Edible juniper? (2024)

FAQs

Which juniper is edible? ›

The common juniper, Juniperus communis, is the variety most often used to make gin, medicines, and food dishes, as it is considered safe for human consumption. Other edible juniper berries include: Juniperus drupacea. Juniperus phoenicea.

When taken by mouth: Juniper, juniper berry, and juniper extract are LIKELY SAFE when consumed in amounts normally found in foods. But it is LIKELY UNSAFE to take more than 10 grams of juniper berries or more than 100 mg of juniper oil, or to take juniper for more than 4 weeks.

Yes, juniper berries are edible. In fact, you may have tasted them before without even knowing it if you drink alcoholic beverages. Juniper berries are what gives a gin martini its unique flavoring.

A juniper berry is the female seed cone produced by the various species of junipers. It is not a true berry but a cone with unusually fleshy and merged scales called a galbulus, which gives it a berry-like appearance.

It is also used for urinary tract infections (UTIs) and kidney and bladder stones. Other uses include treating snakebite, diabetes, and cancer. Some people apply juniper directly to the skin for wounds and for pain in joints and muscles. The essential oil of juniper is inhaled to treat bronchitis and numb pain.

These strong berries are often dried and used sparingly for cooking and home remedies. The intense taste of the juniper berry means eating it raw is not advised, but it can be used for a variety of things in the kitchen. Ripe berries can be used in a marinade or applied to meat before cooking.

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Juniper - Juniperus osteosperma and Juniperus scopulorum

A strong decoction of the cones was even used to kill ticks on horses. The bluish, berry-like cones containing one or two seeds were boiled and eaten, or dried and used to make a drink, or ground into meal and added to water for a drink or to make into cake.

Juniper is a powerful diuretic – a herb that increases the flow of urine, helping to cleanse the system of excess fluids and stimulating the kidneys. This causes the body to flush out uric acid and excess crystals that can cause many problems including gout, arthritis and kidney stones.

How to Prepare Juniper Berries. If you want a strong juniper aroma and flavor to your dish, crushing fresh berries before adding them to a sauce or marinade is the way to go. For a more subtle flavor, you can toast the berries, but be careful not to burn them or they'll taste bitter.

Should I crush juniper berries? ›

To get the best results, lightly crush juniper berries before adding to a dish to help release their flavour. Juniper is often used as a garnish for gin.

The first year, there will probably not be any visible berries yet. Year two, the berries are still green – not ready yet. By the end of year three, the surviving berries will have ripened and turned blue or purple in color – now they're ready for harvesting!

Side effects

Ingesting large amounts of juniper berries may irritate the renal tract and topical use may irritate the skin. The prolonged use of high doses may lead to convulsions and kidney damage.

Western juniper (Juniperus occidentalis) is found in central and eastern Oregon, and those berries are edible.

The juniper used most widely in gin production is Juniper communis, a small tree or shrub that can live for up to two hundred years. Juniper is typically sold either whole or as crushed or cut berries.

A helpful way to perfect juniper tree identification is by looking at its cones. Juniper cones on male trees are small and either yellow or tan. The female plants produce colorful berries, which are actually modified cones. Northwest species berries turn blue at maturity, but some species have red berries.

Also, leaves of common juniper are longer (up to ¾ inch) and needle-like, in contrast to western juniper's appressed short leaves (less than ¼ inch) (Hitchco*ck and Cronquist 1973). Rocky Mountain juniper more closely resembles western juniper, but its leaves are almost always in pairs.

The juniper berries used in food and drink usually come from the species Juniperus communis, which grows throughout the Northern Hemisphere, as far north as the Arctic.