#barberries

[certifiedceliac]

Persian Saffron Chicken {Zereshk Polo Ba Morgh} (via Yammie's Noshery)

[universeangelbabe]

made a wreath for the cottage door!! it smells like christmas🌲

[thefantasybotanist]

Barberries

What is it? Also known as zereshk, barberries are edible fruit, about the same size as a blueberry. It tastes very citrusy, and is usually dried, where it takes on a raisin- or craisin-like appearance. Barberries are used in Persian cooking as well as in medieval Europe. The bushes grow between 3 and 8 feet tall (1-3 meters) and the leaves turn a purplish red (as pictured above) in the fall. In spring and summer, they are a bright, waxy green.

Why don’t more people grow barberries? Quite a few people actually do grow these vitamin C bombs, though not for food. They’re common decorative plants you’d be able to find in most nurseries and garden centers, usually chosen for their fall color. Some security-conscious gardeners will plant them under windows, too — for the same reason barberries are commercially available: the bars. Barberries have wickedly sharp and long thorns (0.5″–2″) that run across the branches. You can see a couple in the picture. They hurt!

Why should you include it in your story? Unlike lemons and oranges, Barberries are suited to cold and dry climates, meaning that your story can have the citrus tang without your characters being rich and without importation featuring heavily in your story. Additionally, barberries fruit in late fall and winter. Give your character some fresh fruit on their snowy walk over the mountains, use it to explain away how people are still alive in the magically-created 100-year-winter, or save a character from starving to death when they can’t afford food in January.

How do you get around the negative? If your locale’s climate is somewhat inhospitable — like a desert or somewhere with really cold winters — and trade isn’t cheap and accessible, you can just drop them in! People that live in that type of place will do what it takes to eat, even if it means picking around dangerous thorns. If you want to make them a commercial venture, establish their industry a few hundred years prior to your story and breed out the thorns.

[hardtheoristtheorist]

Barbaerry Jam or To Make a Conserve of Barberies

Barbaerry Jam or To Make a Conserve of Barberies

I drove all over Ottawa to try to find on the bush barberries for my class on “winter foraging” for Practicum (local SCA event) and failed. Here is a recipe with dried barberries from a grocery store, like a normal person would do.

To make conserue of Barberies. Take your Barberies and pick them clean, and set the over a soft fire, and put to them Rosewater as much as you think good, then when…

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[macmanx]

barberries

[crudlynaturephotos]

[crudlynaturephotos]

[crudlynaturephotos]