Salmonberries

[misterx]

I was surprised to realize that not many people have heard of salmonberries. They are a close relative of the raspberry, and in case you're wondering the salmonberry name derives from their color, not their flavor or scent. :) They range from red-orange to a bright pinkish-orange to a light sherbert-orange. On the bush, they may be easy to mistake from raspberries when on the reddish end of the spectrum, but look for the crown of sticky hairs around the top. Here's a pic I found: http://www.botany.ubc.ca/herbarium/images/Rspectabilislrg.jpg

My first introduction to salmon berries was in New Jersey. I worked for a couple weeks at a place called Colby Mansion (here's the only semi-worthwhile link I found... http://www.strangeusa.com/ViewLocation.aspx?locationid=6367), emptying it out in preparation for demolition. That is a post in and of itself, but I digress. In the courtyard was this HUGE salmonberry bush that the caretaker had been grooming over the years. In my mind, this bush stands as one of the true experiences of bounty I have ever had... walking up to this bush, laden with ripe berries, most easily an inch long, and holding an enameled wash tub in one hand, I brushed my hand lightly over the berries, making them cascade effortlessly into the tub. Between my friend Derk and I, we took gallons of berries home in maybe a half hour's worth of picking. Derk's mother made a fine cobbler out of them, and I imagine many other things, as the cobbler used only a fraction of what we had picked.

In any case, salmonberries hold a place of mythical awe in my memory. So when Melanie told me she knew of a large salmonberry patch, I was happy to accompany her on a raid. Well, these wild salmonberries were not as large as the ones in NJ (perhaps something to do with Colby Mansion being a Superfund site??) but they were still ripe and tasty. We had picked for perhaps 15 minutes when a torrential rain blew in. We were a good 500 yards from the car, and it rained so hard that I was soaked to the bone. Literally, I couldn't have gotten wetter if I had walked into the lake. My hat turned to a soggy lifeless frump, and I amused Storm by drinking the water that was falling in a stream from the bill. It was quite the adventure. But in the end it was worth it. Here is a picture of the berries we collected, after careful washing by yours truly:






Coffee can ice cream, using every last one of the salmonberries!



This is ice cream made by putting the ingredients in a freezer bag, and then putting the bag into a large coffee can (34oz, 978gram size) loaded with ice and rock-salt, and rolling the thing around on the floor for 20 minutes or so. That gets you thick soft-serve consistency. We put it in the freezer for a couple hours after that.

Damn if that isn't the best ice cream I've ever had in my LIFE, bar none.

Mel was kind enough to write out the recipe if you're interested:
http://melanie.livejournal.com/945113.html

Comments

[natf.livejournal.com]

They look like something we call Loganberries in the UK.

The ice cream looks OM NOM NOM NOM NOM!

[misterx.livejournal.com]

it's very nom nom nom!

or was... it's all gone now. :(

[dampscribbler.livejournal.com]

Jiminy Cricket those are gorgeous!! Me want soooome!

[misterx.livejournal.com]

guess who has clippings of a bush now? :)

[dampscribbler.livejournal.com]

Good thinking! I hope they do well "in captivity."

We planted some raspberries this year, but I put them in too late and too dormant for them to actually berry this year (if they even do in the first year anyway, I don't know.) They came with a warning to keep them "clear" of wild-growing berries which may spread disease. We've got blackberry brambles about 20 feet away, so we'll see how it goes.

[misterx.livejournal.com]

fantastic. ben and jerry wish they could rock ice cream like we did.

[theldara.livejournal.com]

I didn't know what kind of berries Melanie was talking about either - but I bet I've eaten those! They look just like the berries that grow on the farm. Some bushes have those, some have purple blackberries.

[misterx.livejournal.com]

yep, they tend to grow where blackberries do.

[ianlyzu.livejournal.com]

yep. i'd never heard of salmonberries. sounds like something you'd find on neopets.
the ice cream looks AWESOME and i'm sad i didn't get invited over to try any. :(

[melanie.livejournal.com]

next batch i get, i'll show up at your house. you have a coffee can or equivalent thing with a lid we can roll around on the floor?

[ianlyzu.livejournal.com]

nope.

[cheeze.livejournal.com]

they look and sound a lot like wineberries, too. my grandparents had a huge bush of them in their backyard (in addition to a big raspberry patch and a smallish blackberry patch), and we used to go nuts with the berries. wineberries are definitely my favorite- they get ripe earlier and faster, and they're super sweet, even when they're still orange. mmm.

how do you transplant/grow berry bushes?

[rupestur.livejournal.com]

Yesh, I was just going to say, wineberries. They may not be the same thing but I'll be damned if they aren't the best. They're very tender, and don't really keep well so you have to munch em immediately.

[cheeze.livejournal.com]

...keep...berries?? there is no other option than immediate munching!

...unless you have lots and lots and lots, and then you can freeze them and eat them in the middle of winter and mmmm.

[nonspecific.livejournal.com]

I third the wineberries vote. When you pulled them off, did they have an orange base left behind? And were the stems fuzzy more than thorny? Especially when you say "sticky" it makes me think of that. No matter what they are though, I <3 berries. Ariel found some in her backyard the other day that we promptly nommed.