Foraging The Elusive Mayapple

greetings everyone i'm adam harrington and in this video we are going to talk about may apple may apple is an eastern north american plant that produces a delicious tropical tasting edible fruit to me the ripe fruit smells and tastes exactly like starburst candy now it's been a few decades since i've eaten starburst candy but i'm pretty sure i remember exactly what it smells and tastes like a ripe apple fruit now the plant itself isn't difficult to locate if you are exploring an area within its range what is somewhat more difficult to locate is its fruit the may apple fruit which looks like a yellow egg when fully ripe is in my opinion one of the most elusive fruits in eastern north america for a few reasons and we'll discuss these reasons in a couple of minutes adding to the allure and mystery of may apple is that the plant contains toxic compounds every part of the plant except for the ripe fruit is said to be toxic with potophylotoxin being the major toxin toxic parts include the rhizomes the leaves the stems and the unripe fruits now there are traditional medicinal and medical uses for some of these toxic parts but we're not going to discuss them in this video instead we're only going to discuss the use of the ripe fruit which is safe to consume especially after the seeds have been discarded so the fruit is elusive the plant contains toxic compounds is it really worth our time and trouble to wander the woods sometimes for weeks sometimes for months sometimes for years in search of me apple fruits well if you are a student of health if you have a deep relationship with food and if you prioritize eating locally sourced food then of course the search is worth it and after watching this video i hope you will be inspired to embark on a may apple mission of your own so may apple which is podophylum peltatum is a species not in the rose family which is the family to which apples belong but in the barberry family may apple also known as american mandrake is a perennial colony-forming plant that does very well in rich moist well-drained woods the plant sends forth its young shoots in mid-spring typically when the morels are starting to appear the fully developed leaves are incredibly distinctive they are broad large and umbrella or shield shaped the botanical term for this shape is peltate which is why the species epithet of may apple is peltatum a few weeks after the leaves have matured the flowers appear and even though the flowers are white beautiful and relatively large they are easily overlooked because they are produced underneath the umbrella-like leaves flowers that are successfully cross-pollinated turn into fruits that are initially green and very firm ripe fruits are soft and yellow or straw colored and at this stage the leaves of the plant are often fading in color they're turning brown and senescing so maya apple is a unique plant that's easily spotted in the woods how difficult then is it to locate its fruit well the task isn't incredibly difficult but it's not incredibly easy either only the plants with two leaves typically produce flowers and fruits the plants that only produce one leaf do not typically produce flowers and fruits so here you could see a flower arising from the v created by two leaf stalks in a few months you may see a fruit arising from that same v created by the two leaves keep in mind however that single leaf plants have been found to produce fruits but these single leaf fruiting plants are definitely the exception and not the rule now a flower may be produced in the springtime but a fruit may not develop and that's because flowers aren't always successfully cross-pollinated if fruiting does take place your biggest contender for the ripe fruits will be animals specifically raccoons box turtles opossums and squirrels which eat and disperse the seeds of the fruits adding to the difficulty in finding fruit is that fruiting isn't consistent every single year may apple fruits might be abundant one year but sparsely present the following year how then do we improve our chances of finding male apple fruits well the year that i'm filming this just so happens to be a banner year here in western pennsylvania but also in other areas as well i've heard reports from people in the great lakes regions and in the midwestern states who are finding a lot of ripe apples this year so sometimes luck is your biggest factor but if you want to increase your chances even more here are a few action steps that you can take first check for flowering activity in the spring if you see lots of may apple flowers that's a good sign if you don't see lots of flowers in a particular area that's probably a sign that fruiting will not be good in that particular spot second check spots a few weeks after flowering to see if fruits are developing young fruits will be small and green and not that easy to see but if you train your eyes to notice them you will see the fruits third during peak may apple fruiting season check your spots frequently now peak season can vary depending on where you live in the southern part of its range may apple will produce fruits earlier in the summer season in the northern part of its range may apple will produce fruits later in the summer season where i live in western pennsylvania early august is generally a good time to start looking for the earliest ripe fruits and the fruits will continue to ripen through late august if you only check once you may not find many ripe fruits that's okay check that spot again on another day check other spots and keep checking a key point to remember is that successful may apple harvests usually don't take place during a single outing they take place cumulatively over the course of multiple outings where you find a few ripe fruits one day a dozen another day a few more another day and so on ultimately the harder you work the more successful you will be and fourth focus your attention on the plants that receive ample sunlight now may apple is a fairly shade tolerant species but i've noticed that the plants that receive more sunlight for example the ones that are growing along the edge of the woods or within an opening in the forest created by a fallen tree those are the plants that consistently produce more fruits so here is a ripe may apple fruit that i harvested just a few minutes ago and as you can see it's yellow it's slightly discolored with brown it's very soft and the smell is unmistakable starburst candy so it has a lemon pineapple tropical smell to it which is exactly how the fruit tastes now what i like to do is cut down the center of the fruit with a knife and split it into two parts and when we do that you can see that there are lots of seeds inside i do not recommend consuming the seeds instead you want to consume the gelatinous material surrounding the seeds and what i do is i put both the jelly and the seeds in my mouth i consume only the jelly and i spit out the seeds sometimes i'll plant the seeds in the soil i don't eat the skin of the fruit either it can have somewhat of an off flavor and reportedly some people experience gastrointestinal distress after consuming the skin so i eat the jelly inside the ripe fruit and once the jelly is gone i eat the remaining pulp that lines the interior of the skin now may apple fruits will ripen off the plant so you can harvest under-ripe fruits and let them ripen at home this one right here still has some green on it so if i harvested this one i wouldn't eat it right now because it's still under ripe but if i let it sit out at home for a couple days this one will ripen now what i found is that the greenest male apple fruits won't ripen at home so if i would harvest maple fruits in july when the fruits are fully green and very firm and hard i have no chance of ripening that fruit at home but if i would wait until those fruits start to turn white to somewhat yellow in early august i could let those ones ripen at home now remember you don't want to consume under ripe mayo apple fruits under ripe maple fruits are toxic you definitely want to let them ripen before you consume them now the benefit in harvesting under ripe fruits is that you can increase the size of your harvest but the downside is that these under ripe fruits when fully ripened at home taste somewhat differently compared to the may apple fruits that fully ripen on the plant so here are some slightly underripe fruits that i harvested as you can see they still have some green coloration on them i let the fruits ripen in a basket with good air circulation and after five days at room temperature you can see that they've lost a lot of the green coloration they have become more yellow they've definitely softened and they've become very fragrant making the room smell like a tropical paradise these fruits still taste tropical and even kind of melon like but they have a somewhat off flavor that's not apparent on the fruits that fully ripened on the plants as far as what to do with ripe may apples whenever i bring them home i store them on the counter i spread them apart a little bit i don't put them directly on top of one another and i don't put them in the refrigerator but i consume the ripened apples within a week of harvesting them now people are going to do anything special with me apples they typically make something sweet with them like a marmalade a jelly a jam or some kind of sweet dessert now i don't do any of that because i'm not interested in needlessly spiking my blood sugar any more than i have to to me ripe my apples are perfect the way that they are they're not overly tart they're definitely not astringent they are sweet and delicious so i consume them as is but if you've got a really big sweet tooth if marmalade's your thing then you can easily find recipes online but people also incorporate ripened apples into muffins and smoothies and other sweet things so that's all i got for you today i hope you enjoyed this video and i hope it inspires you to get out and embark on a maple mission of your own thanks for watching this video i encourage you to subscribe to the learn your land youtube channel i also encourage you to head on over to learnyourland.com and sign up for the email newsletter and to give learnyourland a follow on instagram and on facebook thanks again for watching this video i'll see you on the next one [Music] you

Channel: Learn Your Land

Views: 247,042

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Id: uovfSkeyfbA

Length: 11min 8sec (668 seconds)

Published: Thu Aug 25 2022