Monday, October 10, 2011

What a mountain!

© 2011 Joshua Stark

I've been up in the Sierra Nevada range during any free time I get lately, and I've found something new each time.  A quick update, I've made a mountain berry pie (thanks for the name, Mom!), and found chinquapins (a nut, not a Spanish curse word), snowberries, huckleberries, and chokecherries.  I've also found still-ripe gooseberries alongside the first snow and a flowering columbine!  California microclimates are amazing.

2 comments:

Hippo said...

Choke cherries?

I shuddder to think how they came by their name. Not something I'd feed to the kids (ex wife maybe).

What are they?

Josh said...

They do sound ominous, but they are just a cherry (Prunus virginianus) - slightly bland, sweet, and small. They make good pie and jam filling, with other ingredients (I made a three-berry pie along with elderberries and currants).