Before our record breaking heatwave this weekend… You must know that berry season is progressing nicely!
Here’s an email I sent out last July 8th:
Hi all!
In addition to salmon berries (somewhat bland in their taste) and blackberries (with their lovely thorns) and clovers (which few people eat), these berries are now ripening, called thimbleberries:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rubus_parviflorus
I note this because I either missed them last year, or I did not know they were edible… but they are probably the most delicious berries I’ve ever eaten, and I wanted to share the love! Even the seeds are pleasant light bitterness to chew. Just don’t let your expectations climb too high beforehand if you try some…
Some related members of the same biological family/genus, for those curious:
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rubus_parviflorus (thimbleberry) see the photos with the flowers for the most help identifying them. Bonus — they don’t have thorns!
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rubus_occidentalis , (black raspberry, or black caps, which you can pick at Columbia farms on Sauvie Island and are amazing!)
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackberry (Rubus fruticosus aggregate)
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rubus_idaeus (common raspberry)
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rubus_spectabilis (salmonberry)
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rubus_rosifolius , (roseleaf bramble, uncommon on the continent)
Happy picking… and safe pandemicing!
Two more below, the first I forgot to mention above last year, and the 2nd I just learned about in the neighborhood last week:
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amelanchier introduced to us as the “serviceberry” (aka shadbush, among other names)
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huckleberry Huckleberries are ripening! Most of the ones I see in the NW are pink-to-red in color, which I understand are less common worldwide than other colored huckleberries — still, no less delicious!
Don’t go far too deep down the rabbit hole of online information… get out there and pick berries!