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Mayhaws

KEDM Public Radio | By Kelby Ouchley

Published June 18, 2018 at 9:00 AM EDT

For those of us who might be considered unrefined epicureans, May is the month of ritual pleasures involving a wild gourment treat. It is the season to gather Mayhaw fruits and make one of the finest jellies to grace a buutermilk biscuit.

Born of the southern swamps, mayhaws are small trees technically considered hawthorns in the rose family. They grow in wetloands across the Southeast and are usually found only in soils that have a sandy component.

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Kelby Ouchley

Kelby was a biologist and manager of National Wildlife Refuges for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for more than 30 years. He has worked with alligators in gulf coast marshes and Canada geese on Hudson Bay tundra. His most recent project was working with his brother Keith of the Louisiana Nature Conservancy on the largest floodplain restoration project in the Mississippi River Basin at the Mollicy Unit of the Upper Ouachita National Wildlife Refuge, reconnecting twenty-five square miles of former floodplain forest back to the Ouachita River.

See stories by Kelby Ouchley