Harvesting summer fruits

One of the great pleasures of summer in Central Washington is the abundance of fresh fruit to enjoy: cherries!  peaches! serviceberries!  Over the past two months I’ve been harvesting a variety of native fruits and extracting their seeds in preparation for next year’s seedlings. With some species I’ve had to compete with birds to get me needs fulfilled.

How well do YOU know our native fruits?  Test your knowledge by identifying the six fruits shown below (answers at the end of the post).  For the record, none of them are worth eating, in my opinion, except serviceberries; apparently, many birds don’t taste bitter!

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2.3.4.5.6.7.

Answers below

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1. Chokecherry (Prunus virginiana)

2. Red osier dogwood (Cornus sericea)

3. Wax currant (Ribes cereum)

4. Bitter cherry (Prunus emarginata)

5. Serviceberry (Amelanchier alnifolia)

6. Tomato ‘Russian Purple’ (Solanum lycopersicum)

7. Kinnikinnick (Arctostaphylos uva-ursi)