![\"[Beautyberries,](\"http:\/\/www.okraparadisefarms.com\/pictures\/2025-09-14--beautyberries\/20250914_125617.jpg\")
<\/a>\r\nBeautyberries, Callicarpa americana<\/a>\r\n<\/p>\r\n
\r\nThey’re no longer mealy, and they have some flavor.\r\nThey’re ripe enough to be made into jelly.\r\n
\r\nBut in a few weeks they’ll be in full flavor.\r\nEven better then for eating or wine-making.\r\n
\r\nCallicarpa americana<\/em> is native to the U.S. southeast, from Maryland to east Texas, plus Mexico and parts of the Carribean.\r\n \r\nNo, it’s not the same as pokeweed, which \r\n\r\nhas redder and larger berries,\r\npurple stems, and is poisonous.\r\nBeautyberry is edible and tasty.\r\n \r\nTo repel insects, rub the pale underside of beautyberry leaves on you.\r\nOr grind up some leaves, steep them in alcohol such as vodka,\r\nand then mix with vegetable oil to make a sticky concoction\r\nthat will keep yellowflies, mosquitoes, and even ticks\r\noff you and your pets.\r\n \r\nIt’s similarly as effective as DEET<\/a>; see\r\nC L Cantrell, J A Klun, C T Bryson, M Kobaisy, S O Duke,\r\nJ Agric Food Chem, 2005 Jul 27\r\n53(15):5948-53. doi: 10.1021\/jf0509308,\r\n\r\nIsolation and identification of mosquito bite deterrent terpenoids from leaves of American (Callicarpa americana) and Japanese (Callicarpa japonica) beautyberry<\/a>.\r\n \r\nExactly how effective is still a matter of study and debate.\r\nI can say that without it yellowflies bite our dogs until they bleed,\r\nbut applying this concoction keeps those bitey-bugs off for hours.\r\n \r\nThe berries also stay on the plants late into the winter, serving as bird forage.\r\n \r\nOh, and beautyberry looks and smells good.\r\n \r\n -jsq\r\n<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"You can eat beautyberries now, but they will be riper in a few weeks. Beautyberries, Callicarpa americana They’re no longer mealy, and they have some flavor. They’re ripe enough to be made into jelly. But in a few weeks they’ll be in full flavor. Even better then for eating or wine-making. Callicarpa americana is native […]","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[207,6],"tags":[2808,245,3,23,5,2,2760],"class_list":["post-9873","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-beautyberry","category-okra-paradise-farms","tag-beautyberry","tag-callicarpa-americana","tag-georgia","tag-gretchen-quarterman","tag-john-s-quarterman","tag-lowndes-county","tag-okra-paradise-farms"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4Gj0O-2zf","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.okraparadisefarms.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9873","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.okraparadisefarms.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.okraparadisefarms.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.okraparadisefarms.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.okraparadisefarms.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9873"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.okraparadisefarms.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9873\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9875,"href":"http:\/\/www.okraparadisefarms.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9873\/revisions\/9875"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.okraparadisefarms.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9873"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.okraparadisefarms.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9873"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.okraparadisefarms.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9873"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}