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American linden · American plum · Apple · Arrowwood viburnum · Autumn-olive · Black chokeberry · Blackberry · Blueberry · Broadleaf arrowhead · Burdock · Crabapple · Curly dock · Eastern white pine · Goldenrod · Guelder-rose · Hopniss · Horsetail · Maple · Milkweed · Mullein · Nannyberry · Northern bayberry · Oak · Paper birch · Spruce · Staghorn sumac · Stinging nettle · Strawberry · Wild ginger · Witch-hazel · elderberry
📍 PQ54+3C Falmouth, ME, USA
🗓 Season: June · July · August · September · October · November · March · April · May
🔍 When is it ripe?
American linden: Fragrant white-yellow flowers in June–July. Harvest when open for linden tea. Very fragrant; also used for honey production.
American plum: Red to yellow, about 2 cm across. Tart-sweet when ripe; flesh softens and the fruit falls readily. Good raw or cooked. Watch for early drop — often ready by mid-August.
Apple: Background colour changes from green to yellow or cream (variety determines final colour). Seeds inside should be brown. Flesh yields slightly to thumb pressure. A ripe apple releases with a gentle upward twist — no pulling. Check the ground for natural drops.
Autumn-olive: Small, silvery-speckled red berries in clusters. Ripe when deep red and slightly soft; tart-sweet flavour. Very high in lycopene. Good for jam; note this is an invasive species in North America.
Blackberry: Fully black (not red or dark red) and comes off the stem with no resistance — zero pull. Dull rather than shiny; a shiny black berry is still slightly underripe and tart. Eat the same day for best flavour.
Blueberry: Deep blue-purple with a silvery bloom; stem scar (not stem) at the top. Taste is the best test — a truly ripe blueberry is sweet and has no pink flesh inside. Let the cluster go fully blue before picking the whole thing.
Crabapple: Small apples ripen from green to red, yellow, or orange by variety. Very tart raw but excellent for jelly and cider. Ripe when the colour is fully developed and the fruit lifts off with a gentle twist.
Guelder-rose: Clusters of translucent red berries. Mildly toxic raw — can cause nausea. Must be cooked for jelly or juice. Ripe when glossy red and slightly translucent.
Staghorn sumac: Deep red, fuzzy, cone-shaped seed clusters. Ripe in August–September. Soak clusters in cold water for 20–30 minutes, strain, and sweeten for pink 'sumac lemonade'. Very high in vitamin C. Do not confuse with white-berried poison sumac (wetlands, white berries = avoid).
Stinging nettle: Harvest only the top 4–6 young leaves in spring before flowering. Use gloves — sting disappears completely on cooking. Blanch, steam, or make into soup. Do not eat once plant flowers (gets gritty). Highly nutritious — rich in iron and vitamins.
Strawberry: Uniformly red with no white or green at the tip or shoulder. Strong strawberry fragrance even from a distance. Cap leaves (calyx) are fresh and green. Completely red flesh inside when cut. Wild strawberries are smaller but more intensely flavoured.
elderberry: Dark blue-black clusters when ripe. Cook thoroughly before eating — raw berries are mildly toxic. Ripe when all berries are dark and clusters hang downward.
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