Evans Ave. at Annette St.

Rowan (also known as Mountain Ash)

Left to right: Rowan the girl (6), Sandra (44), Rowan the tree (10), Al (47)

Location: Evans Ave. at Annette St.

The Rowan (or Mountain Ash) Tree is of interest to the urban forager for its berries. They are abundant and unless your neighbours are into canning you won’t have much human competition for them because they are bitter and not much fun to eat right off the tree. However they are great for jams, jellies and chutneys, and also a goldmine for those who may be interested in making wine from the free produce hanging over the city’s sidewalks. But why stop at wine? How about schnapps? Like all other berries you can even use it to flavour home made beer. The game with Rowan berries is either fermenting or sweetening it to overcome the natural tartness. Freezing the berries is also reported to help with this.

It is tempting perhaps to ask why would you eat berries that you had to go to pains to make enjoyable in the first place? The diversity of your diet is one reason. How many different types of berries did you consume in the last year? Probably not more than half a dozen. Besides, making choices like this leads you to make other interesting food choices. Preserves from tart berries like those from the Rowan Tree are delicious with gamey meats and strongly flavoured vegetable dishes. You may find you enjoy the more unusual main dish choices more frequently if you have interesting and unusual condiments to go with them. Especially if those condiments came from a tree in the park across the street from your house.

The leaves of this tree are distinctive, being compound (many to a set) with members of the set directly opposite each other, distinctly veined and conspicuously toothed:

Rowan Leaf

The bark is smooth and dark with longitudinal marks (meaning they go around the branch, not along it) that get longer as the tree ages:

Rowan Bark