Edible Plants Wines, Sherries, and/or Meads

In Stalking the Good Life, the late naturalist Euell Gibbons wrote about wild berries. “Actually,” he wrote, “I begin picking berries about the time the last spring snow melts away.” He then describes in one chapter a succession of harvests of wild wintergreen berries (teaberries), strawberries, red raspberries, black raspberries, wineberries, dewberries, blackberries, blueberries, huckleberries, squaw huckleberries (deerberries), and elderberries. Elsewhere in the book he describes harvests of wild barberries, black haws, cherries, chokecherries, cranberries, grapes, juneberries, wild raisins, squashberries, shadbush berries, serviceberries, sarvisberries, sugar pears, and sugar plums. These are just some of the berries — but a sampling of what is out there — growing in the wild and available to be harvested and turned into wine.

No matter where you live in the world, you live but a short walk or drive away from more edible wild plants than you probably ever imagined. Ancient man was successful as a species because he was capable of eating a very large variety of plants and animals. Many plants bear fruit or other components that can be made into wine suitable for just about any palate. On the pages that follow, I will be describing but a few of the thousands of wild edible plants in the United States and Canada which are suitable in one way or another for winemaking. Readers living outside this geographic area should not turn away. Many of the plants featured herein have relatives scattered all over the globe, and I have consistently tried to identify the genus (and species) of each plant featured so that distant relatives can be identified and recipes adapted to suit them. See “Adapting Recipes,” below, for tips on how to do this.

Adapting Recipes

Okay, you’re out walking in the woods and come across a thick stand of salmonberries. You pull a couple of plastic bags from your day pack and an hour later you’re heading for home with 8-10 pounds of sweet (but slightly tart), fresh fruit. You check your well-thumbed copy of First Steps in Winemaking and strike out. Then you fire up the computer and start burning up the search engines. Nothing! What to do? Well, hopefully you’ve got a bookmark set to The Winemaking Home Page and are therefore in luck. No, I don’t have a salmonberry wine recipe (yet), but I can tell you how to make salmonberry wine. More acurately, I can tell you how to adapt a recipe to serve your purposes, and that’s better than nothing.

The first thing you do is ask yourself, “What is a salmonberry similar to?” By similar, I mean most like in type of fruit, taste, pulp, firmness, color, skin or rind if that applied, and type plant. It is unwise to compare fruit from vining plants with fruit from bushes or trees unless there simply is no alternative. So, let’s compare the salmonberry with similar berries.

Well, it looks like a salmon-colored blackberry, but tastes more like a red raspberry, wineberry or thimbleberry. Except, in reality, it tastes like none of these. Still, it comes closer in taste to a red raspberry than a blackberry, wineberry or thimbleberry. We might be able to narrow it down further, but this will do–quite nicely, actually. Start with a red raspberry wine recipe and go from there. But first, there are a few things you need to think about.

Fruit Content

With few exceptions, the more fruit you use in making a wine, the fruitier tasting it will be. This can be good or it can be too much. If good, so much the better. If too much, you have a problem. You can blend it with a complementary but weaker tasting wine or with a “second” wine made from the same fruit pulp as the first batch–if you happened to have made one. There really isn’t much more you can do. Why is this important?

It’s important for two reasons. When making a wine by recipe that specifies a varied quantity–such as 4-6 lbs–you can be assured that using the lesser quantity will make an acceptable wine, but using the larger quantity will make a fruitier wine. If you opt to use the larger quantity, you would be wise to also make a “second” batch using the pressed pulp from the first batch. This will always make a weaker wine, but one that is almost always acceptable on its own merit. More importantly, you’ll have that “second” wine to use in blending with the first batch should its taste be too strong for you.

But it’s also important when adapting a recipe for another ingredient. If the substituted ingredient lacks the fullness of flavor of the original ingredient called for in the recipe, you’ll need to adjust the quantity upwards to make up for what is naturally lacking. In the case of substituting salmonberries for red raspberries, I can tell you right off that salmonberries lack the flavor and aroma raspberries are so famous for. Thus, you’ll want to adjust the quantity upwards, but not too much. Berry wines should be subtle, not overpowering. My red raspberry recipe calls for 3-4 lbs of fruit. If using salmonberries instead of raspberries, use 4-5 lbs.

Another thing to consider about fruit content is that when using less fruit rather than more, the lesser amount, if within the recipe limitations, will usually produce a wine that more closely approximates the taste of grape wine, albeit the approximation may take a leap of imagination. What I mean is this: in truth, grape wines do not taste like grape juice, and fruit wines should not taste like fruit juice. My favorite peach wine recipe calls for 3 lbs of peaches per gallon, but I will reduce the amount of fruit to 2-1/2 lbs for an exceptionally flavorable crop. Conversely, for a weakly flavored crop I might increase the amount to 3-1/2 lbs.

Sugar Content and Supplementation

More than anything else, it is the conversion of sugar into carbon dioxide and alcohol by the action of yeast that makes wine. A critical amount of sugar simply must be present or you are wasting your time and ingredients. When this amount is absent, you must add sugar.

The amount you must add, of course, depends on how much is there to begin with. You determine this by using a hydrometer to measure the specific gravity (S.G.) of the diluted liquor. What I mean by diluted liquor is the combined ingredients in the recipes less the sugar and yeast. If you measured the S.G. of the fruit juice alone and added sugar to attain a starting S.G. of, say, 1.095, that reading would be meaningless the moment you added water and other ingredients. So, combine the ingredients less the sugar and yeast, measure the S.G., and then add sugar to raise the S.G. accordingly.

This is especially important when adapting a recipe to a substitute ingredient. The substitute ingredient almost certainly will not contain exactly the same natural sugar as the ingredient specified in the recipe. You then adjust the sugar content accordingly. This will probably mean an amount close to that called for in the recipe, but not exactly the same amount.

Sugar can be added in several forms and several ways, but usually this boils down to adding refined sugar or adding honey. Unless a recipe specifically calls for honey, I always use sugar, and unless it specifically calls for light or dark brown sugar, I use finely granulated white cane sugar. Cane and beet sugar are both sucrose and are chemically the same. Unrefined brown sugar can still be found, but it is imported these days and usually costs more than domestic brown sugar. Domestic brown sugar is really refined sugar with molasses added. It will affect both taste and color of the wine, but for some wines it is required. Corn sugar is dextrose, preferred for beermaking but tradionally avoided by winemakers. Terry Garey and a few others say you can use it if you want to, but long ago I was taught “vinters scorn what comes from corn;” this ditty may be unfounded, but I’ve never wanted to risk a batch of wine testing its veracity.

Honey is another subject altogether. It comes in many, many flavors, depending upon the flowers the bees predominately visited while collecting pollens and nectares used to make it. These flavors do affect the wine, but so does the honey itself. Honey tends to mellow out a wine and contributes ever so slightly to body. Some people prefer it for that reason alone, while others prefer it for ecological reasons. I use it only when the recipe calls for it, when I know the wine will otherwise be thin, or when I want to impart a specific flavor to the wine–such as heather, clover, orange, or mesquite.

My problem with honey is that it slows down the clarification process considerably. Honey contains pollen, and pollen takes a long time to settle out. Even when settled, it can easily be lifted from the lees by the siphoning action of racking, and then it must again settle out. If you filter your wine, this is much less a problem than if you don’t.

Acidity

Salmonberries are just a little bit more tart than red raspberries. This means it contains something red raspberries don’t contain, or lacks something red raspberries don’t. Tartness is usually caused by acid, but it could be caused by tannin, pectin, or simply a natural flavor. In the case of salmonberries, it’s acid. If the difference were great, you’d want to adjust the amount of added acid in the recipe to be adapted downward, but in this case the difference is so slight as to be negligible. Indeed, the amount of acid blend you might remove from the red raspberry wine recipe is so small that it might easily be absent depending upon how you measure 1/2 tsp. A pinch less might be justified, but that is only about 20-30 grains of the crystalline blend, and that is not worth fretting about.

On the other hand, if the berries were unusually tart, you might cut the amount of acid blend used by 1/8 to 1/5. You wouldn’t want to reduce it by more, as acid is essential to the health and reproduction of yeast.

Acidity should not generally be a worry if you have compared your fruit wisely and correctly. If in doubt, however, use an acid testing kit and adjust acidity to no more than 0.60% tartaric.

Allegheny Shadbush Wine

April 5, 2001
  • 4 lbs Allegheny shadbush berries
  • 1 lb golden raisins, chopped or minced
  • 2 lbs granulated sugar
  • 1/4 tsp tartaric acid
  • 1 tsp pectic enzyme
  • 5-6 pints water
  • wine yeast and nutrient

Pick only ripe berries. Wash, destem and crush berries. Heat to low boil, reduce heat, and simmer covered for 10 minutes. Fold top berries under, recover and simmer another 10 minutes. Pour into nylon jelly-bag and allow to drip over primary until pulp is cool. Meanwhile dissolve sugar into 3 cups boiling water and allow to cool. Chop or mince raisins and put in second jelly-bag. Add juice, both jelly-bags, tartaric acid, pectic enzyme, yeast nutrients, and all but 2/3 cup sugar-water to primary. Wait at least 10 hours before inoculating with activated wine yeast. Cover well and set in warm (70-75 degrees F.) place, squeezing bags and stirring twice daily. After 5 days of vigorous fermentation, gently press jelly-bag of Saskatoon serviceberries to extract juice, discarding remaining pulp and seed. Recover and ferment additional five days. Gently squeeze raisin jelly-bag to extract juice, then dicard pulp. Siphon liquid off of sediments into secondary, add remaining sugar-water, top up, fit airlock, and set in cooler (60-65 degrees F.) place. Rack three times at 30-day intervals, adding one crushed and dissolved Campden tablet at time of 1st and last racking. Racking again only if additional sediments have formed. Stabilize, wait 2-3 weels, then rack into bottles. Store in dark place to preserve deep color. May taste after 9 months but improves with age. This is a full-bodied wine. [Author’s recipe.]

Autumn Olive Wine

April 5, 2001
  • 4-5 pounds Autumn olive fruit
  • 2 lbs granulated sugar
  • 1-1/4 tsp yeast nutrient
  • 1/4 tsp tannin
  • 1 crushed Campden tablet
  • 1 tsp pectic enzyme.
  • 3 qts water
  • Lalvin RC212 (Bourgovin) wine yeast

Put 2 qts water on to boil. Meanwhile, wash and cull fruit for soundness. Put fruit in nylon straining bag, tie closed, and place in primary container. Bruise fruit by squashing with hands or a piece of hardwood, being careful not to crack seed. Pour boiling water over fruit and cover primary. Combine remaining water with sugar and stir until dissolved–may heat the water to aid in dissolving sugar. Add sugar-water to primary, replace cover and set aside to cool. When room temperature, stir in tannin, yeast nutrient and crushed Campden. Replace cover and set aside for 12 hours. Stir in pectic enzyme and again cover primary and set aside. After 12 hours, add activated yeast and again cover the primary. Stir twice daily until s.g. drops to 1.015 (1-2 weeks). Remove nylon straining bag, squeezing well to extract juice. Allow to settle and rack to secondary and fit airlock. Wait 30 days, then rack, top up and refit airlock. Repeat when wine clears. Allow another 60 days under airlock. Stabilize, sweeten to taste if desired, wait 10 days, and rack into bottles. Age six months before tasting. Improves with age. [Author’s own recipe]

Bilberry Wine (3)

April 5, 2001
  • 5-8 oz dried bilberries
  • 1/8 oz dried elderflowers
  • 6-8 oz red grape concentrate
  • 2 lbs finely granulated sugar
  • 2/3 tsp acid blend
  • 1 tsp pectic enzyme
  • water to 1 gallon
  • 1 tsp yeast nutrient
  • Bordeaux wine yeast

Boil water and pour into primary over all ingredients except grape concentrate, pectic enzyme and yeast. Stir well to dissolve sugar, cover with cloth, and set aside to cool. When lukewarm, add grape concentrate and pectic enzyme and recover the primary. After additional 12 hours, add yeast and again recover the primary. Stir twice daily for 7 days, then strain through nylon staining bag and press gently. After additional 12 hours, siphon off sediments into secondary and fit airlock. Rack, top up and refit airlock after 30 days and again after 60 days. Age wine under airlock additional 4-6 months. Stabilize, wait 10 days, rack, sweeten to taste, and bottle. Allow 9-12 months to mature. [Adapted recipe from W.H.T. Tayleur’s The Penguin Book of Home Brewing and Wine-Making ]

Bilberry Port Wine (1)

April 5, 2001
  • 1 lb dried bilberries
  • 8 oz dried banana chips, chopped
  • 1/8 oz dried elderflowers
  • 1 cup red port-type grape concentrate
  • 2 lbs finely granulated sugar
  • water to 1 gallon
  • 1 tsp acid blend
  • 1 tsp yeast nutrient
  • 1 tsp pectic enzyme
  • Port wine yeast

Bring water to boil. Meanwhile, put dried bilberries in nylon straining bag and tie closed. Put chopped dried banana chips (unsulfited) and dried elderflowers in second nylon straining bag and tie closed. Place both bags in primary with sugar, acid blend, yeast nutrient, and grape concentrate. Pour boiling water into primary, stir well to dissolve sugar, cover with cloth, and allow to cool to lukewarm. Add pectic enzyme and recover. After 12 hours add yeast and recover. Ferment 48 hours after fermentation is obvious, gently squeezing both bags to extract flavors twice a day. Drip drain both bags, returning drained liquid to primary. Save both bags of pulp to make BILBERRY CLARET WINE (below), or dehydrate bilberries for later reuse. Wait 12 hours and siphon wine off sediment into secondar. Fit airlock and set aside. Rack, top up and refit airlock after 3 weeks and again after additional 2 months. Bulk age under airlock 4 months, stabilize, wait 10 days, and rack. Bottle dry or sweeten to taste and then bottle. Age 18-24 months in bottles. [Adapted recipe from W.H.T. Tayleur’s The Penguin Book of Home Brewing and Wine-Making ]

Bilberry Port Wine (2)

April 5, 2001
  • 1 lb dried bilberries
  • 8 oz dried banana chips, chopped
  • 1/8 oz dried elderflowers
  • 1 lb chopped or minced raisins
  • 2 lbs finely granulated sugar
  • water to 1 gallon
  • 1 tsp acid blend
  • 1 tsp yeast nutrient
  • 1 tsp pectic enzyme
  • Port wine yeast

Bring water to boil. Meanwhile, put dried bilberries in nylon straining bag and tie closed. Put chopped dried banana chips (unsulfited), dried elderflowers and raisins in second nylon straining bag and tie closed. Place both bags in primary with sugar, acid blend and yeast nutrient. Pour boiling water into primary, stir well to dissolve sugar, cover with cloth, and allow to cool to lukewarm. Add pectic enzyme and recover. After 12 hours add yeast and recover. Ferment 48 hours after fermentation is obvious, gently squeezing both bags to extract flavors twice a day. Drip drain both bags, returning drained liquid to primary. Wait 12 hours and siphon wine off sediment into secondar. Fit airlock and set aside. Rack, top up and refit airlock after 3 weeks and again after additional 2 months. Bulk age under airlock 4 months, stabilize, wait 10 days, and rack. Bottle dry or sweeten to taste and then bottle. Age 18-24 months in bottles. [Adapted recipe from W.H.T. Tayleur’s The Penguin Book of Home Brewing and Wine-Making ]

Bilberry Claret Wine

April 5, 2001
  • pulp from BILBERRY PORT WINE (1)
  • 1 cup red grape concentrate
  • 2 lb finely granulated sugar
  • 1 tsp acid blend
  • 1 tsp yeast nutrient
  • lukewarm water to 1 gallon

This is a second wine made from the drained (but not pressed) pulp from a batch of BILBERRY PORT WINE (1). The pulp will come in two nylon bags, one containing the formerly-dried bilberries and the other containing the chopped formerly-dried banana chips and the formerly-dried elderflowers. The bag containing the dried bilberries can be used over and over again on this recipe–possibly as many as 6 times, but the banana chips and elderflowers can only be used this one additional time. Place both bags of drained pulp in primary with all other ingredients, including water. Yeast in pulp will restart fermentation quickly if this batch is begun immediately after removing pulp from previous batch. Ferment 48 hours after full refermentation is obvious. Remove bag of bilberries and allow to drip-drain without squeezing 4-6 hours. After additional 24 hours, remove bag of banana chips and elderflowers, pressing gently to extract juice. Wait 12 hours and siphon liquid off sediment into secondary, top up and fit airlock. Rack, top up and refit airlock after 3 weeks and again after 2 additional months. Allow to bulk age under airlock 4 months, then rack into bottles. Age in bottles 9 months before tasting, longer if you can stand it. Claret is a dry wine, so do not sweeten when bottling. [Adapted recipe from W.H.T. Tayleur’s The Penguin Book of Home Brewing and Wine-Making ]

Burdock Wine

April 5, 2001

Burdocks are from Eurasia and have now been naturalized throughout America. The Great Burdock (Arctium lappa) is a huge weed growing 2-3 meters in height, while the the much more widespread Common Burdock (Arctium minus) is the one most commonly encountered. All burdocks are biennial, growing only a set of leaves the first year. The second year the produce a flowering stalk which fruits. In late summer into autumn, the fruit, called burrs, ripens and turns brown. They stick to the clothing and fur of passing people and animals and attempts to remove them scatters their seeds. After producing seeds, the plant dies. The burrs stick to hosts when both green and brown.

Burdock is said to be a gentle laxative. Its roots are used as an herbal cure for rheumatism, gout and certain lung conditions. As a topical extertal applicant, it is said to relieve sores and swellings. A tincture made from its seeds is supposed to cure psoriasis. In Japan, it is considered an aphrodisiac. The stems are considered a vegatable and peeled, boiled and eaten. Burdock ale can be made from the roots, tea and wine can be made from the leaves and burrs.


  • 1/2 lb of second-year green leaves and burrs
  • 2 lbs brown sugar (earlier recipe called for 4 lbs brown sugar1)
  • water to 1 gallon
  • 1 large or 2 small lemons (juice only)
  • 1 tsp yeast nutrient
  • 1 crushed Campden Tablet
  • 1 pkt Tokay wine yeast

Gather green leaves and green burrs in a plastic pail. Wash to remove insects, dirt and dead organic matter and add burdock and brown sugar to primary. Put water on to boil. Meanwhile, make zest from lemon(s) and extract juice, discarding pith, pulp and seeds. Pour boiling water over burdock and brown sugar in primary, stirring well to dissolve sugar. Cover primary and set aside to cool. Add remaining ingredients except yeast, cover and set aside for 12 hours. Add activated yeast and recover primary. Stir daily until vigorous fermentation subsidesm (about 5-7 days), then strain liquid into secondary and fit airlock, discarding burdock and zest. Ferment to dryness, racking once or twice as required, and then stabilize and bulk age 6 months, checking airlock from time to time to make sure it doesn’t dry out. Rack, sweeten if desired and bottle. [Author’s own recipe]

  1. https://web.archive.org/web/20010420172904/http://winemaking.jackkeller.net/burdock.asp

Agarita (2)

November 2, 2000
  • 4 lbs agarita berries
  • 2-1/2 lbs granulated sugar
  • 3/4 tsp citric acid
  • 1/2 tsp pectic enzyme
  • 7-1/4 pints water
  • 1 crushed Campden tablet
  • 1 tsp yeast nutrient
  • Burgundy wine yeast

Wash, de-stem and crush (mash) the berries. You can also put then in a blender with a cup of water and puree them. Put them in primary with water, half the sugar, the citric acid, yeast nutrient, and the crushed Campden tablet. Stir well to dissolve sugar, cover with cloth, and wait 12 hours. Add pectic enzyme, recover, and wait another 12 hours. Add yeast, recover, and stir daily for 7 days. Separate pulp by pouring through a nylon straining bag, squeezing gently. Add remainder of sugar, stir well to dissolve, and pour juice into secondary. Top up and fit with airlock. Ferment 30 days, rack and top up, then rack again every 3 weeks until wine clears and all evidence of fermentation is history. Stabilize, wait additional 10 days, sweeten if desired, then bottle. May taste after 6 months. [Author’s own recipe]

Agarita (1)

November 2, 2000
  • 4 lbs agarita berries
  • 3-1/2 lbs granulated sugar
  • 1 tsp citric acid
  • 1/2 tsp pectic enzyme
  • 7 pints water
  • 1 crushed Campden tablet
  • 1 tsp yeast nutrient
  • Burgundy wine yeast

Wash, de-stem and crush (mash) the berries. You can also put then in a blender with a cup of water and puree them. Put them in primary with water, half the sugar, the citric acid, yeast nutrient, and the crushed Campden tablet. Stir well to dissolve sugar, cover with cloth, and wait 12 hours. Add pectic enzyme, recover, and wait another 12 hours. Add yeast, recover, and stir daily for 7 days. Separate pulp by pouring through a nylon straining bag, squeezing gently. Add remainder of sugar, stir well to dissolve, and pour juice into secondary. Top up and fit with airlock. Ferment 30 days, rack and top up, then rack again every 3 weeks until wine clears. Stabilize, wait additional 10 days, rack if required, then bottle. May taste after 6 months. [Author’s own recipe]