On the Hunt: Foraging for Fruits through the Year
Keith Williamson
Sometime back in the 1990s, I started making some jams and jellies. I don’t remember what gave me the initial push to do so, but I expect that it started with me seeing ripe chokecherries during a weekend visit with family at their mountain cabin near Salida, Colorado.
Since then, I’ve probably made several thousand jars of jellies and jams, with my most productive year being 2014, when I canned over 600 jars! I give nearly all of them away over the year as “disappearing” gifts (that can be used and not take up permanent space).
With only a couple of exceptions (peaches and strawberries), I have been able to forage for all of the fruits that I use. Sources range from home landscapes and shopping center parking lots, to ditch right-of-ways, BLM land, and roadside naturalized plants. (Be sure to ask homeowners and business owners for permission to harvest from their landscapes!) I have also been able to harvest fruit from our nursery growing fields, which has been quite nice.
Here is a list of plants/fruits that I’ve harvested in Colorado:
Apples, Apricots, Black Currants, Blackberries, Chokeberry (Aronia), Chokecherry, Creeping Oregon Grape Holly, Elderberry, Grapes, Mulberries, Nanking Cherries, Newport Plum, Pears, Plums – Wild and Domestic, Prickly Pear, Raspberries, Red Currants, Rhubarb, Serviceberries, Silver Buffaloberries, Sour Cherries, Sweet Cherries, Thimbleberries, Western Sandcherry
There is so much out there to harvest! I find the process of picking the fruits to be very relaxing, and the results can bring back happy memories for many seasons after.
