Not sure if anybody has started a thread on foraging wild berries… I’ve noticed a couple on mushrooms but living in the deep South we have a nice variety of offerings. Just picked my first little batch of the season mostly dewberries but plenty of wild blackberries raspberries and the occasional blueberries
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We used to pick black raspberries every year up on the mountain above where I grew up. One year I found a patch of red raspberries and they were the tastiest berries I’ve ever had. The bland crap they sell at the grocery store is trash compared to wild ones.
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I do my best to forage but living in a big city with lots of greenery the fauna and other people often beat me to it lol.
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Yes once you go wild foraging you never go back… just have to compete with birds and other critters but man they’re so much sweeter and vibrant
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Watching this one - we’ve got real sandy soil, alot of wild blue berries and strawberries do come up but they are very tiny, humorously tiny. You can also be lucky to find wild micro rasperberries, I know a good patch, but hardly worth picking to save, just to eat. I’ve found the occasional strawberry almost as big as half a dime… but thats usually where I am watering something and dropped some chicken shit or compost or something.
I’m following now, will try to remember to post these micro wild berries when they come around this season.
We get really awesome saskatoon berries here, that plump up real nice by fall, first light frost and they turn real sweet. We’ve filled bags in our freezer, there are alot on good years. I believe they are also known as ‘Service Berries’.
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We’ll look at that - I did find some shots of the Saskatoon and the tiny wild strawberries from last season.
Saskatoon haul. 
The strawberries make up for their size with some massive flavour - so sweet they are worth the pick. 
Blueberries are even tinier - sweet with some sour in the best way and burst in your mouth.
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We have a bunch of blackberry and wine berry bushes on our property here. The wine berries I let some neighbors pick as I’m not a big fan of them but the blackberries we only share with the black bears. Trying to get some before the bears destroy them all is the trick. I know they’re getting ripe when I see the big piles of bear crap full of seeds. Nothing better than fresh blackberry cobbler and a scoop of vanilla ice cream.
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It sounds like making some bear bacon might help. I can attest it tastes great with blackberries too.
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The bears here must have calendars lol. A week before hunting season comes in they all seem to disappear. All year long I’ll have multiple bears in the area and in late September they just dissappear. I love having them around during the year, especially the babies.
Here’s one from last year that stopped to sniff our Hummer became my wife left a bag of cat food in the back seat.
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Delicious and nutritious.
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The Blackberries or the Bear Crap??
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Either would be fine but the combo is sublime.
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Blackbear Cobbler
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Dude! That’s no joke. I’ve been making strawberry jam with the native strawberries for years. It’s the best of all and everyone who’s tried it, agrees. Simple ingredients too. Strawberries and sugar. Sometimes I’ll add a tsp of lemon juice. Mmmm, I was just out in our prairie and the strawberries are flowering hard!
Also, do you know what species of Saskatoons those are? Arborescence? I love all service berries. They are so easy to collect! My organization is currently working with local farmers to establish native, perennial crops they can take to market, and will last for years without having to replant. Anyway. I love berries!!!
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No idea on the ‘strain’ of these ones. Haha but all I know is all of the Saskatoon’s out there are super healthy. I know a guy who used to dry freeze them and sell a powder version to China, because there is some nutritional aspect that is sought after.
But yeah those strawberries are no joke - you prob wouldn’t even need to add sugar. So sweet when they are ripe… but with the ones around here I’d be picking for weeks for one jar…
A great taste explosion that’s worth bending over for, when I do notice those glimmers of dark red.
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I just recently found out that blackberries only fruit on the 2nd year vine wood so its best to prune only to the 1st year stock this will allow fruiting from the vine every year
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My BIL is from Saskatchewan and strips every Saskatoon berry he finds. He makes pies from them.
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Well, I spend hours picking them to make about 5 small jelly jars. I’ll document it better this year! Worth it though.
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