Berries Make The Firethorn A Tart Treat

November 7, 1985|By Clara Renner, Special to The Sentinel

Firethorn (Pyracantha) also is called flamefruit, thornberry and firebush. When the cooler weather of October causes some trees and shrubs to lose their leaves and some plants to die back or go dormant, you can count on pyracantha to provide a spectacular display. This thorny shrub or small tree will set the landscape ablaze with its brilliant orange or red berries.

Pyracantha is a thorny evergreen with dense woody branches, covered with small leaves that are 1/4 to 1/2 inch wide and 1 inch long, shiny, smooth, and dark green. It often is used as a landscape shrub. In spring small umbels of tiny white flowers adorn the bush.

Although too seedy to eat in quantity raw, pyracantha has proven a good survival food for huntsmen in the fall. The berries often remain on the bush all winter. Its sharp thorns also have been used to fashion fishhooks in a survival situation.

Several years ago a TV miniseries, The Thorn Birds, starring Richard Chamberlain, poignantly told the legend of the firethorn. The story is that a bird mortally wounded by the sharp thorns sings its most beautiful song.

Birds favor the firethorn when the clusters of red fruits ripen in the fall. Often a small bush is literally covered with hungry migrating birds as they feast on the small seedy fruits. Birds are an important reason why wild plant specimens are scattered throughout the South. During summer months the shrub provides excellent nesting spots for native songbirds, since the sharp thorns discourage cats, opossums and other predators.

But firethorn is not just ''for the birds.'' The fruit has a high acid and pectin content, is rich in vitamin C, and may be used for making a beautifully flavored tart jelly that is a perfect accompaniment for wild game meals.

Since the fruit is so small and so seedy, it takes quite a few berries to make a batch of jelly. But, after you have once tasted this shimmering, flavorful product, I'm sure you will agree it's quite worth all the effort. It has a cranberry-like flavor with a bright red color; intensity of the color depends somewhat on the particular plant species.


Wash the orange-red berries thoroughly. Barely cover with water; boil until the juice is a rich orange-red color; strain through jelly bag. You will need 2 cups of juice. The amount of juice you get depends on the season and type of berries, but whatever is left over you can always use in punch.

To each 2 cups of juice, add 3 cups sugar, 1/4 cup fresh lemon juice and 2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar. Bring to a full rolling boil; add 1/2 bottle Certo or half of a 1 3/4-ounce package of dry pectin; boil hard for 2 minutes. Pour into sterilized jelly glasses; seal with regular canning lids.

Each recipe makes 4 1/2 pint jars.

The recipe is from Edible Wild Plants by Fran Davis of Otis Orchards in Washington state.

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