Red huckleberries (Vaccinium parvifolium) and Salmonberries (Rubus spectabilis)
Ah, summer. A forager’s dream. Wild berries are in season and I urge you to seek them out. The Willamette valley is a strawberry, blueberry, raspberry and blackberry haven for farmers becuase we have just the right conditions to grow them and their wild relatives, of course. I will take my turn in the farmers’ fields, of course, but my favorite berry finds come from the wild.
I like wild berries, because they tempt you to eat them unwashed. There’s no sink around, so any compulsion to wash the berry just can’t be satisfied. With perhaps a little trepidation you pop the berry in your mouth along with the essence of wilderness and are rewarded with flavors of amazing intensity and complexity. In fact, I was once told we should try to eat something wild every day. It is the most natural way to ensure you get a steady supply of natural probiotics in our systems. Think about it – we can take a pill of healthy bacteria to keep us in balance against the forces of modern food and medicine of course. But we can also accept the gift of nature’s probiotics which have supported our kind for millennia.
If you like raspberries, look for thimble berries (Rubus parviflorus)! Smaller, darker and more fragile than a raspberry, they are the most flavorful burst of all berries, to me.
If you like blueberries, look for salal berries (Gaultheria shallon). Dark blue and bell-shaped, they are seedier than blueberries, and sometimes take on a slightly salty taste – especially near the coast. Salal are a good beginner’s foraging item because there are very few unsafe dark blue berries in Oregon.
Red huckleberries (Vaccimium parvifolium) are like tiny beautiful luminescent orbs floating in the understory of forests on bushes with fine foliage. They have a bright tangy flavor.
Salmon berries (Rubus spectabilis) are a unique warm color and have an almost savory flavor. I like them as a snack with salty foods on the trail. They are certainly beautiful and can be plentiful, but are typically an acquired taste.
Soon the evergreen huckleberry will be in season. Taste can vary greatly from bush to bush. Some people think they have hybridized with blueberries, and once in a while I think I find bushes which prove it. Typically the berries are dark shiny blue-black. Some bushes will have berries with the more frosted blue of a blueberry. In any case, evergreen huckleberries are a great stand-in for blueberries in muffins, pancakes and even pies, if you can pick enough.
So, get a good plant identification book, or call me up and lets go eat something wild!
Garden Wanderings 