Welcome to the summary page for FabulousFusionFood's Wild Food guide to Wild Service Berries along with all the Wild Service Berries containing recipes presented on this site, with 7 recipes in total.

This is a continuation of an entire series of pages that will, I hope, allow my visitors to better navigate this site. As well as displaying recipes by name, country and region of origin I am now planning a whole series of pages where recipes can be located by meal type and main ingredient. This page gives a listing of all the Cornish recipes added to this site.

These recipes, all contain Wild Service Berries as a major wild food ingredient.

Wild Service Tree, Sorbus torminalis, (also known as Torminalis clusii, Chequer Tree, Chequers Tree, Checker Tree, Sorb, Griping Tree and Checkers Tree) is a medium-sized, domed deciduous tree belonging to the Rosaceae (rose) family of flowering plants. It is native to Europe, North Africa and Asia Minor with a native habitat that extends from England and Wales to Denmark and Poland, south to northwest Africa, and southeast to southwest Asia from Asia Minor to the Caucasus and Alborz mountains. The tree is hardy and typically grows to 20m by 8m in size (with a trunk up to 1.3m in diameter). The plant prefers chalky soils, but can grow in almost any soil type, but requires good drainage. The bark is smooth and greyish, but flaky, peeling away in squarish plates to reveal darker brown layers. The leaves are 6–14 cm long and broad with a 2.5–5 cm petiole, dark green on both sides, with five to nine acute lobes; the basal pair of lobes are spreading, the rest more forward-pointing and decreasing in size to the leaf apex, and with finely toothed margins; the undersides have small hairs when young, but both sides are smooth and shiny when older; the autumn colour is yellow to red-brown. The flowers are 10–15 mm diameter, with five white petals and 20 creamy-white stamens; they are produced in corymbs 5–12 cm diameter from May to June, and are hermaphrodite and insect pollinated. The fruit is a globose to ovoid pome 10–15 mm diameter, greenish to russet or brown, patterned with small pale lenticel spots when mature from September to November. The image shown hear depicts a mature wild service tree, along with wild service flowers and ripe wild service fruit (berries).

It is relatively rare and in Britain is now usually confined to pockets of ancient woodland, although it can also be found growing in hedgerows. It can often be found associated with oak and ash woods, preferring clay and lime based soils. In Britain, summer temperatures are often too low for the seeds to ripen, so its principal method of propagation is by suckers. It should also be noted that the seeds probably contain hydrogen cyanide. However, unless the seed is very bitter it's likely that the fruit is perfectly safe to consume and cooking will drive off the volatile hydrogen cyanide. The seeds are also discarded when making wine or fruit-infused spirits from service berries. The fruit is usually bletted if it is going to be eaten raw. This involves storing the fruit in a cool dry place until it is almost but not quite going rotten. At this stage the fruit's distinctive tartness has diminished and it has a delicious taste; somewhat reminiscent of a flavoursome tropical fruit. It is at this stage that the fruit is best for making fruit liqueurs. The fruit can also be dried and ground and makes an excellent flavouring for cereals. It used to be a bread adulterant in France, especially in times of drought.

During Medieval and Tudor times it was frequently gathered as a winter fruit, but has become rare subsequently. Few people know that the fruit are edible, so even where the tree is found (typically in ancient woodlands and old hedgerows) the fruit are seldom collected by foragers. This mans that anyone foraging in late October, particularly if there have been frosts, will find the fruit naturally bletted and they will be sweet and delicious straight from the tree.

References:

[1]. David Evans Notes from field observations, tastings and cookery experiments.
[2]. Huxley, A. The New RHS Dictionary of Gardening. 1992
[3]. Tanaka, T. Tanaka's Cyclopaedia of Edible Plants of the World.
[4]. Lim T.K. Edible Medicinal And Non-Medicinal Plants, Vols 1–8.
[5]. Thomas, G. S. Perennial Garden Plants
[6]. Milner, E. Trees of Britain and Ireland
[7]. Rose, F. & O'Reilly, C. The Wild Flower Key (Revised Edition) – How to identify wild plants, trees and shrubs in Britain and Ireland
[8]. Streeter, D. & Garrard, I. The Wild Flowers of the British Isles
[9]. Clapham, A.R.; Tutin, T.G. & Moore, D.M. Flora of the British Isles
[10]. Phillips, R. Mushrooms
[10]. Phillips, R. Mushrooms
[11]. Jordan, P. & Wheeler, S. The Complete Book of Mushrooms: An Illustrated Encyclopedia of Edible Mushrooms
[12]. Bunker, F.; Brodie, J.A.; Maggs, C.A. & Bunker, A. Seaweeds of Britain and Ireland.
[13]. Facciola, S. Cornucopia — A Source Book of Edible Plants