Looks like a blueberry......

[Tom]

But it isn't


The flowers don't look like blueberry.

Put one of these berries in your mouth and it's like chewing a spoonful of Alum. The deer like'm though.

[DanG]

Sparkleberries, perhaps?  Don't put them in your mouth. They'll cause a slow agonizing death in a hundred years, or so.

[Tom]

Gall berries.   They make some of the best honey you ever put in your mouth.  Bees work miracles.

[SwampDonkey]

Tom:

What are the berries like in Jam or jelly?

Blue berry you say?

http://www.kurtknoll.com/nat7.html

hmmm, why are they red? They are vaccinium, but they taste like cranberry.

hmmm, so you think these are blue berries?

http://depts.washington.edu/propplnt/Plants/vaccinium_alaskaense.htm

no they are blue huckle berries, again they will remind you of cranberries.

now for some real blue berries

http://www.naturenorth.com/summer/fruits/bluebrry.html

We used to sit right down on a stump and hand pick those blue babies by the 5 gallon pales on old fire burns and clear cuts. They were especially thick on the bushes where they had some shade. mmm mmm they were hanging on the bushes like grapes.

 

[Tom]

Nope, it's not a blueberry, just looks kinda like one.  People food here is High bush Blueberry and Huckleberry.  Put a Gallberry in the basket and your pie will turn your mouth inside out.

It's a Gallberry.  Gallberry covers Florida and S. Georgia as thick as palmetto.  They account for the majority of understory fuel in our forest fires.
http://www.sfrc.ufl.edu/4h/Gallberry/gallberr.htm
http://www.floridata.com/ref/I/ilex_gla.cfm

A Adobe PDF describes the honey
http://www.nhb.org/download/factsht/sensory.pdf

There are many plants of the holly family that live in the understory here in Florida.
http://www.dep.state.fl.us/water/wetlands/delineation/featuredplants/ilex.htm

Are you interested in Honey?  Honey is a prime product of Florida because of the Orange groves but here are other plants that provide nector for Florida's excellant honey crop.  Many with independant seasons which allows for Species-pure honey.
http://www.uog.edu/cals/PEOPLE/Pubs/AA08800.PDF

[SwampDonkey]

ok Illex, I seen a red variety around Bangor , Maine along I95. I have a cousin that uses the red kind to make Christmas* decorations, it grows out along the coast in Truro , NS area. Ilex amelanchier
In fact, amelanchier species are called service berries, but that is their genus name, not latin species name as above. Amelanchier (not Ilex species) are edible, but kind of tasteless like bunch berry (Cornus canadensis).

I believe my cousin used to get bee's from Florida breeders. He used to put his pasturizer and collection tank in his mother's living room. There would be the odd bee in there all the time. I could never figure out how he convinced her to put that in her house when his father worked to move a building that was to be used for his honey business. The house that got moved for his business is now so full of junk I doubt you could get the door open. It never did get used, it was cheaper to mess up his mother's living room. His wife never would allow it in his home, cause she was allergic to a fart.

Yeah, I eat honey every day when I'm at home. Put it on my cereal. $5.49 a Kg (2.2 lbs) . I don't know of anyone with bees locally now, but I always see honey bees on apple blossums and squash blossums in the garden. No, they're not bumble bees either. Grand father said there were always wild honey bees here, he would find a hive once in awhile along the river in an hollow old log or stump. I never did. How far away do these bees fly for nectar. hmmm I think possibly they may be coming from Smith's in East Blaine, Maine. I seem to remember them having hives years ago. They used to be at the end of one our fields on the border line.

[etat]

Well I'll 'bee'.! I've heard of old timers 'lining bees' to find the hive.  Seems if you can find where they are feeding you can follow them.  'Straight as a Beeline .  They find a good place to eat and they tell their friends and everybody flies straight from there to the nest.  You start following em back and when you lose sight just sit down watch close and follow the next one, etc.  They'll all be following the same flight plan and sooner or later they'd find where they were nesting.  I think you can also bait them with sweets and steadly work your way back to their nest.  I have NO idea how far that's bee!!!!!

[Tom]

Bee's collect nector from about 3 miles around their hive.  When you move a hive, it is recommended that you move it at least 3 miles or the bees will return to the old site.

We have lost most of our wild European bees to foul brood, mites, wax moths and now beetles.  A swarm that takes up in a tree will not usually last the season.  The woods used to be alive with  bees, but no more.  The 'hobby' bee keepers are losing them too.  I quit keeping about 6 years ago when I lost my hives. I think the mosquito control got them with aerial spraying.  This year, two of my "old-timer" friends lost over 80% of their hives.  The local bee keeping association is down to just a handful of keepers and they average only 3 or 4 hives each.

I made sure that I kept plenty of honey when I decided not to keep bees any more. (one day I will, it's habit forming)   I've probably got 20 gallons stashed away still.  My wife, bless her good hearted soul, keeps giving it away.  I'm trying to hide it.

[SwampDonkey]

Tom:

How do you keep it from crystalizing? Just put a good canner seal on it? In my cupboard, if I don't get through my 1 kg jar in 4 or 5 weeks its starts crystalizing from the bottom. I know you can boil it inside a sauce pan with water to melt the crystals again.

[Tom]

Crystalization is a normal thing.  Cooler temperatures speed up the process.  Most of my honey has crystalized and I put it in hot water to liquify it again.. (100-110 degrees)

I found this web page that echos what I learned.  
http://beekeeper.topcities.com/articles/honeystorage.html

By Golly, They are in New Brunswick too.

[Furby]

Well I was going to follow ck's wisdom, until Tom spoke up, that is.  :-/ I get honey bees in my yard all the time, and that fresh honey sure does sound good.   But really, 3 MILES  Well it might bee worth it, hmmmm........................

[SwampDonkey]

Honey is just as precious as maple syrop in these parts. Although, I never buy maple syrup because I'de never get it used up. It doesn't keep at room temp once the seal is broken as honey does. And it will spoil. Honey is alot cheaper and better for ya.

[SwampDonkey]

mmmm mmmm mmmm I found the mother load today in the bush

I found a nice little patch of winter green berries. They taste like peppermints without the high sugar content.

read this link and learn
http://www.arthurleej.com/p-o-m-jan04.html

[Jeff]

Ya know what else winter green is really good for?

[Tom]

I believe I'd like that.

When I was a little younger, back in the 50's, we used to chew the tender green ends of the twigs of the trees in Ridgecrest North Carolina.  The bark was refreshing and reminded me of spearmint gum.  I think these were Birch but they may have been Beech.  I knew once only because I'd been told but haven't had the opportunity to experience them again in my adult life.  If I saw one, I think I'd recognize it though.

[Jeff]

Ya know what else winter green is really good for?

[SwampDonkey]

Tom:

They was yellew birch, I have taught school kids how to id it by taste. And one young feller's pa thought he could trip me up on the id and the taste of the twig tip, synched the deal.

Ok, ok....Jeff.......ermmm I had to start a smudge in the furnace tonight......and its suppose to be in the mid 70's tommorrow. Crazy weather.

Ok, what else in wintergreen good for?.......hmmm....you did read the web link right? So, I won't use those ideas.......hmmmm did the natives use it in venison?......nope I gives up.

[Chet]

I've heard of it being used for arthritis, rheumatism, sciatica, and sore muscles.

[Jeff]

RUST REAPER!

Thats what makes it so special. Other then the fact that its better then anything out there in my book.

[SwampDonkey]

Ah ha!!....so that's why I regained my second wind after lunch today. Eatin them winter green berries. Remember I did ask if the Reaper would make a good linoment on aching feet. hehehe

cheers