Juniper Cones

I was hiking in the mountains above Kernville, California this fall and I came across a juniper tree loaded with cones. In fact, that one tree had more cones than I had ever seen in my life. A juniper is a small conifer, or evergreen, tree. When I hear people talk about conifer trees, they mostly call them “pine” trees—although pine trees are actually only a subset of conifer trees—and they usually call conifer seed pods “pine cones.” Thus, people often say that there are “pine cones” laying all over the forest floor even if the cones actually come from fir trees or spruce trees. In any case, the curious thing about juniper cones is that they are small, blue, and waxy. They look like berries. So, people never call them “pine cones.” Instead, they are commonly called “juniper berries.” Which, of course, is only half right because they are not berries at all.

Even more curious than their appearance is the fact that juniper cones (or berries) are used to flavor food. They are, according to the FAO, the only spice extracted from conifers anywhere in the world. Most famously, however, juniper berries are used to make gin. So, when I saw this tree burdened with a load of small blue cones, I began to dream of bottles of Tanqueray stacked to the ceiling.

Before filling my pockets with ingredients for the liquor cabinet, however, I decided to go home and look for a gin recipe that would give me some idea of how many berries I’d need to pick. So, I surfed the web for a while and found a very interesting gin-making discussion hosted by Jeffrey Morgenthaler. I also discovered, alas, that not every species of juniper provides edible berries. Wikipedia lists just six edible species (of more than 35) and includes just one from western North America—the Juniperus californica. I’m sorry to say that I don’t know the species of the juniper I saw last fall, though I suspect that it was a western juniper (or Juniperus occidentalis), and I would be hesitant to eat from it since some juniper berries can be toxic. But, I did learn that the place for premium juniper berries—the ones used for gin—is northern Italy, not North America. As a result, my search will now mature from the woodlands to the upscale supermarkets. (Do we have those in rural southern Utah?)