# Beautyberry, urban survival treat



## Leon (Jan 30, 2012)

This is the North American Beautyberry. People plant these as ornamental shrubs and they can be found in urban areas near homes, offices and like these I found them in a park. Like 30 big bushes full. I got 8lb of berries off just one plant and I hadb't even scratched it. They get laden with super fragrant berries that are lightly sweet and just delightful. The jelly you can make (and syrup) is one of the all time best flavors I have come across in quite some time. This is the season for picking them so get harvesting!


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## CWOLDOJAX (Sep 5, 2013)

Thanks for sharing.
Keeping my eye out for these around NE FL.


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## Hemi45 (May 5, 2014)

I have one in my yard, an all-around excellent plant!


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## TacticalCanuck (Aug 5, 2014)

can they hibernate through winter and keep growing the following year? I may just plant some!


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## Denton (Sep 18, 2012)

Thanks, Leon! That's the kind of information that caused me to fall into this place.

This caused me to look up more information, which took me to Eat the Weeds where I found an interesting article that had this:

_UPDATE: One of my students, Fred, does a lot of foraging and has lived his life in mosquito-ladened Florida. He reports: [Beautyberry's] "jelly is awesome but I really love the beautyberry for its insect repellent properties. After learning about this from a Green Deane class and being an avid forager myself I decided to use the beautyberry as a bug repellent so it wouldn't slow down my summer foraging (Florida summer mosquitoes can be horrible). I pretty much chopped up a plant(leaves and stems) and boiled it in a pot and let it cool and strained the brown liquid into my blender, about 1 1/2 cups. In a separate pot I warmed some organic neem oil (1 cup) with 1 ounce of beeswax until melted. Then you turn the blender on and pour in the oil mixture very slowly and it becomes a cream. I have to say hands down the best insect repellent ever! Because its a creme on july/august days one application is all you need for the entire day even when your sweating."_
Beautyberry: Jelly on a Roll | Eat The Weeds and other things, too


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## paraquack (Mar 1, 2013)

How bad is the pucker power if you eat them raw?


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## Denton (Sep 18, 2012)

paraquack said:


> How bad is the pucker power if you eat them raw?


"Insipid" is the word usually used to describe its gustatory qualities. The truth is the berries of the Beauty Berry, or Beautyberry (Callicarpa americana, (kar-lee-KAR-pa a-mair-ee-KAY-na) *while an attractive magenta, are mealy and almost flavorless. Their only immediate pallet character is a little texture from a tiny seed.* But, this is not to say the Beautyberry- also called the Beautybush - is worthless to man nor beast. While this writer knows of no nutritional analysis of the Beautyberry, it might have similar antioxidant and vitamin properties as other colored, edible fruit. Many web sites warn not to eat the berries, and some call them poisonous. They are not poisonous but I suppose if one is going to make a mistake it is better to say something is poisonous when it is not than edible when it is poisonous. And for the record, worldwide there are about 140 different species of Callicarpa. The leaves of this one, incidentally, make an excellent fish poison for stunning them.


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## Denton (Sep 18, 2012)

Also, according to Eat the Weeds, don't eat too many of raw berries.


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## Auntie (Oct 4, 2014)

You can find information on how to store the seeds, and where it grows on the link below. There is a ton of information on this page.

http://plants.usda.gov/factsheet/pdf/fs_caam2.pdf


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## Denton (Sep 18, 2012)

Auntie said:


> You can find information on how to store the seeds, and where it grows on the link below. There is a ton of information on this page.
> 
> http://plants.usda.gov/factsheet/pdf/fs_caam2.pdf


Eek! That's a government site! :armata_PDT_15:

Kidding.


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## Auntie (Oct 4, 2014)

There are some things that they are good for. Plant information is one - however, don't depend on them to give accurate advice on herbal remedies.


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## Leon (Jan 30, 2012)

paraquack said:


> How bad is the pucker power if you eat them raw?


They are very lightly sweet with a strange fragrance I could only describe as perfumy, but ripe good ones are a delicious little pleasant trailside nibble. I ate a handful, they do have a seed in there but it's tiny. They say they are astringent but I didn;t have any trouble with them. Cooked they change flavor entirely like cranberry, the fragrance of the jelly is really unusual and tasty. It almost has a nutmeg or allspice quality to it.


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