Berries
Choke Cherry Thumbnail Button Chokecherry (Prunus virginiana)—Chokecherries taste best in later autumn. The berries are a wine colour when they are ripe. The taste is a combination of sweet and bitter, and they have a pit about 1/3 the size of the berry. The chokecherry shrub is about 1.5 metres to 3.5 metres in height. Chokecherries are picked and eaten fresh, or they are pounded into cakes, dried and stored.
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Gooseberry Thumbnail Button Gooseberry, Black/Wild (Ribes lacutre)—Gooseberries are picked, eaten fresh, or made into jams and pies. These berries are picked in the summer and dried for use in the winter. They are bitter when green, but very sweet when ripe. When they are over ripe, they are red in colour.
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Huckleberry Thumbnail Button Huckleberry (Vaccinium species)—Huckleberries can be harvested from July to September, depending on elevation. The huckleberry grows in cool mountains where it has a lot of moisture to thrive on. Huckleberries are dark purple to almost black in colour when they are ripe. They are eaten fresh or dried and stored for winter. Huckleberries are made into jams and can be frozen for future enjoyment.
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Oregon Grape Thumbnail Button Oregon Grape (Berberis nervosa)—Oregon grapes grow on low shrubs with shiny, leathery, holly-like leaves and bright yellow flowers. The round, deep-blue berries grow in clusters and have a greyish, waxy coating. The berries are gathered in mid-August when they are fully ripe. The tart taste of the Oregon grape is best suited for jams.
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Raspberry Thumbnail Button Raspberry (Rubus idaeus)—Raspberries are eaten fresh and are commonly mashed and dried in cakes for winter storage. You can find them in sunny locations, such as stream banks, open woods, clearings and talus slopes.
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Saskatoon Berry Thumbnail Button Saskatoon Berry (Amelanchier alnifolla)—Saskatoon berries grow on shrubs that are 0.5 metres to 3 metres in height. When the berries are ripe, they are deep purple and have small seeds inside. The berries are dried and pounded into cakes. They are sweet and are eaten as a dessert. The plant grows in dry, hot areas at a wide range of elevations.
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Soapberry Thumbnail Button Soapberry(Soopallalie) (Shepherdia canadensis)—The berries contain saponin, a chemical similar to soap which, when whipped, turns into a frothy substance called Indian Ice Cream. The berries are very rich in iron and are eaten fresh, dried for later use, or boiled into a syrup to drink as a beverage.
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Strawberry Thumbnail Button Strawberry (Fragaria virginiana)—Strawberries are well liked and ripen in May, June and July, depending on their elevation. They are eaten fresh. Although the berries are delicious and sought after, they are generally too small and too sporadic to be picked in quantity. The wild strawberry is a low growing perennial plant that sends out trailing runners as a means of reproduction.
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Thimbleberry Thumbnail Button Thimbleberry (Rubus parviflorus)—People consider thimbleberries superior in flavour to wild raspberries and wild strawberries. However, being soft and juicy, they are difficult to pick and, therefore, are seldom gathered in large enough quantities to be dried for winter storage.

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