Blue Berry

Aug 17 2009, Rainy Hollow



Vaccinium ovalifolium
Heath family

August 17 2008
Rainy Hollow (Haines Road) on the banks of Fuchs Creek, below Mnt. McDonnel. (British Columbia)

Don and mine ultimate favorite berry.
Most delicious to eat straight from the bush, I do make some jam, but most of them I freeze whole and we eat them all winter for breakfast and dessert, which can be as simple as a bowl of berries with a little cream and sugar.

for common names I have read ; oval leaved blueberry,
early blueberry and I have even heard huckleberry
but to me this is The Blueberry.(feel free to contradict)

Vaccinium is actually a Latin name given to the blueberry.
ovalifolium - oval leaves.

bristly black currant

the flowering one June 7 2017

Ribes lacustre
Grossulariaceae, gooseberry family

ribes - acid tasting
lacustre- growing along ponds and lakes

The berry is very sticky and not my favorite to pick, but of its abundance and guaranteed good crop, it is a welcome addition to my harvest. It is to me not very tasty raw, But delicious as a juice. I made juice one year when the berries were covered with Fireweed fluff. Most years I make jam, which I mix with Black Currants and/or Raspberries and this year even Strawberries, which all grow in the Black Currant patch I pick.

On August 10 and 11 2008, we picked 4 litres of the above mix. Made delicious jam, using less then half white sugar, boiling it for at the most 10 min.

I call this a Gooseberry, i find it along roads and power lines. Semi-wet and semi-shaded.

At the end of August I made jam with just those berries. And it turned out very good, resembling black currant jam.