Nature’s Spice Rack
story by Donna Hecker & photography by Talitha Schroeder
A few years ago, we ventured out with a friend to forage on a local wildlife management area. It was late February, and a freezing mist in the air cooled our initial enthusiasm pretty quickly. And yet…with our friend’s guidance, we still found plenty to take home. We learned about spicebush that day, along with other native plants, and made a promise to be more aware and appreciative of Nature’s gifts.
As summer slips into autumn, we’ve been on the lookout for spicebush berries and other wild treats. So when Holly Hill farmer David Wagoner did a recon of his own farm to scout out spicebush for us, he found a patch of it growing alongside sumac and juniper, all worthy additions to the fall and winter pantry.
Spicebush berry is sometimes called Appalachian Allspice, a spice it somewhat resembles. The berries are ready to pick once they turn bright red, as long as you can beat the birds to them. The twigs and bark can also be used, usually for brewing tea, but we were after the berries.
David gathered nearly a quart, which we dried and froze. Their flavor is similar to allspice but more complex, with hints of citrus and black pepper. We haven’t cooked with the berries yet but could imagine adding them to a marinade for quail or game hens or grinding a spoonful into a dry rub. And we’re sure they’d be delicious flavoring the topping for apple crisp or steeped in custard.
Our friend Chef Babz Nartowicz turned us on to sumac. We didn’t realize that the shrub growing in Kentucky yards and along the edge of woodlands was the same as the sumac flavoring so many Middle Eastern dishes. The sumac family also includes cashews, pistachios and mangoes. And here’s some helpful advice – poison sumac has white berries; the berries of culinary sumac are red.
Chef Babz has her own source for sumac, which she makes into a delicious lemonade-style drink. We’ve learned to identify sumac bushes with their narrow tapered leaves and spiky red crowns. Now that we know what we’re looking for, we’ve started to see it everywhere – in urban yards, in a church parking lot, along country roads.
The red sumac crowns, full of berry clusters, can be used just as they are. Rinse six or so of the whole crowns, break them up slightly with your hands, and add the pieces to a gallon of cold water. Put the container in a cool, dark place for an hour or two and then strain thoroughly through cheesecloth before sweetening to taste.
We’re going to try drying the little berries to add to our pantry for later. If you decide to do the same, select crowns that aren’t brown or starting to dry out. Remove the berries gently and rinse them well in cold water, then lay out on towels so the extra moisture can evaporate.
Next place the rinsed berries on a parchment-lined baking sheet and put it in the oven set to the lowest possible heat, leaving the door ajar and rotating the pan every few hours. Allow 6-12 hours; they’ll be ready when they’re brittle and completely dry. Or dry in a dehydrator at 125-135℉ until brittle.
Once your berries are fully dry, store them in an airtight container and grind just before using to season vegetables, meats and cheeses. Or leave them whole to sprinkle on hummus or grilled meats for a tart burst of flavor.
The juniper berry completes our foraged spice trio. It’s the essential flavoring in gin and easily found on the grocery store spice aisle, but it’s fun to forage your own. Juniper berries can be harvested from Eastern red cedar trees, which are pretty plentiful in Kentucky. Like our native spicebush, cedar is dioecious, meaning that male and female flowers are borne on separate plants and only the female produces berries.
According to the Slow Food Foundation’s Arca del Gusto, or Ark of Taste, “Eastern red cedar berries are related to common juniper berries but are superior in flavor. They are mild without the turpentine notes and bitterness of common juniper.” It goes on to describe the flavor as almost sweet, with woodsy, piney notes.
Once you’ve found a berry-producing red cedar tree, wait until the berries have turned fully blue before harvesting them. Berries on the same tree will ripen at different rates so if you find a good tree, keep an eye on it and visit it often, but not too often. We’ve been advised to never harvest more than 30% of any wild thing in the interest of preserving it.
A few words of caution: always stick with common juniper or red cedar; there is a cultivated variety named savin juniper, which is toxic. And juniper should not be consumed at all by pregnant women, and never in quantity by anyone else.
In many European cuisines, juniper berries flavor sausages, sauerkraut and game dishes. In our own southwest, native Americans burn juniper wood down to ash for cooking with corn, which aids in nixtamalization, softening the kernels and making their nutrients more accessible.
Juniper berries can be used fresh or dried, whole or pounded into powder. If you want to dry them, do so out of direct heat and sunlight, which degrades their aromatic qualities. A cool, dry spot is best. Once dry, they can be stored in an airtight container or frozen.
We read a suggestion for blending crushed juniper berries into softened butter for spreading on rye bread. It sounds delicious; we can picture slipping a couple thin slices of speck or bresaola on top, too.
It’s true that juniper and sumac, and spicebush berry’s flavor cousin allspice, are all commercially available; but it’s so satisfying, in a primeval sense, to shop our yards and woodlands for these treats from Nature. And then knowing that they’ll be there, on our pantry shelves, ready to impart a bit of wildness to our winter table.
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