I've got a small Elegant in the ground, but it won't fruit for a few years. Elegant is described by Lee Reich as "good for fresh eating" in Uncommon Fruits for Every Garden (a great book if you don't have it). It is listed as one of the Ukrainian varieties specifically selected for fresh consumption so I would assume that it tastes better than most seedlings.

I have sown white-flowering dogwood (Cornus florida) directly into the ground and lost all to chipmunks and squirrels (rats with bushy tails). The few that sprouted were eaten immediately after sprouting in the spring. This year I have winter sown into milk jugs and hope for better results. See Winter Sowing Forum: http://forums2.gardenweb.com/forums/wtrsow/ and the winter sowing FAQ: http://faq.gardenweb.com/faq/wtrsow/ I previously stratified, but the instructions I read said nothing about warm stratification. I pulled off all of the pulp from the berries and soaked the seed in warm water for about 4 hours. Mix some warm water with some sifted sphagnum peat. (Shaking the peat and water in a jar is a quick way to moisten the peat. All excess moisture should be squeezed out of the peat. Too much water will rot the seed.) Mix the seed with the damp peat. I put the seed/peat mixture in a zip lock bag. (Punch a few air holes in the bag.) Place bag in refrigerator for 100 days. Check occasionally to be sure the peat is still moist. A few of the seeds were already sprouting after 100 days. I planted the seeds/seedlings in an outside transplanting area. The squirrels and chipmunks soon ate those, also. I may try to winter sow these directly into the ground, and put a quarter-inch-hardware-mesh wire cage over the top. (Something similar to a bottomless bird cage.) A few bricks on top to keep the critters from pushing/pulling it off will hopefully aid in survival of the seedlings. Here is a link that might be useful: http://faq.gardenweb.com/faq/wtrsow/

After recently buying a holiday home on the Bulgarian Black Sea Coast I found two unknown [to me] fruit trees in the garden. The fruits were purplish-red in one case and yellow in the other. Locals said the red fruits were called 'Drenki', and that they were very good for your health. Further research revealed that they were varieties of the Cornelian Cherry. They were both acceptable to eat, though the 'Drenki' were a little sour unless completely ripened. ps. 'Cornus' was Latin for 'Horn', synonymous with 'hard', supposedly from the hardness of the wood. The Hornbeam tree has a similar etymology. pps. We Brits call Dogwoods, 'Dogwoods'.

I was going to say, I thought Cornelian Cherries only had one (large, long) seed. I'm not sure what those egg-things are.