“Such is the force of the cervise tree, to raise up, renew, and revive a qualified and appeased madness.” (1600 Richard Surflet, Country Farm)

The Baltimore Urban Forager

Considering that I had never heard of this plant before I came to Baltimore, I was surprised to learn that it is a northeastern American native species and that the plant — whose tasty red berries are ripe now – can be found all over town.

Attempting to appease my “madness” to learn still more about Amelanchier canadensis, I discovered that it only became naturalized in Europe during the 17th century, which is when Europeans like Surflet started writing about the plant’s curative, culinary, and even magical properties.

Something else odd about the species is how many names it has: serviceberry, sarvisberry, saskatoon, shadbush, shadblow, shadwood, and juneberry.

So, what’s up with these odd names? Service or sarvis appears to have come from the similarity of the fruit to the European Sorbus or mountain ash.

In American folklore, however, the flowering of the tree in early spring signaled for early pioneers when the ground was thawed enough to bury and have a “service” for those who had died over the winter. Well, that’s one way to remember the name!

I offer a third hypothesis. The tree produces reddish berries that hang from a thin stem similar to a cherry, in French “cerise,” which to me sounds very close to “servise,” with or without the French accent. But what do I know. This hypothesis is not in Wikipedia, however–at least, not yet.

Saskatoon comes from a Cree Indian term and is also a city in Saskatchewan, Canada, named after these trees.

The shad variations all make sense when you imagine fishing when the shad-fish are spanning and the service trees are in full bloom along the river’s edge. (Actually Heather Dewar wrote about this part of the plant’s backstory last year.)

What about the name “juneberry?” Well that’s a natural because the fruit ripens in June — right now in fact, along many of the green spaces, medians, and now thanks to the new Tree Baltimore program, in many Baltimoreans’ gardens. In fact, of the 1,000 trees Tree Baltimore gave away this past spring, 250 were serviceberry trees.

This is how I first learned about them when I selected one—along with a witch hazel tree and willow oak—three years ago when the program first began. The “edible” berry description naturally attracted my attention.

Anne Draddy, the current director of Tree Baltimore, informed me that this spring she started a fruit tree pilot program as part of her larger vision for Agroforestry in Baltimore.
Persimmon, pawpaw and pear were added to the mix planted at the Cylburn Arboretum—where I picked up my serviceberry—and also given to the Real Food Farm in Clifton Park, the Southwest Samaritan Women’s Center and the Hamilton Crop Circle.

You too can also be added to the list for next spring or fall (treebaltimore@baltimorecity.gov). They will also bring trees to your community or neighborhood event. Anne welcomes your recommendations too. She just has to be able to get them in 1-gallon pots.

And she prefers native species, like the service tree. I, for one, would like to see more American persimmon trees.They are similar in shape to the Asian persimmon but in size more like an apricot, and just as delicious. There is one I know about on the Hopkins Homewood campus that fruits abundantly in the late fall. And they are a native species, Anne!

My second choice would be the fruiting dogwood tree, or “Cornelian cherry” tree; not native, but as the orchard on the Hopkins campus proves, very hardy and productive here.

But so far the serviceberry has caught on, Anne says, because it is native, it flowers profusely in the spring, it produces edible fruit in the summer, and it’s the perfect under canopy tree for the small yards of Baltimore’s rowhouses. People,she said, just “gobble them up!”

So, apparently, do the bears in the Adirondacks where Anne has seen the delicate serviceberry trees broken under their weight and completely stripped of berries. But judging from the “barely” picked specimens in my neighborhood, not even the local wildlife have caught on to their charms.

I’ve been picking them daily—they’re great on yogurt, salad, or simply popped in the mouth. They have a slight almond taste due to the tiny seeds.

I am offering two recipes: one very simple way to spruce up a summer salad and one rather complex Juneberry-Almond cookie recipe that required even me, who has a gluten-free larder full of funky non-wheat flours, to do some serious food shopping.

Serviceberry-Strawberry-Candied Pecans-Goat Cheese Salad
Mixed greens
Sliced strawberries
Serviceberries (I also added blueberries for the contrast)
Goat or Gorgonzola crumbled cheese
Candied pecans
(Cook about a ¼ cup sugar in a small cast iron pan, just when the sugar starts to melt add the pecans, quickly mix as it caramelizes
and turn off the heat before the sugar burns. Let it cool in the cast iron pan, chop up a bit, and sprinkle on the salad)

Juneberry-Almond Cookies

I got this off the web, from wildmanstevebrill.com and just had to try them, even though I am not really the crunchy granola type, mostly because of the new flours

I had never used before. I put an * on all the ingredients I had to purchase for this recipe.

I chose the gluten-free and vegan approach, but honestly I think that it could have used an egg to make it less dry and
To hold the ingredients together.

DRY INGREDIENTS
7 oz. oat flour* (1 ½ cup) + 7 oz. sweet brown rice flour* (1 cup), or 14 oz. any whole-grain flour
2 cups ground almonds or almond flour (I love baking cakes with nut flours so had this on hand)
1/4 cup arrowroot or kudzu (Had arrowroot but not kudzu and did not purchase it)
1/4 cup lecithin granules* (Found in the health foods vitamin supplement section)
3 tbs. flaxseeds, ground (I had this, but it can be found among the alternative flours)
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. cream of tartar
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. nutmeg, ground
1/4 tsp. cardamon, ground

WET INGREDIENTS
1 cup apple juice*
1/4 cup corn oil
1/4 cup almond oil* (I had macademia nut oil but not almond—good stuff)
2 tsp. vanilla
1 tsp. almond extract* (should have had this in stock but had run out)
2 tsp. liquid stevia or 2 tbs. honey, barley malt, or rice syrup (I had honey so did not get stevia)

OTHER INGREDIENTS
2 cups juneberries or blueberries
2 tsp. freshly-grated lemon rind

– Marta Hanson