Soopolallie

"Soopolallie" (Shephardia canadensis)

2008 May 9

2008 May 13

2007 June 20

2007 July 6

2007 July 16

2007 July 16

2007 July 16

Not beauteous, by any stretch of the imagination, but its fruit is edible. The First Nations people dried these berries to be used alone and with other dried fruit. They also whipped fresh berries up into a froth, added sweetener and the name, Indian Ice Cream, was attached to the concoction. I decided that I had to try whipping some berries up with sugar ... only to find the resulting substance still very bitter. Bleck! Not a recipe I'd do again!!! Also, they were absolutely horrendous to pick being small and very sticky. The native peoples had a way of beating them off of the bushes onto mats laid underneath ... and that surely would be the way to do it. They are apparently a good source of iron. I'll pass, thank you. You'll find lots of these bushes in our area ... we have any number in our own back yard.