Why cavemen ate these strange berries (and you should too) Surely a lot of us have seen these without even knowing it? They sound pretty interesting. They seem easy to store as well, being relatively dry fruits.
The Most Under-Rated Incredible Edible Tree https://www.twisted-tree.net/hackberry There seem to be Southern US varieties as well.
I have never heard of them growing here, but I have encountered the trees elsewhere. One "hack" I would add to the video comes from a friend who is a big berry guy, as we have lots of native berries. He makes a kind of sluice box (he is also a gold miner) and he dumps the berries plus debris at the top. The berries roll to the bottom with a little shaking (I don't think he uses water for this) and he then screens or winnows the lighter stuff that may have gone to the bottom of the sluice box. Here is a link to see what they look like, but he generally lines his with a coarse outdoor carpet and he makes is berry sorters out of plywood. link @Mary Stetler is one our foraging experts here.
I remember lots of wild hackberries in the woods of south GA. Some people there call them "sugar berries" for some reason. I probably tried them as a kid but I haven't seen any in years.
There are a couple of species: Common Hackberry and Sugarberry, which is a different species of hackberry. Their ranges overlap in the south, and the 2 species are tough to tell apart, even for experts (the Flora of Virginia states that the distinction between the two species “is problematic in Virginia.”) I just read that they grow naturally in most counties in Virginia, which is interesting because we have 5 distinct regions between the coastline and the western side of the mountains. Apparently they are not picky about the soil they grow in. I've never encountered them, to my knowledge.
I'm not good at identifying trees beyond the most common varieties, but my grandma could tell what was growing in the woods.
We don't have hack berries here. I have gathered the wild cherries that fall in sheets the ground. Have to be vigilant/quick that they are not deer droppings