Chapters 4.40

From Firstnationsfoods
Jump to navigation Jump to search

ELDERLYBERRY 7997.jpg

Suggested citation for this chapter.

Rangel Cvihun, K.J. (2022) Fleshy Fruits. In The Student Encyclopedia of Canadian Indigenous Foods. Editor, M.N. Raizada, University of Guelph, Canada. http://www.firstnationsfoods.org/

Introduction

Sambucus cerulea, or more commonly called blue elderberry, is a plant native to western Canada and all the way down into northwestern Mexico (Maughan et al., 2018). It is a little-known bush in the Sambucus genus that has historically been cooked and used for food by a vast number of Indigenous groups on the west side of the continent.

Species Information

Obvious characteristics of a blue elderberry bush include pinnately compound leaves of five to nine, and clusters of small white flowers which turn to bundles of little berries that have the appearance of a light blue colour (McCabe, 2018). The berries themselves actually ripen to a dark shade of blue but look to be much whiter than they actually are due to a waxy substance covering them (Kuhnlein & Turner, 2020).

When observed further, the stem and branches are pithy and easily snapped due to their brittle nature (Kuhnlein & Turner, 2020). The shrub itself can also become quite large, with larger examples reaching heights up to ten meters tall (McCabe, 2018).

Preparation And Consumption

Sambucus cerulea have been traditionally cooked and eaten by western Indigenous groups, including but not limited to the Halkomelem, Comox, Nlaka'pamux, and Shuswap (Kuhnlein & Turner, 2020). Typically, these berries are cooked before they are eaten, like what’s done by the Coast Salish people of Vancouver Island (Chapman & Bell, 1971). It makes sense to prepare them in this way, making them into a kind of preserve, due to how seedy but juicy the fruit itself is. Less commonly, they can be eaten raw, dried to eat in the wintertime, or used as a marinade, as is done by the Nlaka'pamux people (Kuhnlein & Turner, 2020).

References

1.Acuña, U. M., Atha, D. E., Ma, J., Nee, M. H., & Kennelly, E. J. (2002). Antioxidant capacities of ten edible North American plants. Phytotherapy Research, 16(1), 63-65.

2.Kuhnlein, H. V., & Turner, N. J. (2020). Traditional plant foods of Canadian indigenous peoples: nutrition, botany and use. Routledge.

3.Maughan, T., Black, B. L., Rupp, L. A., & Yost, M. A. (2018). Propagation techniques for Sambucus cerulea (blue elderberry). Native Plants Journal, 19(2), 80-89.

4.McCabe, A. B. (2018). Sambucus cerulea Raf.| blue elderberry| th’ikwukwulhp. Logan Creek Decolonization Project Journal, 1(1), 13-16.

5.Nancy Chapman Turner, & Marcus A. M. Bell. (1971). The Ethnobotany of the Coast Salish Indians of Vancouver Island. Economic Botany, 25(1), 63–104. http://www.jstor.org/stable/4253212