Edible Plant Species

Shepherdia argentea Nutt. Elaeagnaceae. BUFFALO BERRY.
Western plains of the United States.
This plant is somewhat cultivated for ornament. Catlin speaks of it in its native region as producing its fruit in incredible quantities, hanging in clusters to every limb and to every twig, about the size of ordinary currants and not unlike them in color and even in flavor, being exceedingly acid and almost unpalatable until they are bitten by the frosts of autumn, when they are sweetened and their flavor becomes delicious. They are dried by the Indians as winter food.

S. canadensis Nutt.
Vermont and Wisconsin northward to beyond the Arctic circle and very common on the Mackenzie. Its small, red, juicy, very bitter and slightly acid berry is useful; says Richardson, for making an extempore beer, which ferments in twenty-four hours and is an agreeable beverage in hot weather. Gray calls the fruit insipid.