Rubus americanus

Hort.

Dwarf raspberry

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Wikimedia Commons - Currie Brothers Company.; Henry G. Gilbert Nursery and Seed Trade Catalog Collection.

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Wikimedia Commons - Mike Baird from Morro Bay, USA

What to Eat

Edible parts: Fruit

Salmonberries are edible plants. The fruit has been referred to as "diverse, from bright, fruity and citrusy to deep and earthy with spicy notes" and depending on ripeness and site, they are good eaten raw – whether red or golden – and when processed into jam, candy, jelly and wine. Native American people ate the young shoots or used it as a medicinal plant. The shoots were harvested during April to early June before they turned woody or tough, and were peeled, then steamed, boiled, or pit-cooked, and eaten (or less commonly, eaten raw). Traditionally, the berries and sprouts were also eaten with salmon or mixed with oolichan grease or salmon roe. They were not dried because of their high moisture content. It is still used as a food source and medicinal plant in regions of Alaska today. Other uses by Native Americans include: Boiling the leaves with fish as a flavoring (by the Nuu-chah-nulth people) Using the leaves to line baskets, wipe fish, and cover cooking pits (by the Kaigani Haida people) Using the branches as a pipe stem (by the Makah people) Chewing and spitting the leaves (or bark in the winter) onto a burn as a treatment due to their astringent qualities (by the Quileute people) Boiling the bark in seawater to create a brew to clean infected wounds (especially burns) as well as reduce labor pains (by the Quinault people) It is also widely grown as an ornamental plant for its flowers, with a double-flowered clone identified in Washington and British Columbia. R. spectabilis has escaped cultivation and become naturalized in parts of northwestern Europe, including Great Britain, Ireland and the Faroe Islands.