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neither under-ripe nor overripe) they are very tasty and sweet.
Local native people would sometimes pick them by running
small wooden “ berry rakes” through the foliage, wide enough
to allow leaves to pass, but narrow enough to pull o ff the
berries. The berries were then cleaned by being tumbled down
a moistened cedar plank - the berries would roll and the leaves
and stems would stick. Many botanists also include the native
“ bog cranberry” in the genus Vaccinium - in its tart flavor and
preference for soggy places, this plant is very similar to
domestic cranberries.
For all-around good eating, it’ s hard to beat the
blackberries and raspberries, each o f them sporting distinctive
multi-chambered berries, what some botanists refer to (in the
privacy o f their own homes) as “ tasty and dangling aggregates
o f drupelets.”
Locally, a lucky few might find the black
raspberry or the creeping raspberry. And one is sure to find
the widespread raspberry-like thimbleberry, with its soft
leaves, rose-like flowers, and shallow, deep-red, thimble-like
berries, which taste like sweet, seedy raspberries when ripe.
Various blackberries twine and tangle through our environs,
including the ubiquitous Himalayan blackberry, an introduced
plant which grows on disturbed sites, with its huge, sweet,
purple-black berries.
The native, fruity-tasting “ trailing
blackberry” also is profoundly toothsome, but is an elusive
Rubus, more common alongside logging roads. The
salmonberry is also o f this genus, a common plant with
blackberry-like berries, watery, orange or red, sweet on rare
occasion; such berries were too watery to preserve by most
native peoples, but were very popular berries to eat fresh.
Salal, a brushy evergreen relative o f the heaths and
heathers, was probably the most important source o f berries to
this coast’ s indigenous inhabitants. The berries are sweet and
juicy, with a flavor vaguely reminiscent o f concord grapes -
traditionally, they were eaten raw or pulverized and dried into
cakes or “ fruit leather” for storage. A close relative, the
Oregon Wintergreen, looks like a dw arf salal plant, and
produces red, salal-like edible berries.
Clusters o f tiny “ red elderberries” also grow on tall,
light green bushes along the coast - eaten raw they are awful,
likely to cause nausea. You w ill wish you had thought twice.
But cooked they become tasty, and ancient elderberry roasting
pits still crouch below our coastal soil, where local folks
rendered piles o f these berries into cooked berry cakes, to be
stored and eaten throughout the year. A short distance inland,
blue elderberries are now appearing, a somewhat tastier berry
which requires little processing. A good berry for wines and
jams, the elderberry continues to be popular among industrious
locals with abundant berries and patience.
In the coastal forests o f the Northwest, we also have
several currants or “ gooseberries” o f the genus Ribes, with
small maple-like leaves and spiny stems. The small black
berries o f the “ black gooseberry” are usually tasty, while the
berries o f the “ stink current” has a flavor which varies widely,
from awful to excellent. The “ trailing black current” and the
“ red-flowering current” both have berries which are edible but
not very palatable without additional ingredients and extensive
processing.
Strawberries require no introduction. The extremely
sweet small berries o f the “ coast strawberry” grow on local
dunes and other well-drained sites, while closely-related w ild
strawberries o f a different stripe grow nearby. But other local
LaJ
Northwest coastal forests abound with berries. During
late summer, down under the forest canopy, more than h alf o f
our shrubby native plants are dotted with berries, red, blue,
orange, white, black. Growing amidst the wet and dark green
forest tangle, berries make much ecological sense: it a plant’ s
seeds are carried by the wind, they won’t go far. Likewise,
even the most wind-beaten berry won’t take flight. But they
are the most tasty, nutritious and sweet things to be eaten in the
deep woods. Mammals and birds disperse berry-borne seeds
far and wide, without complaint - caching them away, or
passing the specially-adapted seeds unharmed through the
digestive tract. Very simple. Very effective. And we - inept
seed-dispersers all - are the beneficiaries o f this forest
choreography. It is time to eat.
But first, some words o f warning. Among all o f the
other useful things urban kids learn in camp - how to sing
“ Michael Rowed the Boat Ashore” in rounds, for example, or
weave festive ashtrays out o f raffia - they also learn this: white
berries usually are not edible, blue berries almost always are,
and all unfamiliar red berries should be left alone until
someone with more berry wisdom can come along and give
them an official okay. And your camp counselors weren’t
kidding. This maxim should be chanted repeatedly as you
head out into the woods, berry pail in hand. Likewise, the
native peoples o f this coast, berry experts by necessity, taught
this to the uninitiated: only fools and the living dead ate white
berries. Blue berries could be eaten without hesitation by
children in the woods; red berries could not. The red berries
belonged to “ W ild Woman” a lewd and cannibalistic granny
with super-human strength, dwelling in the deep woods - wild
hair on her head, profuse body hair, evil-smelling breath, long
pendulous breasts, razor sharp teeth, a booming voice, tattooed
skin (some considered her a female Sasquatch; some readers
may know her as Dzonokwa). And, as any long-ago native kid
could have told you, i f children ate red berries while they
traveled alone in the forest they would be carted away by this
W ild Woman, roasted for dinner, and eaten. End o f story.
The moral o f this cautionary tale: you’d best bring the berry
basket back to the longhouse, where you’ ll have plenty o f
parental supervision, before you try to eat any red berries.
But the abundance and diversity o f truly edible
berries in the Northwest is staggering. We have a wide variety
o f huckleberries and blueberries; these two berries, for all
practical purposes, are the same thing - members o f the genus
Vaccinium, largely differentiated on the basis o f their color.
The plants with lighter blue berries are called “ blueberries”
and plants with darker purplish berries are called
“ huckleberries.” Many o f our blueberries do not fare well in
clearcut environments, and only persist in our remaining
matbre forests; here we find oval-leafed and Alaska
blueberries, and both are tasty when ripe. Two outstanding,
sweet and tasty berries - the bog and dw arf blueberries - grow
in our general area but only in hard-to-find places, low-
elevation bogs or subalpine heaths. Evergreen huckleberries
are far more common on this coast, with shiny dark evergreen
leaves and tiny blue-black berries; these berries develop in late
summer but often remain on the bush until winter, providing
people and critters alike w ith late-season berries. There are
also the widespread “ red huckleberry” bushes on this coast,
with berries that look like small red or pink blueberries - when
ripe (and there is a window o f about 5 minutes when they are
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Cannon Beach, OR
97110
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Located in Nahcotta.
Nancy Turner’ s Food Plants o f Coastal F irst Peoples.
(University o f B.C. Press, 1995) is an excellent guide to the
edible plants o f this area. Jim Pojar and Andy MacKinnon’ s
Plants o f the Pacific Northwest Coast. (Lone Pine Pub., 1994)
is a very good all-purpose guide to regional plants, including
berries. The B.C. publisher, Hancock House, has produced a
number o f b rie f edible plant guides for this region, including
J.E. U nderhill’s Wild Berries o f the Pacific Northwest. (1974)
and Northwestern Wild Berries (1980), and Carol Batdorfs
Northwest Native Harvest (1990).
learning more sbcnrt the environments,
cultures, and literatures of the coastal Northwest? Than
invited to enroll in an interdisapiinary fail
Clatsop Conununtty College. Explore the northern
by foot and by book.. .write about the coastal
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M o BY]UICK
IT S DINNER TIME!
berries are less well known. Here and there coastal residents
can find the Saskatoon or “ service berry,” sweet, blue, looking
like miniature apples, or the more bitter Indian plum, with
fruits looking like miniature plums. Sometimes, we can also
find the dw arf dogwood; each short plant bears a single, white
dogwood flower which produces several red berries, tasting
somewhat like salal - pulpy but very sweet. Crowberries, juicy
and blue, grow atop low creeping bog plants that look like
miniature fir trees. Red-orange rose hips from our native
dwarf and Nootka roses are also edible - one scoops out the
seeds and eats the rind. Sweet and fu ll o f vitamin C, these are
popular sources o f this vitamin for pharmaceutical use. One
can also eat the berry-like fruits o f two local trees, the wild
crabapple and the black hawthorn. To our north, regrettably
beyond our range, grow the “ soapberries” which, when
whipped with water, creates a tasty and edible thick foam, a
dessert called “ Indian ice cream” by some native people o f
Washington and B. C.
And then there are the berries you might only eat i f
you grow very hungry. Some local lilies, including the w ild
lily-of-the-valley and false Soloman’ s seal both produce
watery and bland-tasting berries, starting o ff green and turning
red as they mature. The red berries o f the sand-dwelling
kinnickinnick and hairy manzanita can be eaten, i f you don’t
mind your berries pithy, pulpy, and lacking in flavor. The
bitter red-orange berries o f mountain ash can be eaten too, but
are best when used to make tart jams and jellies. The blue
berries o f the Oregon grape are usually very bitter too, and
native peoples often mixed them with other, sweeter berries
(and also used the plant’s inner bark as a yellow dye) - with
artificial sweeteners, contemporary people make passable
Oregon grape jellies and wines.
The locally abundant
honeysuckle, the twinberry, produces a pair o f very dark
purple berries which are barely palatable - most native peoples
in this area called them “ crow ’ s berries,” claiming that they
were only suitable as food for crows. You w ill probably agree.
So happy picking and happy eating. Get out there on
the fecund forest floor and take your part in the feeding
frenzies o f the late summer season. But before you do, we
here at the Upper Left Edge encourage you to get a good field
guide- I list some below. Check these guides before touching
any unfamiliar berry. I f you aren’t sure, don’t eat it - even
berries that are eaten by birds and other critters o f the forest
floor can leave us hominids lying six feet under the forest
lawn. This is no way to spend the dog days o f summer. And
if, while you pick berries, you are confronted by a wild-eyed
old woman with tattoos and terrible breath, use your head.
Just put down the berries and back away.
I have hunted deer on occasions, but they were not
aware of it. Felix Gear
A
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