Contributor : Added by Administrator

Tribal Affiliation : Blue Ridge Mountains Va./ 3rd great grandmother Cherokee

Orgin of Recipe : Offered by Joey Montgomery ... who learned this from My Grandmother

Type of Dish : All Indigenous Ingredients

Pick and wash like any berry and then reduce into preserves with sugar. (common preserve recipe) Never made jelly with them only preserves. Preserves are thicker in nature than jelly and takes along time to render down on the stove. Kinda like making apple-butter.

Note: This stuff is awesome! Have never had anyone other than people from my own area that even know what this is. It was a free food for us growing up as it was a wild plant. Is a pain harvesting the fruit as it is low lieing and you have to get the paper covering off every single berry/fruit. I call it more of a fruit than a berry because of its characteristics. Has it's own distinctive taste, kinda like a marmalade but not...Hard to explain. I believe it was only good for preserves vs. regular jelly making. I think you have to cook the @#$@ out of it to get the bitter out...hehe.. but is for sure worth making for toast spread.. dont worry about all the little seeds kinda like kiwi just eat along with the rest of the fruit.