Fall and fresh food go hand in hand. PEI’s backyard gardens are full of vegetables, our farm fields are ready for harvest, and wild fruit and fungi are at their peak. Even so, some of the tastiest wild fruit often go unnoticed, including those of our native Wild Raisin (Viburnum cassinoides).
This easy-to-identify shrub has oval leaves that are opposite (attached to the branch in pairs across from each other) with a distinctive light or pale pink vein down the middle of each. Groups of tiny, white, five-petalled flowers appear in June and attract a range of pollinators including bees, beetles, butterflies, and flies. Flowers that are successfully cross-pollinated develop into fruit that starts ripening in September. Most years, these plants produce a good crop.
The catch is that the clusters of Wild Raisin fruit ripen unevenly. From the plant’s point of view, this isn’t a bad strategy. It increases the chances that fruit will be collected by different animals at different times and taken to different places, which is good for seed dispersal and survival. From our point of view, it makes fruit tedious to collect in any quantity. Those dark blue berries (technically ‘drupes’) are delicious and do taste a bit like a raisin or date; the unripe pink ones are disgusting and one of the worst things I’ve ever tasted (trust me, that’s saying a lot!).
If they’re not eaten by birds or mammals, Wild Raisins will hang onto their branches well into the fall, and they get sweeter after a hard frost. At that point they’ve wrinkled a bit and look very much like raisins. This plant is also known as Witherod, referring to its strong, flexible twigs. Like Willow, Wild Raisin has been used for making baskets, eel traps, and the switches once used for corporal punishment.
Wild Raisin is nice raw or – if you have the patience to collect several cups – can be made into a nice sauce or paste. You won’t find many recipes for it, but you can substitute Wild Raisin in any recipe that uses Nannyberries (Viburnum lentago), a related species that doesn’t grow here on the Island. Both Wild Raisin and Nannyberries have a single large seed inside each fruit, but those of Wild Raisin are much softer and I’ve never bothered removing them before eating. You might want to strain them out if making a sauce or paste though.
As a final note, Wild Raisin makes a lovely landscape plant. It tolerates a range of soil and light conditions, is hardy, has lovely foliage and flowers in summer, and attractive berries and purple-red leaves in fall. It’s native, pollinator-friendly, and provides food for birds and mammals. About the only downside is that it’s susceptible to the invasive Viburnum Leaf Beetle, though I see evidence of that insect far more often on Highbush Cranberry (Viburnum opulus) than Wild Raisin.
Wild Raisin is ripening now and worth a try if you see some; I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised at the flavour. This is a beautiful, ecologically useful, and delicious part of PEI untamed!
Comments