I'm going berry crazy and I'm taking the kids along with me. You can take the girl out of the berry patch, but you can't take the berry picker out of the girl, my friend told me the other day. I probably would not be so obsessed with berries had I not grown up picking tame organic blueberries in Minnesota for my modest college fund. I find myself now on maybe an acre of wild berries in Alaska, and I'm picking every chance I get. This is year three. Year one, the first year after the dead White Spruces were removed and the area was introduced to sunlight and the raspberries appeared, was not nearly as plentiful. However, I had a one-year old then and I have a one-year-old now and I do love that age. They will sit happily and feed themselves berries for quite a long time. Raspberries are our best crop and the only thing we've harvested (on our own land) until this year. I have so many I have friends come to pick.
This year, I have already frozen hoards of blueberries and raspberries and plan to preserve some high bush cranberries and rose hips as well. The raspberries and blueberries will be reserved for hot cereal topping and wine, and the roses and cranberries will make great jellies, syrups, and catsups. The University of Alaska Fairbanks Cooperative Extension publishes a book showcasing many recipes for every common berry in Alaska. And there are many.
Highbush Cranberries. Notice the maple-leave shape of all leaves but the top ones. They will turn more cherry-colored and more translucent throughout August and sweeten for best picking after the first frost. They grow on our land about the same height as raspberries and roses, from 1-4 feet. I will not confuse this with the poisonous baneberry (which I have yet to find on our land). The Baneberry is one of the few truly deadly plants in Alaska and has a similar-looking cluster of berries that are however opaque, without a pit, taste awful, and have a much different leaf.
Wild Roses. The hips (left, pink) in August or the pink flower pedals in June can be used in recipes. The hips are loaded with Vitamin C and are best picked when soft.
Bunch Berries. Some call these Dogwood. They are edible, but in the presence of other berries they aren't worth preserving not because of size or number but because they lack flavor. They are however a desirable ground-cover. They have a pretty white flower in early summer, a symmetric arrangement of six leaves, and a lovely clump of orange-red opaque berries in late summer.
Northern Commandra Timberberry. Even though we have plenty of these also, I had trouble finding these in my wild food books and on the internet so had to wander over to the neighbor who lived in the bush to get the name. It is edible also, but again does not have a great taste. It is about the same color as the bunch berry, but the berry is much larger, the leaves much smaller, and the plant has a more verticle look than the bunch berry, reaching up maybe a foot at most.
For now, we will have to wander off of our land to find other desirable wild Alaskan berries, like Blueberries, Crowberries, or Lowbush Cranberries (Lingonberries), Strawberries, and many others. And for now, there is more raspberry picking to be done so I better end this post.
