David comments:
David, David the Bad here. I saw your post look for death hedge material. I’m in south central texas and here’s a winner you can make wine from berries. Not sure it will work in your neck of the woods. But we like it. https://www.wildflower.org/plants/result.php?id_plant=MATR3
The plant in question is Mahonia trifoliolata.
From the link:
This 3-6 ft. evergreen shrub, can reach 10 ft. in favorable conditions. The rigid, spreading branches often form thickets. Gray-green to blue-gray, trifoliate, holly-like leaves are alternate, 2-4 inches long, divided into three leaflets which have 3-7 lobes ending in sharp spines. Wood bright yellow. Flowers numerous, yellow, up to 1/2 inch wide with 6 petals and 6 sepals, which are similar, forming a cup shape around the stamens and pistils. Flowers appearing in February and March, their fragrance often filling the air where they are plentiful. Fruit a red berry, edible appearing from May to July.
That sounds promising.
We’ve grown “Oregon Grape Holly” in our food forest projects. It makes an edible blue/black berry, though we’ve never gotten enough to make jam or anything from them. I’ve eaten a few and they’re decent. There are multiple varieties of Mahonia with edible berries. The Oregon grape holly in our food forest has multiple clusters of green fruit on it right now. If we can beat the birds and beasts to them, it would be worth planting the seeds to start more. They are low care and fill in shady spots nicely.
I found them for sale here at EcoBlossom Nursery.
Good suggestion, David – thank you.
Image at top via EcoBlossom Nursery
