Hawthorne Fruit
The Crataegus Clan: Food & Poison
The very first Hawthorn I ever saw — and the only one I knew for quite a while — grew on the other side of the dirt road that ran by our house in Pownal, Maine.
This Hawthorn was very old. They can live to at least 400 years. It’s gone now — road widening — and I never knew which Hawthorn it was but that’s not unusual with this species. Experts today can’t agree if there are 200 species of Hawthorns or 1,000. The genus has a lot of variability.
What I remember most clearly was its huge thorns, most about two inches long. It also had several families of birds in it each year. Few predators were going to brave those thorns.
Twenty-feet tall with a crown equally wide, it grew on high ground right at the intersection of two pastures, a very fitting place. Haw means hedge and indeed Hawthorns were used as hedges. In fact, in 1845 England pass the General Enclosures Act allowing Hawthorns to be used as hedges to mark off land. That caused a lot of irritation because until then folks could go wandering from hill to dale at will without obstructions. It took another 150 years or so for England to pass a “right to roam act” allowing people more access to such land. Let it not be said that England does not correct bad laws, it may just take a century or two.
The other thing that intrigued me as a kid growing up by the tree was that the writer Nathaniel Hawthorne had the same name as the tree. I’ve never met a Mr. Catalpa, Mrs. Hackmatack, or Ms. Oak. Truth be known that author’s family name was Hathorne. But, one of his ancestors was a judge in the Salem Witch Trials. The speculation is Nathaniel change the spelling of his last name to distance himself from that infamous incident. Indeed, just as he had an ancestor who judged “witches” at the trial I had an ancestor convicted at the trials for witchcraft and hanged (.) Over the years I have met a few Pynes, Apples and one Dr. Maples (the forensic anthropologist who identified Pizarro’s remains and those of the Russian royal family. We met under unusual circumstances. If you want to know, email me. He wrote “Dead Men Do Tell Tales.”)
Nathaniel Hawthorne, 4 July, 1804 – 19 May, 1864
The first thing you need to know about the Hawthorn berries is you should not eat the seeds. They contain cyanide bonded with sugar, called amygdalin. In your gut — actually small intestine — that changes to hydrogen cyanide and can be deadly. You can cook the berries then discard the seeds, but don’t eat the seeds. I recently saw a recipe on the internet that called for using hawthorne berries whole. Clearly that cook never made that pie, or if she did, only once. Don’t eat Hawthorne seeds. If you eat the raw berries spit the seeds out. If an adult mistakenly eats one or two seeds they aren’t deadly but they could be to a child. The seeds are best avoided.
Very young spring leaves — called Bread and Cheese — can be a trail side nibble as well as the flower buds or young flowers. Mature flowers should be avoided or any part that smells like almonds when crushed.
The claim to fame for Hawthorn berries is they are high in pectin, so they have been added to other fruits to make jelly as the Hawthorn itself often has little apparent taste. However some Hawthorns are tasty enough in their own right to be made into jelly. Should civil society end and you want to make jelly, the Hawthorn berry is your friend. Just ripe berries have the most pectin and over ripe berries the least.
No-cook Hawthorn Jelly, photo courtesy of Ray Mears.
At least one Hawthorn’s berries (those of the Crataegus monogyna, the one-seed Hawthorn) can be made into a no-cook jelly.
If you have the-one seeded Hawthorn here’s the formula with thanks to Ray Mears and Professor Gordon Hillman. If it doesn’t work you can always cook it, add pectin and make jelly.
I would suspect this was how jelly was discovered.
Hawthorn Jelly Dried, photo courtesy Ray Mears
Put the berries in a bowl and quickly crush them thoroughly with your hands. The resulting liquid should be about the consistency of pudding just before it sets. It should be that consistency naturally. If you’ve had a dry year add some water to get to that consistency. Work quickly. Squeeze the seeds out of the berries then quickly filter the thick slurry into a bowl. In about five minutes the liquid will jell. Flip it over onto a plate. It can be eaten as is or sliced or sun dried. It will be sweet and will last for many years. Remember just ripe berries have more pectin that over-ripe berries. To see a video on this go
Hawthorne blossoms
Crataegus monogyna is native to Britain and Europe but is naturalized in the United States and Canada. It can be found north and east of Tennessee, up the west coast from California to Alaska, as well as in Utah, Montana and Arkansas. Local and regionally known Hawthorns are C. aestivalis (commonly known as the May Haw. The only tree I’ve tried to raise that died)
C. anomala, C. arnoldiana, C. calpodendron, C. canadensis, C. chysocarpa, C. coccinoides, C. columbiana, C. crus-galli, C. dispessa, C. douglasii, C. flava, C. intricata, C. marshallii, C. mollis, C. oxycantha, C. phaenopyrum, C. pulcherrima, C. pringlei, C. pruinosa, C. pubescens, C. rivularis, C. spathulata, C. submollis, C. succulenta, C. uniflora, and C. viridis. All but the C. phaenopyrum, C. pulcherrima and C. viridis are know to have been used as food. There are no “poisonous” Hawthorns except for the seeds. Many Hawthorns, while not poisonous, are not palatable. Some improve with cooking. The genus has many medicinal uses and is known for its heart support and is actually a beta blocker. Herbalist recommend one teaspoon of leaves or berries (minus seeds) or blossoms seeped in a cup of water twice a day.
Crataegus (krah-TEE-gus) comes from the Greek word Krataigos, which was the ancient name used by Theophrastus (372-287 BC) for a flowering thorn. Kratus means strong — the wood is tough — and akakia or akis, thorn. Monogyna ( mon-NO-gy-nuh) means one seed. I don’t know if there is any connection but most Greeks with a surname that end in -akis comes from or had ancestors who came from Crete.
Hawthorn Schnapps
Stalkless berries from Crataegus monogyna or Crataegus laevigata are usually recommended. Direction: Rinse the Hawthorn berries and leave them to dry off. Fill 2/3 of a clean glass jar with berries. Cover with clear, unflavored vodka. Close the jar with a tight-fitting lid. Let the berries steep for 5-6 weeks in a dark place at room temperature, 64-68°F. Shake lightly from time to time. Strain and filter into a clean glass bottle or jar with tight-fitting lid. Age for a couple of months in a dark place at room temperature before serving.
Lb stalkless Hawthorn berries
pint vinegar of your choice
* 4 oz sugar
* Salt to taste, optional, some use up to one ounce of salt
* 1 tsp freshly ground black pepper
Wash berries. Put in pan with vinegar and cook gently for 30 minutes. Press the pulp through sieve, return to the pan with sugar and seasonings. Boil for 10 minutes. Bottle and seal.
Hawthorn Berry Soup
One pound of stalkless Hawthorn berries
1/2 cup water
Half a pound of sugar (more or less if you like)
2 cinnamon sticks
Pinch of chili flakes or powder (optional)
Add the Hawthorn berries to a pot
with the water. Bring to a gentle simmer, cover the pot tightly, cook for 30 minutes. Allow to cool, pass through a sieve (throw away the seeds). Transfer the sauce to a pan, add the sugar, cinnamon sticks and chili flakes or powder (if using). Cook until the sauce thickens sufficiently and serve.
Here is Euell Gibbon’s Recipe for Hawthorn Jelly:
To make Haw Jelly, crush three pounds of the fruit, add four cups of water, bring it to a boil, cover and let it simmer for 10 minutes, then strain the juice through a jelly bag and discard the spent pulp, seeds, and skins. If red haws are not too ripe, they will furnish ample pectin for jelly making, but if they are very ripe, add one package powdered pectin to the strained juice. We felt our juice could stand more acid, so we added the juice of two lemons. We put just four cups of this juice in a very large saucepan and brought it to a boil, then added seven cups of sugar and very soon after it came to a boil again, it showed a perfect jelly test.
Hawthorn Berry Catsup,
Ingredients
-2 cups hawthorn berries
-1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
-1/4 cup of water
– however much sugar or honey you want
-1/3 cup black cherry juice (optional but recommended)
-1/2 tsp sea salt (or as you like)
-Freshly ground black pepper or pinch of cayenne
Instructions
1. Remove the berries from their stalks then rinse in cold water.
2. Place in large saucepan, adding the vinegar and water. Gently bring to boil and simmer for about 25 minutes until the skins start to split.
3. After cooling, push the mixture through a sieve or pass through a food mill to remove the pits (seeds.).
4. Return the mixture to the pan, adding your sweeteners, and slowly heat, stirring frequently. Add spices or flavorings.
5. Bring to a low boil, then simmer for a further 5 -10 minutes, until the sauce thickens and becomes slightly syrupy.
6. Remove from heat, then add, little bit at a time, the black cherry juice, stirring until you find just the right consistency and thickness you prefer in your ketchup. (Remember the sauce will thicken once cooled.
7. When happy with your result, pour the ketchup into sterilized bottles. Refrigerate and use within 3 months.
Green Deane’s “Itemized” Plant Profile
IDENTIFICATION: A medium-sized deciduous tree, 15 to 30 feet tall, branches slightly pendulous if not erratic. Leaves greatly varied, with C. monogyna they are simple, lobed, serrated at lobe tips, alternating to three inches long. Flowers small and white, bloom in late spring, five petals. Fruit a red pome with one seed, other species have multiple seeds. Long thorns on stems. Bark resembles an apple tree.
TIME OF YEAR: Autumn
ENVIRONMENT: Prefers moist fertile soil and full sun. Make a good landscape tree.
METHOD OF PREPARATION: Out of hand (do not eat seeds.) Can be used to make jelly or as pectin for other fruits. Can be made into a sauce for cooking, or used to flavor alcohols.
Herb Blurb
Herbalists say two teaspoons of leaves or seedless berries (or both) made into a tea twice a day is an effective beta blocker and lower blood pressure.
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The Day of the Dead is celebrated in Mexico with colorfully dressed skeletons. (. )
The Days of the Dead are celebrated in many Latin American countries but nowhere to the extent they are in Mexico.
The traditions surrounding the Mexican Day of the Dead, its history throughout the past thousands of years, and its meaning for us today are complex and worthy of many hours of study and discussion.
El D&a de los Muertos (also referred to as el dia de muertos, dias de los muertos, and todos santos) in Mexico is a joyous and sacred time, a time to welcome t it is a celebration in which the living and the dead are joined if even for a short while.
In some ways it is a triumph over death and therefore becomes a celebration of life. Deceased loved ones are given back to families and friends if only for a brief time.
If in Mexico at the beginning of November,
you will not be able to escape the festivities as it is a national holiday.
Although the Day of the Dead in Mexico has a public aspect, at the community level it is essentially a private or family feast.
The core of the celebration is within the family home. The departed children, los angelitos, are remembered
on November first while November second focuses on the departed adults.
There is nothing somber or macabre about the event.
The dead come as spirits from another world to be with their living relatives and to visit in their homes.
They do not come
to scare or haunt as we believe Halloween spirits do. When children in the United States are shouting &trick or treat& and trying to terrify each other, Mexican children are probably at home helping with the many preparations for the day.
It is also possible that today in urban areas, due to cultural influences from the United States,
Mexican children may also be running through the streets with their plastic pumpkin or squash carved like a skull asking no me da mi holloween? (Won’t you give me something for Halloween?) and expecting to be given money (not candy).
The United States tradition of All Hallows Eve, or Halloween, came from an ancient pre-Christian Celtic festival of fire, known as Samhain.
This popular celebration originated in England, Scotland and Wales.
October 31st was an important day to the Celts, and among other things was dedicated to the end of the harvest. It was said that during Samhain banshees and witches were known to steal children, destroy crops, and bring terror to the entire population.
At the same time, the spirits of loved ones visited their families looking for warmth and affection.
Bonfires were built to help guide the spirits home.
In Europe, around 750 AD, the Church instituted November first as All Saints Day realizing that it must eliminate or assimilate
pagan rites. In the 13th century,
All Souls Day was established on November 2
honoring those souls of the Catholic faith who had passed away.
In Medieval times, traditions included decorating graves, all night vigils, and special church services to remember and honor the dead.
These traditions were prevalent throughout Europe, and the Spanish , colonists and priests, who came to the Americas brought these customs with them.
Long before the Spanish arrived in America, the belief in an afterlife was present in Mesoamerica.
We know this from information contained in the archeological record, the surviving codices, and from early Colonial manuscripts.
According to the beliefs of the Nahua people (Aztecas, Chichimecas, Tlaxcaltecas, and Toltecas) life was seen as a dream.
Only in dying did a human being truly awake.
For them the distinction between life and death was not so absolute.
In Nahautl, the indigenous language of the peoples of the valley of Mexico,
there is much poetic speculation concerning the afterlife.
From an ancient poet, we learn:
It is not true, it is not true
That we come to live here
We came only to sleep, only to dream.
Or in the words of another Nahautl poet,
Let us consider things as only lent to us, oh,
Only in passing
Tomorrow or the day after,
As your heart desires, oh, Giver of Life,
We shall go, my friends, to His home.
The Nahua people believed that above the earth there were thirteen layers of the heavens and below the earth there were nine levels of the underworld.
The destiny of a soul after death was decreed by the manner of death rather than conduct during life.
For instance, all those who died as victims of sacrifice or perished in combat became companions of the sun god .
The same was true for women who died during childbirth.
Those who drowned or were killed
by lightning, or water related diseases went to Tlalocan, the raingod ’s
Children who died were considered &jewels& and after death were fed by the
or the wetnurse tree.
Women who died during childbirth were considered semi-divine. The souls of those not selected by the gods went to the dark plane of the underworld and
had to pass through each of
nine levels before reaching
the realm of the death god, Mictlantecuhtli and the death goddess, Mictlancihuatl.
Festivals honoring departed children were held in the ninth month of the
solar calendar.
A festival held in the tenth month was a celebration that honored dead adults.
Warriors were honored during the fourteenth month at a corn festival called QuecholliThis last festival coincides with November of our calendar year.
At the time of the , the Indians of Central Mexico were used to incorporating a pantheon of gods and accepting deities of conquered tribes.
Also of great importance is that these Indians believed in many religious concepts similar to Christian beliefs.
For example, they believed in an eternal life in which souls continued to live in an afterworld. The difference was that there was no hell. You were not punished after death. The Aztecs also believed that their great god Huitzilopochtli was born of a virgin goddess. The cross was a sacred sign. It symbolized the cardinal points of direction. The Indians also practiced rites similar to baptism, confession, and communion. A priesthood was dedicated to the administration of religious affairs. Other kindred symbols included temples with altars, statues of various gods, and religious processions. The Spaniards used these parallels to their advantage in their systematic effort to conquer in the name of the cross.
During their confrontation with the indigenous cultures, the Spanish sensed the power of the celebrations honoring the dead which were at least 5,000 years old.
Finally, they realized that conversion could not obliterate tradition, and certain customs would remain. What eventually developed through this tolerance of the old religion was a fusion of Catholic symbols, beliefs, and rituals with those of the conquered people.
The celebration of the Mexican Day of the Dead is the best example of this blending of traditions.
Skeletons and skulls were important symbols of death and sacrifice in the pre-Columbian period, but the figure of a satirical and comical death probably appeared during the 1700s. Puppets, masks, figures made of clay, cardboard, toys and candies began to fill the Mexican markets using the image of the skeleton.
They were all named , which is the term still used today.
Jos& Guadalupe Posada () had a lot to do with the popularization of the human skeleton.
Posada was an engraver and artist who did his most famous work during the late 19th century in
under the regime of Porfirio D&az.
Posada created cartoon illustrations for many popular tabloids specifically targeted at the masses.
Around the Day of the Dead, Posada and publisher Antonio Vaneges Arroyo published the well known broadsheets or Calaveras that satirized all elements of society, particularly the upperclass and government officials.
Death became in some senses an &equalizer& of injustice for all those burdened by the social inequality of the dictatorship before the .
Today, these broadsheets are still published and the satirization of the bourgeoisie, the goverment, and the church still continues.
Another traditions that remains, although much changed and continually changing, is the
or altar for the dead. In anticipation of the arrival of the spirits, Mexican families construct special altars in their homes known as ofrendas.
Although many elements of Catholicism have been incorporated into the ofrenda, it is considered
an indigenous tradition.
The customs and traditions of the altars as well as other components of the Day of the Dead can vary greatly within Mexico from region to region according to the pre-Hispanic culture that is
predominate.
What you see if visiting the Mayas to the South
is not what you see with the
in the North or the Huichols to the West.
There are, however, certain components which are invariably present, others which are unique, and still others which are added as new customs, people, and materials arrive in an area.
However, on the simplest home altars, as well as the ones made for display in museums and cultural centers, you will always find certain key elements.
During the last days of October, market places begin to overflow with people bargaining and buying what they need to decorate and prepare their altars.
Special day of the dead bread in wonderful shapes and sizes is baked at home or bought in
panadérias (bakeries). Clay candlesticks, candles both simple or beautifully decorated, as well as incense burners are much in demand.
Miniature toys and reproductions of skeleton figures, abound.
These playfully feature the dead in all walks of life as artists, lawyers,
secretaries, paper boys, and even young novios (couples).
alfe?iques (candies) and papel picado (paper cutouts) are all beautifully
presented in the markets and are bought to be placed on the altars to please the returning souls.
In many parts of the country, well known artisans and their families have been making these objects for months and depend on good sales for their livelihood. The vibrant material goods created for the Day of the Dead have become an important part of the folk art of Mexico.
Flowers are exceptionally important on this day and the traditional flower, the
(yellow marigold) was used by the pre-Columbian people on grave sites and is still used today as the flower of the dead.
Baby’s breath, coxcombs, white amaryllis and wild purple orchids called &flowers of the souls& are also prevalent on altars.
Black, brown and red mole, along with other special and favorite foods are cooked in preparation for the celebration and the altar becomes laden with delicacies to be eaten by the dead.
(For a detailed list of altar items, please refer to the activity section at the end of this essay.)
On the evening of November second, the families gather in their local graveyard all night to visit with the souls. Newly cleaned graves are decorated with candles, the cempasuchil
flower and food.
Children play, men visit in and out, and it is generally the women who keep the vigil, chatting among themselves with sleeping babies in their arms. Food is laid out in churches or on specially constructed community altars for those who have no family to welcome them.
Church services are not normally held except in some urban areas where traditional masses are said.
At a short distance from the cemeteries, other activities are being played out.
Sometimes a band or only a few musicians are present to play music.
Parades are staged in which couples masquerade as skeletons dressed up perhaps as bride and groom and dance through the streets of the towns.
Masked mummers are there to scare away souls who seem to be staying too long.
In the Mexico of today, the Day of the Dead is a rapidly changing tradition. Each November
the festivities and artisanal work attracts more tourists to Mexico and with each year it is becoming more commercialized.
Celebrations in general are now livelier, more like a holiday than a holy day.
Some of the best known celebrations are in the state of Oaxaca, in Pátzcuaro, Michoac&n, and in the town of Mixquic, near Mexico City.
As Mexican author, Carlos Monsiv&is observes, in Mixquic and P&tzcuaro the cameras have come to outnumber the candles in the cemeteries: &Kodak takes possession and Mexico has sold its cult of death and the tourists smile anthropologically satiated&.
In the United States, the custom is also catching on and
Day of the Dead
altars and displays are now featured in cultural centers in the United States.
Last year alone such events were held at the Galer&a de
in New York, the Mexican Museum in San Francisco, the Fine Arts Center and Museum in Chicago, the Mexican Cultural Center in Washington, and the Bronx Museum in New York. Why? Perhaps because in contrast to Halloween which is filled with demons, witches and images of terror, the Day of the Dead is distinctively different.
It demonstrates a strong sense of love and respect for one’s ancestors, celebrates the continuance of life, family relationships, community solidarity, allows people to talk about, and even finds humor in death.
In this way Death loses some of its terror.
These are all positive concepts.
1.1The Mexican Day of the Dead
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