TOYON BERRIES: a traditional native food which matures in winter
Christopher Nyerges
[Nyerges is the author of “Nuts and Berries of California,” “Foraging California,” and other books. He leads ethno-botanical walks. For more information, contact him at Box 41834, Eagle Rock, CA 90041, or www.SchoolofSelf-Reliance.com.]
Toyon is a relatively common tree in the hills around the San Gabriel and San Fernando Valleys, and in the Angeles National Forest to the north. It’s found throughout the California chaparral regions. The leaves have small serrations on their edges, and are a bit leathery in texture. The fruits mature in winter, which makes them very unusual, and made them highly prized the native communities who ate the berries. After all, there are no other wild fruits that do their producing in winter. Today, folks can go to the grocery store whenever they want, but if you lived here 500 or more years ago in the pre-Mission era, “store” was a verb, not a noun. And if you ran low on supplies in winter, you could go into the hills and collect some food. Toyon was probably a life-saver!
There are many ways in which Native Americans ate the toyon berries in the past, and there are many modern methods of use.
Today, when native peoples collect the toyon fruits in winter, they begin by removing all the stems and washing the fruits. Even if they appear clean, the fruits have nearly always accumulated a lot of dirt. 
Typically, you do not eat raw toyon berries because they are astringent and the flesh is mealy. They are improved by cooking or drying.
Though the exact details of how toyon berries were eaten in the past are somewhat speculative, or passed down word of mouth, there are people today who still process the berries for food. Rick Adams, whose wife is Dry Creek Pomo, processes the fruits by putting them in a pot, covering with water, and bringing to a boil. He lets them boil for just a few minutes, until they have plumped up just a bit. Then he rinses them in fresh water. This process removes the astringency of the raw fruit, and brings out the sweetness. The fruits processed like this have a fresh flavor, which is a combination of the low sugar content and a sour flavor, akin to a cumquat, or a raw cranberry. Though they can be eaten at this stage, Adams typically dries them for later use.
PREPARING TOYON BERRIES
At one of our Wild Food Cooking classes around Thankgiving where we collected these fruits fresh, and boiled them as described above, everyone found them very likable. “They’re sorta like cranberries of the West Coast,” remarked wild food researcher Helen Sweany.
To dry toyon fruits, they can be spread on cookie sheets and put outside if the weather is hot. Otherwise, they can be dried in an oven with only a pilot light temperature.
The dried toyon is tasty. There is an initial flavor like black tea, and then, as you chew the hard little fruit you get a very pleasant combination of both sweet and sour.
Linda Sheer, who grew up in rural Kentucky and learned how to experiment with most wild foods to create tasty dishes, shared the following method of preparation. The berries are boiled, and the water changed. Assuming the berries are no longer astringent after one changing of the water, the berries are given just a little water and cooked at low heat while flour is added – usually wheat flour, but any other flour could be used with similar results. One slowly stirs as the flour thickens, and a few tablespoons of honey are added, to taste. This mixture thickens up, like a pie filling, and most people find it delicious.
NATIVE FOOD SYMPOSIUM
A few years ago at a Native Food Symposium Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden, one of the presenters was Helen Wong who experimented with several methods of toyon preparation. One recipe that was served at the symposium, began by boiling the berries, and changing the water until it was no longer astringent. The fruits were then cooked with a few “secret” ingredients, and sweetened. This was served on graham crackers.
Most of the reports of cooking with toyon have been disappointing because toyon is a dry berry, often astringent. However, this recipe by Helen turned out pretty well. According to gourmet wild food cook Pascal Baudar, “Toyon is a tough berry to play with, but Helen did an amazing job.”
MEET RICHARD TOYON:
Richard Toyon is a 14th generation Californian, according to the official records of the Mission San Juan Capistrano. He is descended from the Parra clan of the Acjachemem nation (pronounced “A-HA-Sha-mem), formerly known as the Mission Band of the Juaneno Indians. His family originates in what is now the city of San Juan Capistrano. He is a descendant of Alejo Parra, and the area was once called Rancho de los Toyones. Richard Toyon’s grandfather’s name was Ortiz de los Toyones, and after him the family name was shortened to just “Toyon.”
Toyon lives in La Crescenta and is active in Boy Scouts, local politics, and in representing the Tongva Tribe for various environmental and public issues. Of course, when we first spoke, I could not wait to ask him about the native toyon tree, the tree from which his family name comes.
“When I give my walks and lectures a few times a year, I talk about the native uses of plants,” he explains. “The ethno-botanical uses of plants, not necessarily just the food uses.” Toyon went on to tell me about the first real estate venture just south of Griffith Park. “These guys looked up in the hills and they saw all the toyon trees with their brilliant red fruit, and they called the place ‘Hollywood.’ They should have called it ‘Toyonwood’,” he laughs.
“The toyon fruit played a significant role in the Acjachemem diet,” he says. Though there are probably a dozen common ways of preparing the fruit – ground into meal, made into a drink, made into a dessert – Toyon says that in Acjachemem get-togethers today, the fruit is cooked in a wok, fried and lightly seasoned, and served 50/50 with rice. His relatives have mashed up the toyon berries and served them on top of potatoes, with butter.
BOTANY NOTES
Toyon is a member of the Rose Family (Rosaceae). The Rose Family contains 110 genera and 3000 species worldwide. Species from 45 of the genera are found in California. The toyon is the only species of the Heteromeles genus. (Heteromeles is Greek for “different apple.”)
Toyon can get to be a medium sized tree, and is probably most conspicuous in the winter when it’s covered with its clusters of orange-red fruits. The tree is found in the chaparral zones, and often planted on the fringes of the urban areas. The leaves are leathery, ovate, with toothed margins. The tree is evergreen and can be a large bush or a small tree. In the summer, the flowers form in terminal clusters. Each flower is white and five-petaled, about ¼ inch wide. The clusters of orange-red fruit ripen from about November into January.
