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For you chokecherry fans......

kolanuraven

Well-known member
This was on the local tribal web site....guess they picked it from another tribal paper.





DORREEN YELLOW BIRD COLUMN: Food from the Plains can do wonders for you
Dorreen Yellow Bird
Published Saturday, February 23, 2008
Dorreen Yellow Bird is a reporter and columnist. Her columns appear Wednesdays and Saturdays on the opinion pages of the Herald.


Chokecherries, I wrote earlier in the week, are a wonder fruit. True, but I must add there are other plants and fruits in our North Dakota Plains that can be just as nutrition-filled and also contain anti-cancer agents.

Some of these are wheat from the Plains and plants such as broccoli and beans, as well as other produce containing selenium. Much of this produce is fed by the rich soils in the Dakotas, Manitoba, Saskatchewan and even Alberta.

After the chokecherry column was published, I received telephone calls and e-mails about the fruit, and I realized that I needed to emphasize something. Even though chokecherry jelly is excellent in taste, when it's cooked a couple of times with sugar and pectin added to it, the jelly has less value than the raw chokecherry. It also has more calories. It's still good jelly and I dare say better than much of the "store-bought" stuff, but some things have been cooked out.


It's the raw fruit that contains the most antioxidants.

Processing, however, doesn't ruin chokecherry wine. Many people say it's good but tart. One winemaker told me if you let it sit, say three or four years, it becomes sweeter, and the taste is excellent.

Another person asked me, "What about juneberries or serviceberries?" Juneberries were preferred because they taste sweeter and are a lot like blueberries. Yes, they are nutritional, too, but they don't have as much nutritional value as chokecherries. That information is from Dr. Gerald Combs, director of U.S. Department of Agriculture's Human Nutrition Research Center in Grand Forks and some Canadian researchers.

Turning to other plants and fruits, I learned bread made with wheat from the Plains (not all areas) is good in two ways: First, bread made from grains grown in the Plains has a higher content of protein. Most important, the soil contains selenium, which is absorbed into the wheat and becomes an antioxidant.

That means, the scientists tell me, the soil in some areas of the Plains can cut colorectal cancer in half. Two slices of bread made from wheat grown in North Dakota has the same amount of antioxidants as a loaf and a half of bread grown in Kansas, for example.

Our soil is powerful.

As I said, selenium can be found in the soil in the western part of the state. So, cattle that eat grasses grown in areas that contain selenium will pass that on to the consumer. Bison or buffalo meat is particularly rich in selenium if the bison graze on grasses from selenium-rich soil. The meat also has less fat.

Sound like a myth?

There's a farmer in South Dakota whose soil has been tested, and it contains large amounts of selenium. He sells his wheat to Germany at a high price, Dr. Combs told me. It's a value-added product we like to talk about.

Then, of course, we all know the research being done on broccoli. One of our "Nut Lab's" claim to fame is it is one of the biggest producers of broccoli grown on the roof of its building. But most important, researchers have found that broccoli and selenium can prevent some forms of cancer.

When broccoli is working, it forms a gas in the gut, and it's that gas that indicates the antioxidant is working, not unlike beans grown in our area. Beans are another of those wonder foods. Beans, as most of us know, form a gas in the gut that can be embarrassing when it leaves the body after its done its work.

Yet, that gas from broccoli and beans is an indication that these products are working.

Too much selenium, ranchers found, can be poisonous, too. Back in the early 1900s, cattle died from consuming too much.

I do know in my personal prairie plant discoveries, care is needed. I've always believed I was told by my grandmother that a tiny taste won't hurt you. So far, that's been true for me.

I'll never forget an episode I had with a plant I harvested from the Rocky Mountains. I found what I thought might be a plant in the same family in North Dakota. There was a little difference, but not much. I found it in a boggy spring area, similar to where the mountain plant grows, and picked it.

Of course, I tasted it. Something didn't seem right, so I saved it.

Some months later, Richard Crawford, a retired biologist from UND, came with me to the prairie. I showed him the plant and asked what it was. That's poison hemlock, he told me.

Yikes!

So, when looking for plants on the Plains, it's a good idea to check them out first. Not everything is a wonder food. However, we have a large share of those valuable plants fed by the supersoil in North Dakota.
 

Mrs.Greg

Well-known member
We have TONS of chockcherry trees in our area,the Battle River Hills natural grass land must support the plants. We love the jelly,syrup and wine but as for eating them raw :gag: They're called chockcherry for a reason,its hard to explain but its a dry pucker your mouth kinda taste.....needs sugar.I think if someone put a handful of raw ones into mouth to eat I would wonder if they wouldn't choke bad on them......
 

the_jersey_lilly_2000

Well-known member
Mrs.Greg said:
We have TONS of chockcherry trees in our area,the Battle River Hills natural grass land must support the plants. We love the jelly,syrup and wine but as for eating them raw :gag: They're called chockcherry for a reason,its hard to explain but its a dry pucker your mouth kinda taste.....needs sugar.I think if someone put a handful of raw ones into mouth to eat I would wonder if they wouldn't choke bad on them......

Sounds about like what persimons here do to ya. I call it "cotton mouth" cuz it's so sour it's dry....puckers ya up...ugh....
 

kolanuraven

Well-known member
the_jersey_lilly_2000 said:
Mrs.Greg said:
We have TONS of chockcherry trees in our area,the Battle River Hills natural grass land must support the plants. We love the jelly,syrup and wine but as for eating them raw :gag: They're called chockcherry for a reason,its hard to explain but its a dry pucker your mouth kinda taste.....needs sugar.I think if someone put a handful of raw ones into mouth to eat I would wonder if they wouldn't choke bad on them......

Sounds about like what persimons here do to ya. I call it "cotton mouth" cuz it's so sour it's dry....puckers ya up...ugh....


or wild or " hawg" plumbs will do about the same.
 

Emma

Well-known member
I love raw chokecherries. Tons of them grow along the backroads in Vermont, but not here. It's one of the things I miss. My mouth is watering thinking about them. I wonder if a bush would transplant and thrive here? I'd probably be shot for introducing an invasive species.
 

Emma

Well-known member
Mrs.Greg said:
Emma.....your a strange one,raw chockcherrys ...GAG



Lilly...What do you use persimons for??

Lol...I'd like to be all :shock: and surprised like that's the first time I've been called strange, but I'm getting used to it.

Maybe my chokecherries are different then your chockcherries. They grow on scrawny trees, usually find them edging the dirt roads, and the cherries are tiny like...hmm...like huckleberries, and green to red to almost purple when they're ripe, and they're sour and puckery astringent but with a little redeeming sweetness to them when they're purple and soft and warm from the sun. Maybe I can find a picture to compare....
No, I can't. Well, but they are good.
 

Mrs.Greg

Well-known member
Emma said:
Mrs.Greg said:
Emma.....your a strange one,raw chockcherrys ...GAG



Lilly...What do you use persimons for??

Lol...I'd like to be all :shock: and surprised like that's the first time I've been called strange, but I'm getting used to it.

Maybe my chokecherries are different then your chockcherries. They grow on scrawny trees, usually find them edging the dirt roads, and the cherries are tiny like...hmm...like huckleberries, and green to red to almost purple when they're ripe, and they're sour and puckery astringent but with a little redeeming sweetness to them when they're purple and soft and warm from the sun. Maybe I can find a picture to compare....
No, I can't. Well, but they are good.
Stange and a smarty pants....I meant Chokecherry :p

I looked...I also don't have pics of the trees but our chokecherrys have seeds...Yours??Boy I've sure never noticed a redeeming sweetness so maybe they are different but prob not. I have no clue what a huckleberry is....other then a little painting boy :lol:
 

Emma

Well-known member
Yes, they have seeds, they're like tiny pits you have to spit out - have to spit out farther than any other kid you're with that day can spit them.
 

the_jersey_lilly_2000

Well-known member
Mrs.Greg said:
Emma.....your a strange one,raw chockcherrys ...GAG



Lilly...What do you use persimons for??

Absolutely NOTHIN!!!!! lol

I've been told that you can make persimmon jelly. But I've never had the urge to give it a try. They are bad enuff off the tree......I don't wanna waste the sugar to make it. I'd much rather make dewberry jelly, grape jelly, or wild plum jelly.
 

kolanuraven

Well-known member
the_jersey_lilly_2000 said:
Mrs.Greg said:
Emma.....your a strange one,raw chockcherrys ...GAG



Lilly...What do you use persimons for??

Absolutely NOTHIN!!!!! lol

I've been told that you can make persimmon jelly. But I've never had the urge to give it a try. They are bad enuff off the tree......I don't wanna waste the sugar to make it. I'd much rather make dewberry jelly, grape jelly, or wild plum jelly.


If you have more patience that good sense you can sit and pick out the seeds from the meat and make persimmon bread, jelly. You can buy it here now in these ' tourist' shop....but I don't want to spend $6 for a tiny jar of the stuff.

Our cows will get shite-faced drunk on persimmons in the fall. We have to pull them away from the trees in the fall.

We thought our cows had been poisoned once....called the Vet and everything...we were all stumped UNTIL we happened to smell Blossom's breath, as she was the worst stumbling around . She was smashed!!!! :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

I' had never seen a cow with a hangover until then..... but buddy we had some bovines with bovine sized headaches the next day or so!!!!


Mrs. Greg:
A huckleberry is a short, ankle /knee high berry bush....a wild blueberry if you want, but it has a much richer and better taste than blueberries. Around here huckleberrys are getting hard to find. But, when you do find some with fruit in the late spring...it is nectar of the gods for sure!!!!
 

Mrs.Greg

Well-known member
Kola....are the huckleberries blueberry like? We have Saskatoons,again a wild tree that grows down at our river pasture...Saskatoons are THE best. They look like blueberrys but are way better...thats me,greg likes blueberrys better. The blueberry doesn't grow in our area,more a north plant.

Down at the Battle River there are also red and black currents....I LOVE black current jam,but they're hard to find,my FIL used to take me picking them so I know where they are.We also have high bush cranberries,the jellys good if you can get through the dirty sock smell it gets when cooking.
 

Emma

Well-known member
Mrs.Greg said:
We also have high bush cranberries,the jellys good if you can get through the dirty sock smell it gets when cooking.
LOL...pass! Too many good things in the world to eat that don't smell like dirty socks.
Our huckleberries are different. They're a woodland bush that grows tall and has tiny red berries. Delicious. We strip them from the bushes as we're trailriding by. The dogs and horses love them too.
red_huckleberry.jpg
 

kolanuraven

Well-known member
Mrs.Greg said:
Kola....are the huckleberries blueberry like?




Yeah, ' 'cept they are much smaller and have a MUCH better taste. Here in these piney woods they are scrubby plants....not much taller than your ankle. To me blueberries don't really HAVE a taste..but I grew up with huckleberries so I guess I'm spoiled as to my taste!!!
 

Faster horses

Well-known member
I love huckleberries and don't have access to many. When I get them I freeze them and throw some in with the blueberries when making pie. The huckleberries add so much flavor and it doesn't take many to do it.
Sure stretches the huckleberries doing it this way.
 
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