Berry Season!

2009 Jul 6

Berry season has started with a bang! Today I walked in the woods near our house and at St. Edward St Park and ate more kinds of wild berries in one day than I can ever remember.

  • The Salmonberries are just past their peak, but they are sweeter this year than most.
  • Indian plum (aka osoberry - hangs sparsely on a tree). I didn't know what it was, so I only ate a few, but I will have more later.
  • Two kinds of blackberries:
    • a trailing vine blackberry with small, long fruit
    • a bushy kind with small fruit that I hadn't seen before
  • The red huckleberries are already fantastic this year: profuse and sweet.
  • Thimbleberries are still very early, but I found a large stand with some ripe ones. They are like eating a jam!

From our front yard I had:

  • The last of our seasonal strawberries.
  • Some of our (small) ever-bearing strawberries.

There are more berries yet to come are:

  • The common, aggressive blackberries around here. (They are only in flower now, so there is no fruit yet.)
  • Salal - also only in flower
  • Oregon grape

This year I am thinking to make juice or jam from those last two.