Goumis, Shrubs, & Kitchen Wizardry
How to use tangy fruit with a silly name!
Sweet & sour sparkling red gems are peeking out from under the leaves of the goumi, and have us dreaming of kitchen concoctions! Today we talk about a Goumi - one of our favorite early berries, and experiment with some beverage recipes.
Shrub:
A woody plant thats is smaller than a tree with several main stems arising from or near the ground.
Also A Shrub:
In days before refrigeration, the making of shrub syrups was a popular way to preserve fruit long past harvest. A shrub as it applies to beverages, is typically a non-alcoholic fruit syrup (or drinking vinegar) used as a mixer in soda water or cocktails that is made from concentrated fruit, yummy smelling plants or spices, sweetener if you choose, and vinegar.
There is almost no limit to the number of different fruits that can be used in the making of a shrub, but traditionally, a good shrub is said to be both sweet & tart. Our favorites are those on the tart end of the spectrum that may be otherwise not as widely palatable for fresh eating.
GOUMI (aka GUMI) BERRY
(Elaeagnus multiflora)
Ever on the hunt for fruiting perennials that don’t require constant fiddling or worry ~ Goumi fits the bill due to it’s relative ease of growing, prolific fruiting, and general pest resistance (aside from a bit of sharing with the birds that is!)
A close and more well behaved relative to autumn olive, the Goumi Berry can be an excellent non-invasive alternative to your garden or orchard. In comparison to other plants in the Elaeagnus family, Goumi Berry has not shown to spread or seed to wild areas and is considered a safe non-native edible fruiting plant with great potential.
As well as being a nitrogen fixer, Goumi is considered to be a good “companion plant” for orchard intercropping and can be planted in partial shade just outside a fruit tree's drip line. It is a reliable, often heavy cropping producer, cold hardy, fairly drought resistant, unbothered by pests, and is a strong insectary plant.
Most volunteers who taste Goumi here in the orcahrd, say it has a unique tart-sweet flavor with a chewy center seed and is unlike any other berry they have tried.
While the flavor profile of Goumi is in fact unique - it’s tangy nature and the texture of it’s soft chewy seed center is not for everyone, so it often makes its way into slightly sweetened juices, mead, drinking vinegar, and shrubs.
In this author’s household, these sparkling little berries rarely make it past the fresh eating stage, but for those of you with more self control, here are some yummy recipes submitted by one of our volunteers. She has included Cornelian Cherries as well, because these tart little beauties are often ripe around the same time and certainly require a little sweetening to please the pallette. Perfect for the making of a shrub syrup.
Goumi Vinegar
Makes about two cups
1 cup apple cider vinegar
1 cup sugar
1 cup goumi berries
1 teaspoon fresh thyme
Combine vinegar and sugar in a pan and cook over medium heat until sugar is dissolved. Add berries and thyme, simmer for five minutes. Remove from heat. Pour mixture through a fine sieve or cheesecloth, pressing fruit to release juices. Transfer to a glass jar and refrigerate for 3-4 days. Keeps in the refrigerator for six months.
Goumi Shrub Spritzer
1 ounce Goumi Vinegar
4 ounces Pinot Grigio
Non-Alcohol Substitution:
4 oz Grape Juice or 3oz Pomegranate juice mixed with 1oz apple cider vinegar
4 ounces club soda
Pour over ingredients over ice, stir,and garnish with lemon wedge and fresh thyme. For an alcohol free mocktail, substitute wine with 2 ounces grape or apple juice, tablespoon of lemon juice, and more club soda.
Cornelian Cherry Vinegar
Makes about two cups
1 cup balsamic vinegar
½ cup brown sugar
1 cup Cornelian cherries
1 teaspoon fresh ginger, minced
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 tablespoon lime juice
Combine vinegar and sugar in a pan and cook over medium heat until sugar is dissolved. Add cherries, ginger, pepper, and lime juice, then simmer for five minutes. Remove from heat. Pour mixture through a fine sieve or cheesecloth, pressing fruit to release juices. Transfer to a glass jar and refrigerate for 3-4 days. Keeps in the refrigerator for six months.
Oregon City Mule
1 ounce Cornelian Cherry Vinegar
1 ounce vodka
Non-Alcohol Substitutions:
2 tablespoons of apple cider or white grape juice mixed with lime juice.
1 teaspoon lime juice
6 ounces ginger beer (or equivalent)
Pour ingredients over ice, stir, and garnish with lime wedge. For an alcohol mocktail, substitute vodka with 2 ounces grape or apple juice, tablespoon of lime juice, and more ginger beer.
We hope you’ll join us in the Home Orchard Education Center Arboretum this year to learn and grow with us as we continue to celebrate the many unique fruits of the Orchard!