In a shaded area we found a red berry patch. Don’t they look a heck of a lot like red salmonberries?! My husband thought so. In fact, he at first figured we stumbled upon a patch of wild salmonberries just like those he foraged during his childhood. I’ve never experienced eating or even seeing a salmonberry, so all I had to go on was his detailed descriptions and instinct. After cautiously examining the berries, the bushes, the thorns, the leaves, etc., my husband carefully picked a berry and ate it. I watched with a horrified look on my face. He nibbled that one berry for what felt like forever but in reality was probably a minute or so. Then he said it didn’t taste exactly as he remembered (more watery and less sweet) but that it wasn’t bad. He picked another red berry, and then another and another. I was still not feeling as certain as him, but from what all I know of wild brambles the berries seemingly looked just fine. It wasn’t until my husband had eaten a few berries that I decide to try one.
He extended his palm full of berries and I took a deep red one and popped it into my mouth. The tart watery juice burst onto my tongue and I immediately spit it out, then laughed and said, “No way!” I watched him hover over a bush of mysterious red berries and told him that I loved him, as silly as that may have seemed at the time. My husband chuckled and confidently said the berries were fine. Several minutes later we explored more of the area.
Nearby the red berry patch, we found bunches of wild blackberries growing within some tall grass. I squealed and bounced over and started excitedly picking. Now those were berries that I knew really well! [kool-aid smile] They were all over the place, and of course the best branches were further in and covered with even heftier thorns. I didn’t care that I had on a skirt and no socks. I pushed the tall grass aside, peeked around for creatures and then went for it. By the time I finished I was christened by both mosquitoes and thorns. I would have left with a lot more blackberries if I hadn’t gobbled up two for every one that I put into my container. After exploring more of the area, my husband wandered back toward the red berry patch to gather more berries and I decided to take another opportunity to get more blackberries.
On this second round of foraging, I was more brave to try another red berry or two. This batch was sweeter though still watery. Unbeknownst to my husband, I saved a few…just in case. I had it in the back of my mind that even though we felt fine and exhibited no ill effects, if either one of us became unwell later I at least had a sample of what we ingested.
On the way to our next destination, I couldn’t stop thinking about the red berries. So while my husband drove I searched the web via my PDA, first looking for salmonberries. There I was halfheartedly holding a conversation as I scoured the internet, excitedly exclaiming a couple times about finding all kinds of salmonberry pictures. I compared the red berries I kept with the images and noticed many similarities but also some differences. My husband did a great job of humoring until I talked about it so much that he started to feel less confident. After we arrived at our next stop, my web browsing ceased and we enjoyed the rest of the day.
At home much later that night, my salmonberry search continued. The more information and pictures I came across, the more I questioned the shape of the leaves we saw to what I found on the internet, as well as the cluster of red berries we saw versus berries growing on a single stem. Then there were also the slight differences in each berry base. I read about other people who also assumed they had found salmonberries but later learned that they were thimble berries. “Thimble berries?” So then I looked up thimble berries. Those were much too broad to be what we had found, plus they grew differently. No, the red berries we ate were not thimble berries. And I was having bigger doubts that they were even salmonberries. Of course I was telling my husband some of what I discovered as I searched but couldn’t reach a conclusion. He said he’d do some digging as well. Probably after 45 minutes or more he said, “Ah-ha! I found it! They’re wineberries!!” The picture on his computer screen matched perfectly, descriptions and all. I let out a gasp of relief and amazement. “Yayee!” I asked him how in the world he found out what they were. He said that he searched for salmonberries on Wikipedia, looked under the Scientific Classification section and clicked on Genus. He then looked through each type of berry listed until he found one that matched. I peered into the container of berries, scrutinizing the red ones we then knew for sure to be wineberries. Exciting little things, those red berries!
Whenever foraging, you must be absolutely positive in what you know to be edible. Do not do what we did.
We went foraging again!
