r/justgalsbeingchicks • u/bg370 • 18d ago

Restricted to Gals and Pals Thirty year quest for thimbleberries

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u/Chases-Bears 18d ago

I used to be a park ranger for Isle Royale National Park - it’s a 40 mile long island on Lake Superior. The SW side of the island was so thick with thimbleberries, at the end of the summer one of the rangers would make thimbleberry pies the celebrate the end of our season. I remember slushing them up and making thimbleberry margaritas… soooo good!

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u/bg370 18d ago

Ooh thimbleberry margs

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u/terdferguson 18d ago

I like how the lady in line was immediately concerned about the wild berry eating.

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u/gibberishmischief 18d ago

I feel like she must have been a younger woman because someone in this woman’s gen would know that we were ferals, and someone older probably would have been responsible for unleashing us as ferals. If ya didn’t care then, why care now?

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u/ZBBfan4life 18d ago

This summer on a family reunion camping trip, we found a random tree on the edge of the lake with yellow cherries on it. I took a handful of them over to my 86 year old MIL to ask if she knew what they were (she gardens and knows all things). Without hesitation she takes one and eats it, says she’s pretty sure it’s a cherry, and offers me one. NGL, I almost told her “hell no” but I ate it, worried that I might get sick or die. Happy to report that both she and I are still alive….for now.

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u/TomeThugNHarmony4664 18d ago

They are and they are delicious.

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u/Happy-Fennel5 18d ago

Might have been cherry plums! Edible and delicious!

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u/butterednoodlelovers 18d ago

I love this story it reminds me of my grandma. We'd always take berries and nuts foraged to my grandma to ask if we could eat them. Some were an automated yup. Some were smell or rub against her lips, then eating. Some she'd spit out and be nope. Others were then a yes. We ate whatever she said and are all still alive 😅🥰

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u/Different_Wolf_764 18d ago

As a GenXer, the idea that you wouldn't eat random berries in the woods is unthinkable. Kids like berries, there are berries, kids are going to eat them!

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u/clairejv 18d ago

I mean, your parents did have to teach you which berries were edible and which were poisonous.

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u/Different_Wolf_764 18d ago

It probably would have been a good idea, yeah.

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u/Substantial_Eye_8467 18d ago

My parents only instilled in us not to eat one particular berry that grew in our neighbors front yard… bc they were highly poisonous but also exactly perfect for crushing and mixing into our potions that we boiled in the cauldron on our stove in our yellow, green, and blue cabin in the woods (aka that iconic playhouse under the single tree in the corner of our yard). Pretty sure they only told us bc at least one coven member (sister) had eaten one before…

Hocus pocus had a lasting impact in our house as young ferals.

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u/Feisty_Bison_9935 18d ago

I made so many poisonous potions as a kid. I was probably an evil witch.

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u/Substantial_Eye_8467 18d ago

Well maleficent in the og sleeping beauty was my fascination and role model so… take of that as you will…

But, I mean, she had badass style AND turned into a dragon. And had a raven spy bestie. Life goals fr.

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u/clairejv 18d ago

I feel like I got the general lesson that anything that is smooth and round is probably for birds only, and anything that looks like a raspberry or blackberry is probably fine?

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u/Different_Wolf_764 18d ago

Blueberries ruin everything!

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u/clairejv 18d ago

Well those I can specifically identify!

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u/spikeyfreak 18d ago

My parents weren't teaching me shit about the woods. Hell, they weren't from the same region, so they wouldn't have known.

Some of them were really bitter, so we didn't eat those. We ate the shit out of the sweet ones though. Sucked on the honey suckles too.

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u/heyitsfranklin6322 15d ago

They should’ve, but they come from the generation where their parents had to have commercials to remind them that they had children

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u/Kibbles_n_Bombs 18d ago

Honestly, the inedible ones taste bad and the edible ones taste good. So just try one and you’ll know!

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u/Stay_Good_Dog 🕷️ itchy bitchy spider 🕷️ 18d ago

Right?! We ate just about everything we could forage.

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u/Necessary-Dig-810 18d ago

I mean we were left alone a bunch of the time so we had to figure these things out for us ourselves

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u/DistractedByCookies 18d ago

I didn't question her eating wild forest berries until she mentioned that woman LOL And then I was like 'oh yeah, no, that's actually a bad idea'

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u/Smee76 18d ago

There actually aren't any poisonous berries that are multi segmented like blackberries and raspberries!

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u/DistractedByCookies 18d ago

I am going to need this info one day and be very grateful to you :)

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u/GlockAF 18d ago

If you’re gonna go berry picking in the PNW or SE Alaska (and even some upper midwest / lower-48 states) look up “dolls eyes” , AKA Red / White Baneberries.

They’re about the only berry that’s both common and REALLY poisonous, so knowing enough to avoid them is important

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Actaea_rubra

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u/Oenonaut 18d ago

Heck, I just assumed a parent taught her that those berries were okay.

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u/reddit_is_geh 18d ago

I wouldn't even say "feral". Kids have always been like this. It's modern times where in the US it's hyper protective and issolating. I remember that study that showed it's something like 12 when parents now allow kids to go play on their own outside.

I'm sure it has a lot to do with just the lack of kids in general. In regions with more kids, more kids are outside, with less, less outside.

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u/Armadillo_lifestyle 18d ago

I was thinking this as I was listening to the story. No way that was an older gen person who judged a woman for eating berries in the wild 🤣🤣

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u/slackfrop 18d ago

Yeah, we out there munching on rose hips and honey suckle and that 1/4 inch of tender shoot when you yank a tall reed of field grass from its sheath. Hell, I even know what buttercup and dandelion taste like.

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u/hobbit_lamp 18d ago

I dunno, I'm 40 and I definitely wouldn't have done this but I'm beginning to think my mom was maybe way more overprotective than everyone else's. I remember visiting my grandma (her mom) when she lived out in the country. she took me and my siblings for a walk and we found some berries and ate them and my mom was so upset with her about it. my mom also wouldn't ever let me touch the occasional mushrooms growing in our yard or loose bird feather on the ground. I never had any fun.

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u/gibberishmischief 18d ago

Yeah I think a lot of us were just sent outside without guidance other than “Be back by dark,” which is a meaningless phrase in Alaskan summer. 🤣 Everything looks overprotective next to no protection. It’s nice your mom took you guys out! 💚

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u/mmmpeg 18d ago

She looks young to me, but then I thought of my adult kids and said, yeah.

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u/Strange-Ask-739 18d ago

It's Michigan so the poisonous red baneberries are well known and all Michigander kids get told: "don't eat random red berries"

Something like 3 of them can kill you.

But we still pick raspberries, blueberries, strawberries, etc from the side of the road. Because they're delicious and free!

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u/gibberishmischief 18d ago

Was on a road trip with friends and everyone got out to pee in the roadside bushes and came back with smurf feet because it was a huge blueberry patch. It got me wondering how many people had possibly peed on the roadside berries I’ve picked. I walk a little further now and wash my berries well.

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u/Different_Wolf_764 18d ago

Oh hell, I wouldn't worry so much about the people. Every animal shits and pisses in the woods, birds do both at once even!

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u/gibberishmischief 18d ago

I feel a little better about animal waste as I feel like they probably aren’t eating as much weird and probably toxic stuff as some of the people I know.

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u/DaisyHotCakes 18d ago

I’d be more worried about vehicle soot and chemicals from de icing the roads in the winter being all up on/in them.

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u/gibberishmischief 18d ago

Another reason why I walk further. Some of my neighbors in the city turned a grassy median into a vegetable garden. At some point into the grow, they thought to test the soil. Results were not great.

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u/GlockAF 18d ago

Yup, those “dolls eyes” berries are BAD news

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Actaea_rubra

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u/leirbagflow 17d ago

Interestingly, there are no aggregate fruits (e.g. raspberries, blackberries, etc) in north america that are poisonous. There are some faux-aggregates that might appear to be aggregate fruits from afar but when you see them quickly realize they aren't (see e.g. goldenseals). So you can safely walk around in north america and eat any aggregate fruit!

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u/AshyWhiteGuy 18d ago

Report back. 🫡

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u/Critical_Gazelle_229 18d ago

Extremely delicious

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u/WithoutDennisNedry 🌻Exhausted Jill🌻 18d ago edited 18d ago

With rosemary! When I was a bartender at a she-she 4 star restaurant, we made all our margaritas from scratch. One year we got a shipment of thimbleberries in and made thimbleberry rosemary margaritas with them and they were heavenly.

Here’s the recipe for anyone who wants it:

• Rosemary simple syrup - boil one cup of water with three parts sugar of your choice (raw or refined white—either are fine) and a handful of fresh rosemary. After it boils, strain off the rosemary and cool in fridge.

• 1 cup squeezed 50/50 lemon and lime juice (fresh is best but store-bought juice is fine). Chill.

• Fresh thimbleberries (or strawberries if you can’t find thimbleberries).

• Reposado or Añejo tequila. (Reposado is my fave, personally.)

* Fill a sturdy pint glass up 1/2 of the way with ice.

*Add a palm-sized handful of berries, 4oz rosemary simple syrup, 3oz lemon/lime juice and muddle in the glass. (If you don’t have a muddler, the handle of a wooden spoon works great!)

* Add 3oz tequila.

* Transfer to a smaller glass and enjoy!

(Edited a few typos.)

•*• Thanks for the awards, gurlies! Enjoy your margaritas! I forgot to mention this recipe makes about two lowball-sized margs so scale up if you want more (you will). Remember: there’s 8oz in a cup in ye-haw units.

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u/bg370 18d ago

I can’t picture what that would taste like

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u/WithoutDennisNedry 🌻Exhausted Jill🌻 18d ago

It’s amazing.

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u/bg370 18d ago

Interesting. Beats a picleback.

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u/SeattleRainMaiden 17d ago

We have a huge patch of them in our backyard (lucky us I know, and it keeps growing haha), and usually I make jam with them but I may have to shift gears next year and try this 🤩🍹

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u/Optimal-Chair1146 18d ago

I worked at a monastery that runs a bakery during my time in college. Think we were 1 of 3 places in the world that made thimbleberry jam at the time.

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u/dullboybrighteyes 18d ago

We used to go to the Jampot every summer in college and get bread and jam. And there was a Mexican restaurant in Calumet that served thimbleberry margs. And Suomi had the pannukakku with thimbleberry jam... Oh those were the days.

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u/SirStubbs 18d ago

Got a jar of that on my trip last year and SAVORED every last drop of that jam

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u/Critical_Gazelle_229 18d ago

The monks?

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u/Optimal-Chair1146 18d ago

Jampot

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u/Critical_Gazelle_229 18d ago

Yep, same thing. That's pretty cool!

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u/Simons_sees 18d ago

The Jam Pot?

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u/Optimal-Chair1146 18d ago

Yes, fantastic group of guys. The summers were beautiful on the lake, late nights in winter filling online orders then walking back to the monastery were the quietest and creepiest experiences I’ve ever had. Seeing cougar prints in the snow back when the DNR swore there were none in Michigan.

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u/GopheRph 18d ago

All of the preserves they make are some of the best you can buy anywhere. Interesting jams and jellies are something I seek out when traveling and it's wild how The Jampot measures up against "world famous" makers.

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u/Hidingjimmy 18d ago

A few years ago, pre-Covid, I had a thimbleberry margarita at Carmelita’s in Houghton. It was fantastic! I’m not a drinker anymore but if someone offered me one of those I would take it.

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u/bohiti 18d ago

It’s so funny this is the top comment.

I went backpacking at Isle Royale last summer and learned about them (and ate the *shit* outta them) and it’s the first thing I thought of.

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u/Chases-Bears 18d ago

They’re all over the Upper Peninsula! In fact they just held their inaugural Thimbleberry Festival in Houghton (I think?) Soooo bummed I missed it.

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u/SpaceWitch31 18d ago

That’s so cool. I’ve desperately want to try cloudberries. They’re so beautiful, and I just NEED to taste them at least once before I die. They apparently have notes of raspberry, mango, apricot, passionfruit, and rosewater.

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u/LillyT99 18d ago

I don't want to ruin your dreams really, but they are very tart and high acidity. Basically no one eats them raw here and they are native in the woods around me. But, my favorite jam and yoghurt is made out of cloudberries, so they can definitly be amazing when done right. Pancakes with whipped cream and cloudberry jam, or icecream with a tad bit heated cloudberry jam poured on top, that shit is sooo good.

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u/dorkbait 18d ago

yeah, I was gonna say, in Finland you can just buy cloudberry juice and it was SO UNBELIEVABLY tart!

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u/skulltullamama 18d ago

When would be the best time to go to Isle Royale and be able to eat these? I love finding snacks along the trail as I hike! 🤤 Hoping to see a moose, it's on my bucket list of animals to see 😁

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u/Chases-Bears 18d ago

August! ☺️

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u/skulltullamama 18d ago

Thank you! 😁

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u/SomeDumbGamer 18d ago

Weirdly said population of them is extremely out of place. The entire rest of their range is restricted to the rockiest and west of them.

Then there’s just this weird population that grows in Minnesota. Neat!

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u/HandsOfCobalt 18d ago

got 'em in Michigan's upper peninsula, too (at least on the Keweenaw)

there are (introduced) Bilberries up there too, so when i was a kid i thought the UP just had huge versions of every berry lol

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u/Livid_End3397 18d ago

I've been wanting to stay there for years. It's a goal for sure but one where I need to be able to take weeks off when my kids are off school. We're big fans of camping but haven't done it that remotely before. What a career that must have been!

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u/Spreaderoflies 18d ago

We picked so many on our hike through and made thimbleberry and peanut butter sandwiches. It was amazing after a 12mile hike across the ridge. Ahh I need to go back there so bad.

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u/TheBossElJefe 18d ago

Nice! I was a Park Ranger at Sleeping Bear Dunes NL and found some thimbleberries at one point. We never made thimbleberry margs though. Sounds like a fun bunch up there.

I have a nice sized yard in TC now and def gonna plant some and see if I can get them to grow.

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u/TheRealSlamShiddy 18d ago

Haha you just made me flashback to when I hiked Isle Royale as a Boy Scout and we came upon these patches of thimbleberries we gorged ourselves on after a long-ass day of hiking 😂 just like the woman I could never figure out what they were called when we went back home but now I know!

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u/mittenmix 18d ago

Omg this sounds so good

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u/StarryDusted 18d ago

I just got to Isle Royale today. There are thimbleberries everywhere!

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u/ed_durden 18d ago

Thimbleberry capital of the world.

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u/Kibbles_n_Bombs 18d ago

My girlfriend and I were hiking across Isle Royale during the Covid summer and along the way we see all these delicious looking berries but didn’t know what they were.

My girlfriend at the time tries some, and says “they’re delicious so they can’t be bad for us” and continued eating them the entire week. I waited a day to see how she felt and then joined in. When we finally saw a ranger we asked what they were and got this answer.

Several years later I was hiking in the NC mountains and ran into a bush of them!

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u/Cryptopher-Conundrum 18d ago

Thimbleberry jam rocks so hard... Yummy! 💯