juniper berries
Yesterday I saw these beautiful berries during a hike to Cameron Falls.*
The Pancake Chronicles
Sunday, September 17, 2006
The Pancake Chronicles
My name is Colleen.
I love taking my time and finding beauty and humour in things before they happen - as in seeds and salamanders.
"The sweetest thing in all my life has been the longing — to reach the Mountain, to find the place where all the beauty came from — my country, the place where I ought to have been born. Do you think it all meant nothing, all the longing? The longing for home? For indeed it now feels not like going, but like going back."
C.S. Lewis - Till We Have Faces: A Myth Retold
"Look, it's not in my nature to be mysterious. But I can't talk about it and I can't talk about why."
Rusty Ryan - Ocean's Twelve
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21 Comments:
I am going to take wild guess and say those weren't fit for human consumption?
Rachel - Your guess is as good as mine! Let's just say I didn't try it to find out. :P I should ask my friend Wendy what they are. She's a northern girl through and through. I'm sure she'd know.
I can see that bush with a lovely dusting of white snow and Christmas lights... am I nuts to already be thinking that way :)
That is one of the prettiest pictures I've seen! What a great eye you have!
Kori - I'm so the same! We woke up to snow in Manning on Thursday and it made me wish it was Christmas. So you're not nuts on your own. :)
Did you eat one?
never mind- I guess they were snow white deadly! Very pretty pic though!
They look like wild blueberries that M Stewart had on her show a year or so ago! They pick them with special rakes!!
Or maybe not...better not try them until you know for sure!!
One a berry, two a berry, hot cross buns.
For some reason my brain chose to replace penny with berry.
Did you eat them? Atleast one? Although blue food generally makes me queasy.
Hey you, what's going on? I'll be going hiking in a few days myself and I'm sooo excited!
Secret word:yowvllys (yow valleys)
Sonya - thanks, girlie!
Kori - it's the piney-looking foliage's fault. It just lends itself to ponder Christmasy thoughts, I'm sure of it. And how can you be crazy to be thinking of the bestest time of the year? :)
Jillian - Thank you! You made my heart glow.<3 I was kind of going crazy taking pictures that day. (Just ask Mark) A HUGE hunk of them I just deleted when I got home cuz well, you know, that's the joy of a digital camera, you can huck what sucks. I think a digital encourages me to be more adventursome because I don't have to pay for every picture I take and, well, I can be cheap. Hmmm. Probably just a "thank you, Jillian" would have sufficed! (gleep)
Kori and Jillian - if you're in the mood for Christmas already you should come to Yellowknife! Snow should be here in just a few short weeks. You would get your fill for certain!
Betsy - fortunately (or unfortunately depending on the nature of your feelings toward me) I did not eat them. My mom seemed to think they looked like yew berries. I looked them up on the internet and beside YEW it said "Fatal. Foliage more toxic than berries. Death is usually sudden without warning symptoms". Eep!
Hey Keri! Thanks for coming by! I truly wish they had been wild blueberries because it sounds lovely and so Martha. You know, "oh yes, my dear! I collected wild blueberries with my special rake today. Come by later for tea and wildberry scones!" Alas, no such thing. (See the response to Betsy.) Those wildberry scones would be the last thing I'd ever consume!
Acie! It would be great if we could replace every penny with berries for then we could munch our way through a lot of useless change! ;) No worries. Not one mysterious berry of blue did I consume. (See response to Betsy).
Do blueberries make you queasy? And is "yowvllys" the name of the place you're going hiking? Why is is secret? So many questions for thee. :)
Hey, Colleen, I'm 99.9999% certain those are Juniper berries, and very edible. I actually have some dried Juniper I bought from Epicure Selections, which I have a salmon recipe that calls for them. And I think a venison stew recipe, too. (Both in Nourishing Traditions, btw.) Check out the Wikipedia entry, and tell me if you think I'm right.
T-Bean! Well, I'll be jiggered. I do think you're right! YAY! I could have eaten them. Dag nabbit. And come to think about it I remember Mark saying something about juniper when we were hiking. There were different berries we saw out there. After I took this picture I should have stripped it clean and made some scones a la Martha Stewart. Thanks, smarty pants! ;) LY.
LOL. You'll know for next time! I'm just jealous about the whole fact that you were even HIKING in the first place. So sad--I live in this wonderful hiking territory now, with hills all up and down the Peace that just call to me--but it's pretty tricky to go hiking pushing a stroller and coaxing two preschool/toddler age children to keep up. So...I hope we live here long enough that I can actually take advantage of the wonderful terrain I see every day outside my window.
And I was going to say earlier: Jillian, you're in Manning? We're practically neighbours!
Love the pic Colleen! Beautiful! If those are edible, it might be fun to try them!
Thanks, Chickie-D! I would love to try them but I fear it may never happen. In one post I have gone from "Fatal. Foliage more toxic than berries. Death is usually sudden without warning symptoms" to "I'm 99.9999% certain those are Juniper berries, and very edible"!!! Although I believe them now to be edible I think I would be extremely nervous to swallow unless a Berry Whiz was standing beside me saying softly in my ear, "Go ahead, sweet girl! Partake! Partake!" Know any Berry Whizzes?
I can confirm for you that they are 100% edible and taste a little different they have a blueberry texture but have a slight pine flavour. I tried them a few weeks ago when we were wild cranberry picking with a friend.
Awesome, Laurie! Yes, I'm feeling more and more confident all the time. Maybe I'll keep an eye on you for a couple more days and if you don't turn blue or have a random limb fall off I'll venture a nibble. :)
Betsy - FYI! sounds like the berries have been deemed edible and are called juniper berries. Laurie ate one and has verified their edibleness. Yehaa!
oh yummy! Over ice cream...
Bring some for the bachelor k!
xoxo
Nice berries.
Well you and I can start are own currency = juniper berries.
the secret word? That was the word verification thingy. That's what it showed and I figured it meant yow valleys.
Bets! Hot java, berries and ice cream and The Bachelor ... here we come!
Ruthie - for some reason your comment made me laugh. Is that weird? I think so. But thanks! I thought they were nice, too. :)
Ace! I love it! That would be a GREAT currency. It delights me just thinking of it. Although there's a chance I'd become poor because of eating my income. :) And thanks for clarifying re: yow valleys. Those verifications make me laugh. And is it just me or are they becoming longer and weirder?
Yum!:-)
any questions?
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