Do you know what a Sarvis tree is ??

[TomHillbilly]

Years ago, before all these imported early white blooming landscape trees, and yard bushes began to pollute our woods, in the Appalachian Mountains. As one traveled roads and highways in March. There was only one white blooming tree they saw on the hillsides. The Sarvis tree bloomed before any other trees in our woods. I saw this as a kid. It was the first blooming tree period. And it bloomed before any green leaf budded on other trees. The eatable berries from those trees were sometimes called "service berries'', and for a good reason. 
I spent many hours eating such berries, as a kid. The "Sarvis Tree" got its name by the poor pronunciation of us Hillbillies. When someone died during the winter, we had to bury them quickly, before embalming became a wide spread practice. Not every church had a pastor. Many small churches had a circuit riding preacher. He was the pastor of several churches on his circuit.  His horse riding circuit ended during the worst weeks of winter, for safety reasons. When they saw these trees bloom, they knew the preacher was coming by to preach the funeral "Sarvis" for those families that lost their loved ones back in the Winter.  
As Paul Harvey would say-- And now for the rest of the story. If those of you that live in other places have ever eaten Juneberries, Saskatoon, Shadbrush, Pigeon Berry, or from a Currant tree. You have ate the same berry, or a berry of the same family. But you lack our hillbilly story of the Sarvis tree. LOL

[rxkeith]

we have them growing way up here. they are also called sugar plums.
the fruit is about the size of a tame blue berry. deep purple when ripe,
on the soft side with some seeds. mild sweet flavor. there is a small clump
growing at the end of my drive way, and also scattered around the property
and the road side. they are a nice snack.
no hillbilly story to tell. yoopers sometimes have their own way of pronouncing
words though.


keith

[MissS]

My messy Japanese Maples are dying and to screen the neighbors out I am planting a Sarvisberry and Redbud tree planting. These plants are native and the deer leave them alone too.

[Nan6b]

I bought a serviceberry years ago. Never got any berries off of it; the birds & chipmunks love them.

[TomHillbilly]

Nan6b--- I got a elderly lady that gave me complete control over her dwarf cheery trees, her husband left her. I thought I would pick for both of us.
Little did I know, that the birds have cleaned those trees every morning--by 20 minutes after first light.
Every single person around me has multiple bird feeders. They cause the seed eating destructive birds to over populate. Those seed eating birds with hard beaks, often raid the beneficial insect eating birds nests. Killing the soft beak insect bird's young. We are so over populated with seed eating birds, I can no longer use my back porch. I can't keep the bird poop off of it.
WE created this problem-- its man made.

[karstopography]

They grow thick around Aspen, Colorado. That’s about as far south as the western version gets. I’ve not seem them on hikes near Pagosa Springs at the same altitude as the ones found in near Aspen. There are very thick stands of them in the Aspen area and I don’t like them much because they shield one’s view of any bears that might be on the same trail. I remember eating them and not being wowed by the experience. Alpine strawberries are a wowser fruit. Those pack on the intense strawberry flavor.

https://www.plantmaps.com/nrm-amelanchi ... -range-map

I don’t remember the eastern type, although I’ve spent time in the eastern woodlands. Probably got too concerned about ticks on me to notice anything else. Ticks are something fierce and fearsome in New England.

[Growing Coastal]

I don't often see them in the wild here but more along the edges of country roads where people live. We call them Saskatoon Berries.
We've also got Salal berries growing wild as undergrowth in the woods. They are sweeter and more mealy, staining teeth very blue for a short while.