[Sca-cooks] RE: Dogwood trees
Diamond Randall
ringofkings at mindspring.com
Thu Oct 4 20:12:45 PDT 2001
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[ Picked text/plain from multipart/alternative ]
The species of dogwood you are looking for is not
"Korean", but CORNELIAN! It is a small tree that
is often used in landscaping around the world. The
species name is Cornus mas. While the tree is
botanically classified as a dogwood, it lacks the white
petals so characteristic of what we envision as "true"
dogwoods. However, its blooming state is not unworthy
of admiration. The yellow centers of dogwood blossoms
are the actual flowers of regular dogwoods; the white petals
are large sepals. On the Cornelian dogwood, there are
THOUSANDS of these bright yellow flowerets making it
look somewhat like a tall forsythia. It also blooms very
early and before it puts out any leaves, so it is very
attractive. Unfortunately, the plants only bloom and
produce fruit after they are at least 10 years old, so if
you want one, get a large ball and burlap or container
grown one. I will be planting several hundred of them
(unfortunately small sizes) in the next two years at
Glaedenfeld Centre. Why?
Well, the other names for the fruit are "Cornel-berries" or
more commonly - Cornelian cherries. Early fruits at first
coloring are said to taste like a tart cherry but "somewhat
more austere" but as they deepen redder in the long ripening
season, the fruit improves in sweetness and aroma and become
very cherry indeed. The ripe fruit is oval, fire-engine red and
has a single oval pit. There should be a good number of ripe
fruit still in Central Park where there are a number of mature
trees. These trees live and produce for 100-200 years
incidentally.
A single tree produces 30 to 100 pounds of fruit, though some
cultivars have produced 200+ pounds per tree.
One of the little known but important to know is that the Greeks
will pick green fruits and boil them in vinegar to make them
very similar to olives. Best of all, using both the ripe and the
green
fruits is ENTIRELY PERIOD with extensive Greek, Roman and
medieval references (cited in Ovid, Plutarch, Columella,Gerard,
Parkinson, etc.)
I hope this information is helpful. I have not seen as many
topics
of late that I feel I can make a real contribution to the List so
I have been rather quiet of late.
Akim Yaroslavich
"No glory comes without pain"
----- Original Message -----
I suspect that what you have is the common dogwood found all over in
the
wild. We have lots of it growing wild in the
woods. It has a
heart-shaped leaf, a four-petaled white bloom in the spring and
lovely
red berries in the fall. I have never heard of them being
edible, but
then there's a lot that I've never heard of. There is a "kosa"
dogwood
that has sort of almond shaped leaves, and the blossoms have
almond-shaped petals as well (the others are more heart-shaped) and
blooms during the summer. I have no idea about these
either.
Kiri
Tara Sersen wrote:
Here's a wierd question. I've read that a korean variety
of
dogwood tree produces a small fruit that is supposed to be
quite yummy. Our new house has three dogwood trees, I
do
not know the exact variety. Right now, they all have
the
loveliest red berry type fruits on them. Is this the
korean
dogwood fruit of lore? I had a dogwood tree at my
last
house, and do not remember it producing any similar berry in
the autumn. Nor do I remember ever noticing them on
any
other dogwood.
If they are the edible type, does anybody know what I should
do with them? Eat them raw? Make jelly from
them? Use
them in cooking?
Thank you!
-Magdalena
--- Diamond Randall
--- ringofkings at mindspring.com
--- EarthLink: It's your Internet.
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