My woods and many of the woods near me have abundant wild gooseberry bushes and mayapples. I've never eaten a wild gooseberry or mayapple. I very seldom go into the woods during the Summer. Usually, once the morel mushroom season is done, I don't go in the woods again until Fall hunting season starts.

Are wild gooseberries and mayapples good to eat or make stuff out of?

When are they ripe in Ohio?

Keith

Gooseberries are normally picked green and cooked with but can be picked fully ripe and eaten plain.they should be ready early summer. May apples a very good but have to be fully ripe.they can be hard to find ripe because allot of animals like them also. They usually rippen late summer.

They make good jelly, they are tart!, More of a European thing, my Bavarian Grandparents had gooseberries, rarely hear of them anymore. I believe they're red when ripe if I remember correctly. Can't help with mayapples,

gooseberry berry pie is simply wonderful. mayapples that are not ripe will make you sick

Mayapple or American mandrakes are related to the mandrakes Rachel desired that her sister Leah had obtained from Reuben. They was thought to enhance fertility. The story of Rachel and Leah was the beginning of the story of trading drugs for sex. I have heard of some dopers trying to justify dope using this scripture.

The roots have a likeness of a human and may be how the name mandrake came to be.

My grandpa became very ill eating a mayapple and I was always told not to eat them and never questioned it or puffer fish even tho I guess its all in the knowing what your doing and I don't, lol.

When I was a kid mayapple roots had a value of like 50 cents a pound. They are hard to dig and they are all connected together. I dug a lot and when dried they weighed hardly nothing. I found raising redwigglers was a little more profitable, lol.

My buddy's mom would make us gooseberry pie when we were teens. Of course we would have to sneak on her neighbors property and raid their gooseberries when they were at work.

Mayapples are good when ripe, just rarely find them when they are. Bite into an unripe one and you might as well drink straight vinegar.

I think ever critter in the woods eat the mayapples, good luck in find a red one. You have to cage them against all sorts of critters

Unless the apple is ripe, it and the entire plant is poisonous.

Thanks. I'll try to catch them when they are ripe.

Keith

I’ve never found a ripe mayapple, the critters eat them long before they reach that stage.

I remember eating mayapples as a kid with my dad. They were ripe and delicious. I keep an eye open for them but have not stumbled on any big ripe ones as an adult.

Mayapples need to be bright yellow to be ripe.
Yes I remember eating some as kids, but the deer population was almost nonexistent .
Goose berries are similar to currants , both make good jelly.
I've only seen a few wild ones.

I was always told that if you eat a mayapple one time, there will not be a second time.

As mentioned above, immature fruits as well as the vegetative structures of Mayapple are poisonous. As with many drugs, there is a fine line between poison and effective medicinal use. American Indians ate the ripe fruits and used a number of medicinal Mayapple preparations. The list of uses by American Indian include treatments for rheumatism, as a laxative as well as treatment for diarrhea, ulcers, sores, liver and bile problems, hemorrhoids, headaches, diuretic, whooping cough, cholera, pneumonia, problems of male and female reproductive tracts, as a purgative, and for anthelminthic (worming) purposes. Reportedly, individuals of some Indian tribes even used rhizomes of this plant to commit suicide.

In the 1800s and early 1900s, Mayapple extract was used as an active ingredient in Carter’s Little Liver Pills; today, it is used as an extract called “Podophyllin” to remove genital warts. Drugs derived from the rhizome are being used in Europe, and are being tested in this country to treat forms of cancer such as cancer of the testes, two forms of lung cancer, Kaposi sarcoma, and some forms of leukemia. It also has been used to treat syphilis. There is some evidence that American Indians used this plant also to treat forms of cancer such as ovarian and skin cancer. Modern research shows evidence of Mayapple extracts that inhibit cell division, thus blocking new growth of tumors.