squashberry n Gray's Botany 1341 ~, NID. An edible orange-red berry, easily crushed; the shrub bearing these berries (Viburnum edule) (1956 ROULEAU 38); BUTTON BERRY; also attrib.
1842 JUKES i, 142 [They were] a kind the men called 'squash-berries,' a bright red berry, the size of a currant, growing on a straggling bush six or eight feet high. They were pulpy, sharp, and juicy, and not unpleasant. 1868 HOWLEY MS Reminiscences 41 Squash berries were very abundant along this brook and I eat my fill of them. [1886] LLOYD 102-3 The partridge-berry, squashberry, foxberry, and marshberry, although differing from each other in some respects, are nevertheless much alike. They are small, red, and when ripe are very good. They grow on small shrubbery on the barrens and marshes. 1898 N S Inst Sci ix, 367-8 ~ few-flowered viburnum. [1914] 1946 MUNN 16 The Squashberry bush is a shrub with thin stem about four feet high. The berries grow in bunches, and when ripe are of a brilliant red colour; they remain on the bush all winter. They have a delicious tart taste, and the fruit of the berry is almost wholly juice and often made into wine. 1933 GREENE 295 Quantities of 'bakeapple' and 'squash-berry' (a red berry with a white stone which makes delicious jelly), and the 'capillaire' berry (a small white berry rather difficult to find as it grows on a sort of vine amongst the grasses, but has a wonderfully delicate and scented flavour) are scattered all over the interior. P 246-60 Squash-berry wine is made from fruit of the squash-berry bush. T 14/19-64 The squashberry is very, very bitter and sour, and a kernel into un. He's not much good for anything apart from making jelly; makes beautiful jelly, beautiful. But it's in November before they're really ripe.
