Salal berries!
Gabriola’s salal berries are ripening, and this is a good thing for so many reasons. Some of them are:
- I like to eat salal berries. Yum!
- Dog likes to eat salal berries, too, and she picks her own. Watching her gently pull the berries off branches delights me.
- Lots of people don’t know salal berries are edible. All the more for us!
- Salal berries can be dehydrated for winter use. Note to self: must try this.
- Seeds in salal berries can apparently be used for planting salal – great news for those of us who would actually like more salal on our property.
- Salal berries can be made into jam. I did this once years ago, and it was fantastic. (If I had more energy in the summer, I would make salal jam every summer.)
- Did I mention about the dog? Oh, yeah, I did. My berry-picking dog is adorable.
Filed in food,Gabriola Island,native plants 6 Comments so far
6 Responses to “Salal berries!”
Michael Mehta on 04 Aug 2010 at 11:42 pm #
But can they be made into wine or beer??
Gabriolan on 05 Aug 2010 at 7:30 am #
I think you can make any fruit into wine. But beer? Hmmm. You want to test that for us, Michael? :-)
Andrea on 05 Aug 2010 at 8:07 am #
Your dog is quite the live-off-the-land puppy! Picking salal, catching her own fish, ….
Many years ago I knew a pug named Moonbeam who picked peas and ate them. That was pretty cute too.
Nick on 05 Aug 2010 at 1:03 pm #
According to early visitors to the Coast, dried salal berry cakes soaked in rancid eulichan oil were sometimes served by Indian hosts at feasts. Their reaction one can surmise was similar to the Native peoples’ response to garlic, which according to one Spanish writer, “annoyed them greatly to see it on our tables”.
I agree, salal jam is among the best. One year, some years ago now, I made jams from all the berries I could find–salal, Oregon grape, salmonberry, mountain huckleberry, evergreen huckleberry, red huckleberry, thimbleberry, and native blackberry. For me the winner (I was very competitive in those days) was Oregon grape followed very very closely by salal. On giving some of the jams away for Christmas, I was amazed to discover that some people were not enamored of the “different” taste of salal jam. Perhaps “do you like gooseberries, rhubarb, and salal jam?” should be a mandatory question on the long-form census. It would give a good indication of how many of us are sane.
Gabriolan on 07 Aug 2010 at 8:27 pm #
Andrea –
>Your dog is quite the live-off-the-land puppy! Picking salal, catching her own fish,
She is indeed, and she finds lots of other fine edibles, too. Well… things she considers edible, anyway.
Nick —
Glad I’m not the only one who likes salal jam! And my, what wonderful jams you’ve made. I envy those on your Christmas list.
As far as the census goes, I vote to put you in charge of it. Your proposed question is much more fun that the dreary ones Census Canada wants to ask.
Gabriolan on 11 Aug 2010 at 11:21 pm #
Michael — came across a recipe for salal berry wine. If you try it, can I have a sip?