Although Halloween has gone by for another year, the mountain ash with its orange berries and green leaves certainly wears distinctively Halloween colours.

Right now, there are many of these fully loaded trees here in the Okanagan; I hope that doesn’t mean that we’re going to experience a difficult winter as I just came through one! Snow at the end of May, anyone? No thank you.

Mountain ash berries have for many years been used as a treatment for diabetes, gout and heart disease, but there hasn’t been enough research completed to indicate just how effective they might be for combatting these conditions. They are also very rich in vitamin C.

One thing is certain though, consuming uncooked mountain ash berries will cause issues. They won’t kill you, but you will experience very significant tummy troubles such as intense pain, vomiting, diarrhea and bloating.

So if you’re interested in trying them, be sure to stew them, turn them into a jam, or juice them after they have been cooked. When I took survival training in the army, we were very specifically warned not to eat raw mountain ash berries.

Happy Tuesday. 🙂