It Is Not Too Late to Harvest Hawthorn Berries!

Its mid January and there are still Hawthorn berries hanging from the Hawthorn trees, despite the snow, freezing and thawing conditions. I just gathered some yesterday and they are still quite tasty and just the right ripeness.

Depending where you live you may still find Hawthorn berries hanging as well!

Although it's too late for leaves now, I had collected some green hawthorn leaves in the early fall before they changed color. I would think spring and summer would be the best time to collect the leaves but they were available to me in the fall and so that's when I got them!

The lobed leaves help me identify a Hawthorn tree.

I gathered some berries and leaves at the same time once the berries were ripe and dried them on a plate.

I had been waiting for the berries to ripen further and for us to have some more frosts before harvesting a lot of berries. Then one day we had a massive wind that blew down many of the berries. Since the next day looked like rain I rushed out to gather berries off the ground and spread them out to dry. Even though the leaves were yellowing I didn't bother separating berries from leaves - partly due to being limited to time as I was doing a lot of food processing, partly as I am not picky. I will just use it all for tea!

Hawthorn berries and leaves release a beautiful red hue into water and alcohol. This is a photo of a tea that was brewed. Hawthorn is easily one of @idyllwild and my favorite warm beverages this winter, the flavor is delicious! It's rare a day goes by that we don't have some hawthorn brewing on the stove.

I am also tincturing hawthorn berries for a daily medicine. As you can see the red color is completely released from the berries into the alcohol.

Hawthorn berries are renounced for their ability to help build heart strength. It is recommended as medicine to help prevent a wide range of heart problems. From my understanding Hawthorn is more of a proactive medicine/food that builds strength over time rather than a reactive medicine.

I enjoy including Hawthorn tincture in my daily regimen on days when I am not drinking hawthorn tea or infusions.

Hawthorn belongs to the Crataegus genus which includes many different species. To give you some idea of the differences you might encounter: There are two Hawthorn trees on this property. One has bigger fruits than the other and many seeds. The other has smaller fruits and one seed. They both taste quite similar but one is sweeter.

I have only met a few Hawthorn shrubs in person. Here is a tree I met two falls ago near the Washington coast.

I am saving hawthorn seeds in case I decide to include them as part of a future living fence project.

Hawthorn is in the Roseacea family and you can see some similarities in the fruit to rose hips, apples, quince and other fruit in the Rose family. This makes me think that Hawthorn may be a good candidate for grafting. I searched online and sure enough Hawthorn can be grafted with Hawthorn, Medlar, Pear, Quince, Mountain Ash, Juneberry, Chokeberry, Service tree, Japanese Medlar. Awesome! So all the seeds I am collecting are also potential root stock.

I just learned from Maud Grieves that "haw" is an old English word for "hedge". I bet you can guess where the "thorn" part came from ;)

Hawthorn as medicine for the heart from Susun Weed

More info on the Crataegus Genus (Hawthorn) from Plants for a Future