i2.../garden036.jpg

foraging in the hedgerows.
 

On Aug 26, 2:42 pm, adamgreen
wrote:
Hi my 1st post..

Well today ive been out and about collecting berries from the highways
and byways around where i live, i managed to nearly fill a 5ltr bucket
with blackberries,
[image:http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i2...garden035.jpg]

However i came across a few bushes loaded with berries that i thought
might be blueberries? i took a twig home to try and identify, any help
on this one would be great many thanks.

[image:http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i2...garden036.jpg]

--
adamgreen

Looks more like bilberry to me. The bilberry leaves have teeth to the
edges, whereas blueberry leaves don't, or at least the blueberry
leaves I am familiar with have smooth edging to them anyway.

I'm sure you can google bilberry or even wikipedia it for a comparison.

foraging in the hedgerows.
 

adamgreen said:


However i came across a few bushes loaded with berries that i thought
might be blueberries? i took a twig home to try and identify, any help
on this one would be great many thanks.

[image:
http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i2...garden036.jpg]

Those aren't blueberries (or bilberries). They don't have the blossom
scar you'd see with a Vaccinium sp. fruit.

It looks like it could be some species of buckthorn, though the leaves
seem a little toothier than I'd expect. You definitely wouldn't want
to eat them if it were (strong laxative). I do notice a typical buckthorn
'thorn' just above the topmost berry.
--
Pat in Plymouth MI ('someplace.net' is comcast)

Any technology distinguishable from magic is insufficiently advanced.
(attributed to Don Marti)

Speaking to a local today told me they are sloe berries and can be used for making gin.

foraging in the hedgerows.
 

On Mon, 27 Aug 2007 22:13:59 +0100, adamgreen
wrote:


Speaking to a local today told me they are sloe berries and can be used
for making gin.

Just a slight correction.
Sloe berries are not used for "making" gin. They are used in the
production of sloe gin which is a deep red coloured liqueur made by
infusing gin with sloe berries and sugar, similar to the method of
making rumtopf with fruit, sugar and rum.

Ross (who likes his gin infused with a little tonic water)