Adventures in Berry Picking

Don, Cyan, Logan and I took a nice long walk around our neighborhood yesterday. We foraged a few blackberries that are so prevalent here this time of year, and then saw this:

I read up on it in my wild plants book last night and they said that this variety of berry (called Rubus, meaning Ruby, but names berries that have one seed per part and a cluster of parts on one fruit, also covers the hollow varieties (raspberries) as well as the solid varieties (most blackberries)) has NO poisonous varieties. I was thinking what would fit in better with Pioneer Week than foraging native, wild berries and making something out of them?

This particular type of Rubus berry, called a "Creeping Cloudberry", apparently grow from the northern part of North America all the way into the Arctic Ocean. So when you find Rubus berries, creeping, vining, or on stalks, red, black, purple, or orange, eat them all and file the site they grew on away for next year to get more (nearly exactly in those words in my Edible Wild Plants, Mushrooms, Fruits, and Nuts: How to Find, Identify, and Cook Them by Katie Letcher Lyle)...

I took Cyan and Logan on a walk this morning with my picking baskets and we picked a bunch! We found, to our dismay, that they also have little thorns, but it just reinforced the fact that they were in this family and this type of berry. They have a sweet tart flavor, very similar to a Salmonberry, but a bit sweeter. Like a VERY light flavored blackberry. They will make something yummy for dessert tonight.

I am going to try to move a piece of the plants the 10 blocks into my yard and trellis them... that would be awesome.