Barberries

[ancee]

Have been looking on the RHS website (thank you Rusty Lady!) and have a list of stuff I want to grow for next year. One of which is barberries - you can use them in Iranian cooking. When I typed 'barberry' in, up came berberis aka as barberry. Is this the same thing? - I hope it is as I put in a huge berberis hedge (well it will be one day, presently it's not quite knee high!) at the bottom of the garden earlier this year and it is covered in berries! So can I eat them? It doesn't say on the site.

[bearded bloke]

Hi Ancee,I been looking & found ........

barberries used to grow all over the place: Europe, Asia and north America, as well as the Middle East. High in pectin, they were much valued for jams and jellies by English cooks, who called them 'pipperages'.

However, they were systematically eradicated because the berries can harbour wheat rust, which devastates crops. You can still buy barberry plants at some nurseries, but it may be best not to grow them if you live near farmland.

Taken from .. Super ingredients: Barberries | Life and style | The Guardian



And similarly .....

Barberries or pipperages were once commonly grown in English kitchen gardens. They were used extensively in both cookery and confectionery. There were a number of favoured varieties, most of which have been lost. One was the large fruited 'nutmeg barberry', used for garnishing boiled pike at sixteenth century livery company feasts. This was known to John Evelyn as 'the great barberry'. Evelyn also recommended a seedless variety. In more recent times the barberry was found to be a vector for wheat rust and has been more or less eradicated from English gardens, as well as its natural habitats. If you live well away from a wheat growing area, it is worth cultivating for the sake of its beautiful scarlet acidic fruits.

Taken from ..... Farced Crab


So it would seem unless you are a city dweller it might not be the best thing to re-introduce as a plant,but for culinary purposes only the dried option (zereshk) from a Middle Eastern grocer might be a better option

[Martin H]

The old barberry was Berberis vulgaris, but the ornamental ones are mostly hybrids of Berberis darwinii. I don't know how edible the ornamental ones are, if at all.

[veggiechicken]

Berberis darwinii Darwin's Barberry PFAF Plant Database
'Tis edible

[ancee]

Hmm Not sure which my berberis is/are! I bought it off a plant guy on the car boot sale. He'll be there again soon though once it all starts up again. I'll have to ask him and also do a bit of Miss Marpleing ont net to see if I can find it - it's green if that helps ...

[Moth lady]

Barberry!

Hi all, I'm 7 years late in seeing this thread but I'm hoping you see it anyway! I'm growing lots of Barberry (B. vulgaris) for a project I'm working on for the charity Butterfly Conservation. There is an extremely rare moth called Barberry Carpet, and it's only foodplant is B. vulgaris. It only has 12 colonies left in the UK, mainly in North Wiltshire, a couple in Gloucestershire, one in Oxfordshire and one in North Dorset. We've been providing free Barberry plants to people that live close enough to the remaining moth colonies to be able to encourage the moth to spread and link up colonies. We are working closely with crop scientists because of the stem rust issue, and their advice is that planting at least 20 metres away from arable land should ensure there's never a problem with wheat rust. I really want to encourage more people to grow Barberry - the berries are gorgeous and I've been putting them in chutneys and flapjacks. I've only recently found about all the health benefits though. Do get in touch with me if you're interested, as I've found a few suppliers of seeds and seedlings too. If you live close enough to the moths I may be able to add you to the list to get free plants too. Thanks fhaynes@butterfly-conservation.org

[veggiechicken]

Hi Moth lady and welcome.

I'm outside your target area but I wish you every success with your project.

[SarrissUK]

I'm nowhere near either, but I hope it all goes well

[Bumblingbroccoli]

Does Newbury count as near enough? My hubby and I are butterfly mad so would be great if we were

[Babru]

There's a big berberis over the wall in my neighbour's garden, and the blackbirds absolutely gorge on the berries in autumn, so they're great for other wildlife too. Leads to lots of purply bird droppings all over the place, but still worth it.

[elleme]

Yes, blackbirds absolutely love berberis. I have a big darwinni shrub in the front garden. I've tried the berries before and they're quite pleasant if you leave them on the bush a while and a bit mouth puckering if you don't. But the blackbirds often get there first.