This week, I talk about the cotoneaster species. Known in the west as an ornamental hedge-type species for difficult spots, it actually has a small tradition of consumption in a few places, and likely more that I can not dredge up from my research online. Another underrated species in the Rosaceae family that is ripe for domestication! Cotoneaster - by A. Potentilla - Urban Food Forest
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I regularly eat cotoneaster while walking through my village. If the berries had more tartness, I would favor them more as a food source.
The local species of cotoneaster provides black (dark purple) fruits.
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How interesting! I don’t like tartness and tend to favor berries that are very sweet. Does cotoneaster qualify?
The local strain of bland cotoneaster lacks tartness, sweetness, and flavor. It has nice color. Nothing about its flavor seems off or questionable.
It produces lots of reasonable sized fruits than hang on the plant for a long time. It lacks thorns. Seems very susceptible to a domestication effort.
Yes, I am heavily in favour of zero maintenance, heavily cropping, tasty plants. It would not take long to get the cotoneaster to this point in my opinion.
As well as the flesh of the fruit, I’ve read that the seeds have been processed as a flour source, so there’s that side to the edibility too.
Any volunteers to start this domestication process?
I harvested some of my local cotoneaster fruits and planted them where they can have a chance to germinate, if they don’t require passing through a digestive system.
I tasted them. Bland. Bland. Bland. Nothing objectionable about the taste, they just lacked flavor of any kind. The seeds seemed woody.
Great, I guess you just need to get lucky once with the taste and it’s off to the races. I will sample the ones in my area too and hope to get lucky. We can probably start up a grex if anyone else is interested.
I haven’t looked at cotoneaster close enough to guess about whether they are clones, or if they grew from seed. A week from now, when I get to that parking lot again, I’ll pay attention.
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Probably a high chance they are clones from the same ornamental tree supplier then, but you never know.
We have a self-seeded cotoneaster, most likely brought in by birds from one of the many ornamental cotoneasters in the neighbourhood. After reading this post, I tried a berry. It was bland, neither pleasant or unpleasant. Not bitter, not sweet, slightly apple-like. Mealy in texture.
I could imagine them working as an addition to apple jam or applesauce, in a year when apple crops were poor and needed padding out. Not something I’d eat for enjoyment but a tolerable famine food for sure.
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