Barberry. (berberis vulgaris). Few gardeners would believe that the common
spiny barberry, and ornamental bush often planted fro hedges in place of
privet and valued fro tits flowers, its gorgeous fall foliage, and its
striking red berries that often hang on the bush all winter long, provides
fruit that can be eaten in a variety of ways. The English, in fact, once
cultivated the handsome bush for its berries, and the Arabs before them
grew barberries fro their sherbets. The barberry, in fact, may take its
name from the Arabic name for the fruit, berberys, a shell, possibly in
reference to its leaves being hollow like shells, but in any event it is
associated with the Berbers, who cultivated it on Africa’s Barbary Coast.
Some fifty species are widely grown in America, most frequently berberis
vulgaris, the common or European barberry. The deciduous European barberry
would be even more commonly grown here if it weren’t the host for a
serious wheat rust that excludes it form wheat growing regions. Evergreen
species of the genus, however, are not carriers of this fungus.
The European barberry long ago became naturalized in America. Thoreau in
his letters mentions going off ‘a barberrying’ and the acid berries were
gathered by the earliest settlers for use in preserves, pies, and sauces,
I found it interesting to learn that this berry, which many avoid today as
if it were poisonous, can even be eaten, pickled in vinegar, and used like
capers as accompaniment to cold meats. Mrs. Glasse in her famous cookbook
mentions ‘a garnish of barberries and lemon” and apparently the green
leaves of the thorny bush were used to make a ‘sauce to eate with meates’
in the sixteenth century. Barberry roots and bark yield a bright yellow
dye and a medicine that colonists valued. The berries, which contain a
great deal of citric and malic acid when ripe, have also been used as a
lemon juice substitute in cold drinks, to make wine, for flavoring
punches, and, in India, as a dried dessert raisin.
All barberries are simple to grow, requiring no fertilizing and little or
no pruning except for removing weak ld branches occasionally. They can be
planted in sun or shade, do well in ordinary garden soil that inst
waterlogged, and can easily be propagated from seed sown fresh from the
berry in autumn, which will germinate in the open by the following spring.
All of the following species are suitable for ornamental hedges and as
attractive specimen plants as well as for their fruits.
European Barberry.
(berberis vulgaris). See above. The most fruitful of barberries, but not
evergreen, not the most attractive, and a carrier of rust disease. There
are red, yellow, violet, black, and white-fruited forms. Grows 5 to 10 feet tall or more.
Seedless European Barberry. (berberis vulgaris var. asperna). A scarce
variety of the above that has no seeds and was used in a famous Rouen
conserve.
Magellan Barberry (berbeis buxifolio).
One of the best of the evergreens, grows
up to 8 feet high. One from of this species has thorns longer than its
leaves and its purplish black berries are used form popular reserve in its
native Chile.
Japanese Barberry (berberis thungergi).
More cultivated than almost any other shrub in America, this barberry
grows 4 to 6 feet high, has brilliant scarlet autumn foliage and light
red, winter-persisting berries that are used for jelly.
Raisin Barberry (Berberis asiatica and
Berberis aristata). Both of these shrubs have yellow flowers and purplish
berries, but aristata flowers more profusely and grows only to about 6
feet tall, while asiatica can grow about 8 feet high. Both are half-hardy
plants that can be grown outdoors in the South. Their rather large berries
are dried and used to make dessert raisins in their native India. Unlike
most barberries, they thrive in a compost of loam, peat, and a little
sand.
Darwin Barberry (Berberis Darwinii). A
very handsome evergreen shrub native to Chile. Grows up to 8 feet tall and yields edible, dark-purplish
berries.
Mexican Barberry (Berberis
haematocarpa). Large, bright-red berries on a plant that grows to about 8
feet tall and is native to New Mexico.
Himalayan Barberry (Berberis angulosa).
Perhaps the largest berries (purplish black) of all on a bush native to
the Himalayas and growing up to 8 feet tall.
Other species well worth growing as ornamentals and for their berries are
the wintergreen barberry (Berberis julianae), the hardiest of the
evergreens, and Berberis Wilsonae, with its coral-red or salmon-colored berries. There are
over fifty commonly grown varieties to choose from and improve upon by
natural selection.
In case you want to make use of those barberry bushes outside, here is an
unusual (untested) recipe for “Candied Barberries” that I came across in
an old cookbook:
“Take some large
barberries very ripe and of a fine red colour. Leave them in clusters. For
2 pounds of berries cook 2 ½ pounds of sugar to “the large feather’ [232
*F]. Put in the barberries and boil very hastily to produce 10 to 12
bubbles. Take off the stove. When the fruit is beginning to cool, put it
in a hot cupboard leaving it to drain on a cloth until next day. Put it on
sheets of paper to drain further. Dust the clusters of berries with fine
sugar rubbed through a drum sieve [a very fine sieve]. Put them to dry in
a hot cupboard.”
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