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Herbs & Cultures

Haudenosaunee medicine →

Haudenosaunee strawberry juice

The sweet juice shared in the longhouses in June, when the first fruits are ripe.

Traditional use

Time
10 minutes
Makes
About 1.5 litres
Virginia strawberry

For the Haudenosaunee the strawberry is the leader of the berries, because it ripens first. At the Strawberry Ceremony the Creator is thanked and people drink strawberry juice together, sweetened with maple syrup. The recipe is simple: mashed strawberries, water and syrup.

Ingredients

  • 500 g wild or cultivated strawberries
  • 1 litre cold water
  • 2–4 tbsp maple syrup, to taste

Step by step

  1. Wash the strawberries and remove the stems.
  2. Mash them in a bowl with a fork or masher.
  3. Stir in the maple syrup, spoon everything into a jug and top up with the water.
  4. Stir well and serve cool; the pieces of fruit belong in it.

Tips

  • Wild strawberries give the most flavour. Leave the juice in the fridge for an hour so the colour goes into the water.

Registry

Herbs in this recipe

Read more about effects and safety on each herb’s page.

  • Caution

    North America · Food · № 937

    Virginia strawberry

    Fragaria virginiana

    A wild strawberry with small, very tasty fruits. Its cross with the Chilean strawberry gave rise to the garden strawberry in eighteenth-century Europe.

    Haudenosaunee medicine+1
  • Caution

    North America · Herb · № 188

    Maple

    Acer spp.

    Maple syrup is the boiled-down sap of the sugar maple. It consists mainly of sugar and some minerals, such as manganese; it is a sweetener, not a medicine.

    Indigenous healing traditions of North America+3Folklore

Cultures and traditions

Where the herbs come from

The herbs in this recipe also appear in these traditions.