“That’s a native plant to Florida”, Chuck the arborist told me pointing to the scraggly bush in my new backyard I had almost pulled up a few days prior. He continued, “they will produce a bright purple berry”. After hearing “native” and “purple”, I was sold! So, I trimmed it back the way he had advised and waited for the unseemly bunch of sticks poking out of the ground to turn into a vibrant green bush with ripe purple berries. I learned that these are called beautyberries and it’s easy to see how they got their name. Turns out they are edible too!
Types of Beautyberries
There are apparently two kinds of beautyberries: American, which turn a deep rich purple color and Japanese, which are white. American beautyberries are grown in the southeast corner of the continental US, from Florida up to as north as Virginia and as east as Texas.
According to various online sources beautyberries can be eaten if you ever find yourself in a do or die situation, but they don’t taste very good. I decided to try for myself. While walking in some of the local parks, I came across ripe beautyberries and I actually found them quite tasty, totally disagreeing with online opinions. If you are expecting a sweet berry flavor, then you will be disappointed, but I found them to have a savory peppery taste.
When are they ripe?
Beautyberries are ripe when they turn a dark purple. The beautyberries in my back yard are ripe from mid to late August through September. Often, there are batches of ripe ones on the tree at the same time there are unripened ones. Instead of waiting for that magical day when all the berries are ripe at the same exact time, simply notice and harvest the ones that are ripe and wait for the others.
To harvest ripe beautyberries, I placed a bowl under a branch and began pulling them off, careful not to squish them too hard. By putting the bowl underneath, you’ll be able to catch those that fall.
Beautyberry Recipes
I found some recipes online for beautyberries, veganizing them where needed. I had no idea how versatile this little berry could be!
Beautyberry Jelly
To me, parts of the Sure Jell pectin recipe were confusing since I don’t have a lot of experience with canning. I found myself having to look up how much headspace to use (1/4 inch) and how long to place the jars in the canner (5 mins). The liquid did not jell well at all using the measurements from the recipe, so I recommend either lowering the amount of cups of juice you use or raising the amount of Sure Jell in order to achieve actual beautyberry jelly. However, I was left instead with a really delicious sweet sauce that was excellent poured over ice-cream, on pancakes or in unsweetened vegan yoghurt.
I was also surprised that so much liquid would be left over (unless you have an extra pack of pectin on hand). Having about 4-5 cups of beautyberry liquid leftover started me thinking about other uses for it, which inspired me to simply drink it as tea. You can add lemon and/or sugar to taste.
Beautyberry Hibiscus Lemonade
Another idea I had was to try making a lemonade out of the leftover liquid. Already a big fan of hibiscus lemonade, I decided to see what would happen if I added beautyberries to the mix and I came up with the recipe below:
Hisbiscus, also a native Florida plant, with its soft subtle flavor, is the antithesis of the fiery spiciness of the beautyberry. Add a bit of freshly squeezed lemon juice and sugar to the mix and we have ourselves a refreshing drink to enjoy in the hot humid August weather.
Ingredients to make 3 liters:
12 cups beautyberry juice
1 cup dried hibiscus
freshly squeezed juice of 2 lemons
1.5 cups sugar (or to taste)
Directions: Place sugar in a mug and add just enough boiling water to cover the sugar and stir a few times until the sugar is dissolved. Add the sugary water and all the other ingredients to a 3 liter container, leaving space at the top for the dried hibiscus leaves. Stir and chill in the refrigerator for several house or over night. You can remove the hibiscus leaves before serving. Pour over ice or simply enjoy in a glass, as you wish!
Beautyberry Bread Loaf
This recipe for was adapted from a book called Florida’s Edible Wild Plants: A Guide to Collecting and Cooking by Peggy Sias Lanz. The recipe was listed as a beautyberry pie, but I found it more like a bread loaf so I named it as such. While the original ingredients list included eggs and honey, I have veganized it by substituting Just Egg and agave nectar, although you could probably also use maple syrup.
Ingredients
1.5 cups unbleached or whole wheat flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons baking powder
1.2 cup wheat germ
1 tablespoon freshly ground ginger root
6 tablespoons Just Egg
1/3 cup canola oil
1/4 cup molasses
1/2 cup agave nectar
3/4 cup hot water
1 cup beautyberries
Instructions: Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Mix together flour, salt, baking soda and baking powder. Then stir in wheat germ and ginger root. In a separate bowl mix together Just Eggs, canola oil, molasses, agave nectar and hot water. Then stir the liquid ingredients in with the dry ingredients and fold in the beautyberries. Grease and flour a loaf or tube pan and pour in the batter. Bake for 30-45 minutes or until the cake tests done.
Beautyberry Jello Shooters
I came across a recipe from Loving It Vegan, a vegan blog by Alison Andrews, that makes jello shooters with grape juice as the main ingredient. I think it would work well just to substitute it for beautyberries.
- 1 cup (240ml) beautyberry juice (100% fruit juice)
- 1/4 cup (50g) Sugar
- 1 tsp Agar Agar Powder (not flakes)
- 1 cup (240ml) Vodka
Beautyberry Chutney
While I found an Indian recipe for blackcurrant chutney that I thought could be substituted with beautyberries, the recipe called for dried blackcurrants and I think going through the trouble of first dehydrating your recently harvested beautyberries for the sole purpose of rehydrating them, makes no sense. So, I furthered my search and ended up looking at a blackcurrant chutney recipe from Bealtaine Collage in Ireland of all places.
Here are the adjusted ingredients to this recipe that promises uniqueness, deliciousness and impossible to compare:
1 lb beautyberries
1 lb moist brown sugar
1/4 lb chopped seedless raisins
1 oz crushed mustard seeds
1 oz chopped onion
1/2 oz ground ginger
1 heaped teaspoon salt
1/2 pint distilled white vinegar
Instructions: Cover the currants with the vinegar, and cook them gently until they are tender.
Let them cool, then mix in all the other ingredients.
Stir well together, boil up for about ten minutes, and bottle and cover tightly when cold.
If you have any beautyberry recipes to share, please do so in the comments section. If you have tried any of these recipes and care to give feedback and/or advise for others, please leave a comment as well.
Vegan Vixen Ventures 