June berry, Amelanchier
The fruit is edible raw or cooked. The fruit contains a few small seeds at the centre and it has a sweet flavour with a hint of apple. It can be eaten out of hand, used in pies, preserves etc or dried and used like raisins. We have found the fruit to be of variable quality, with some forms having a distinct bitterness in the flavour whilst others are sweet, juicy and delicious.
When the fruit is thoroughly cooked in puddings or pies the seed imparts an almond flavour to the food.
The fruit is rich in iron and copper. It is about 10mm in diameter.
A bath of the bark tea was used on children with worms.
The june berries available from hedging nurseries are not selected for fruit quality, but are a lot cheaper than the ones that are.Using selected species in the main planting and a few 'hedging' plants in the mixed hedge seems a good option to me. (Noor Bunnik)