I like this time of year. If you look out across the hills you can see those grey patches of trees starting to turn green as the leaves start to appear. It’s a slightly different green from the evergreen trees that stick with us month after month. It a new, fresh lighter green colour. It’s nice to see as it starts to colour things in around us.
And there are little bits of white in amoungst that green as well. And all along the highways. The serviceberries are in bloom.
There are a lot of different names for serviceberries. Then again, there are about twenty different species of them around, ranging from small bushes to small trees. And they have a lot of different names. Shadwood, shadberry, shadblow, serviceberry, sarvisberry, juneberry, Saskatoon berry, sugarplum, wild plum, chuckley pear… people call them a lot of different things.
I’ve even seen them called “the most delicious fruit you aren’t eating” in one article. And not many of us do eat them. Except maybe grabbing a few off a bush as we go by.
In the past I have asked if anyone does anything with them. I’ve never found anyone who does, although there doesn’t seem to be a real shortage of them. But you don’t always get a lot of them on any one bush. And some of those bushes do turn into small trees, so it’s not easy to pick berries off a thirty foot tall tree.
But there doesn’t seem to be much of a shortage along the highways. At least judging from the blossoms. They are everywhere. All those shrubs and trees covered in little white flowers right now? Mostly serviceberries. What could be lots of serviceberries come fall.
But people tend to ignore them, which is probably just fine for all the birds around. Gives them a little something to munch on in the fall. And they are fairly sweet, so they probably have a good sugar content. And I’m sure the birds have discovered if you let them sit on the branch for a while in the fall, some of those berries will ferment. It could be like an open bar growing on a bush. It might explain why birds can sometimes get pretty noisy, sitting in the trees, drinking a few of those berries.
Some day I’m going to beat them to some. Maybe make me a serviceberry pie. It might take some picking to get enough, but I’ve always wanted to give them a try. And they do seem to be everywhere at the moment.