Pictures of the British countryside are replete with hedgerows. They grow along country roads, between houses and throughout wooded areas. The hedgerow fruits that appear in the summer and autumn months are a ready food source for small wildlife and birds, but they also can be tasty additions to human diets. Pick your own hedgerow fruits to eat fresh, on cereal or ice cream or preserved in jams and jellies.
Step 1
Look at the color of the hedgerow fruit to help identify it. Common hedgerow plums, such as damson and sloe plums, are dark purple or purplish-red in color. Cherries and cherry plums are typically bright red, while crab apples are usually a blend of red and yellow. Black currants and elderberries are almost pure black as are wild blackberries. Raspberries look a great deal like blackberries in terms of size and shape but are dark pink in color.
Step 2
Examine the size and shape of the fruits. Elderberries and black currants are small, round, smooth berries that grow in tight clusters. Crab apples and some cherries typically grow on longish stems as individual fruits, though some cherries may grow in clusters of two or three attached at the top of their stems. Hedgerow plum varieties usually appear in loose clumps of three to four oval fruits on short stems.
Step 3
Touch or squeeze the hedgerow fruits to determine their firmness and texture. Ripe crab apples and some cherries have a smooth skin, will be very hard to the touch and contain a single large stone, or pit, in their centers. Damson and sloe plums also contain a single pit and have smooth skins, but they are fleshier and softer than the apples and cherries. Elderberries are small, very smooth and firm and may have small thorns along their branches. Raspberries and blackberries are easily crushed under pressure; their small, round, clumped fruits have a rougher surface and small fiber-like growths.
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