Collecting wild berries is a favorite pastime here in Alaska. Some people pick
berries for fun, family tradition, or to spend some time in the outdoors.
Regardless of whatever reason you choose to pick berries, you'll end up with fresh,
wholesome, tasty, and nutritious food that your family will love. This lesson will
help you to decide what berries are available, where to look for them, and
what to do with them once they're picked. First, let's look at what you need to
take with you when you go. You'll need to take shallow berry containers with lids.
If the containers are too large, berries on the bottom are crushed by the weight
of those on top -- you'll have berries and juice. You'll need a cooler to keep
berries cool on the trip home. Then you'll need to take things that make you
comfortable while you pick. Take boots to protect your feet, a jacket to keep you
warm and dry, and water to drink. Pack all these items in your backpack, along with
insect repellent. The insects are particularly pesky during berry season.
Remember to pick a combination of ripe and underripe berries, particularly if
you're making jelled products. Underripe berries have a higher level of pectin
and will ensure that jellies, jams, and other jelled products thicken properly.
Berries ripen differently depending on the weather during any certain year.
Cooler temperatures or heavy rains or even lots of sunshine can hasten or slow
the ripening process. Here's a general calendar of the order that berries ripen:
Usually, the first berries to ripen are the wild strawberry, followed by
raspberries, black currants, red currants, cloudberries, salmonberries, blueberries,
highbush cranberries, nagoonberries, serviceberries, crowberries, and
lingonberries. Most berries are best when picked at the height of their ripeness
during the summer, though, some berries, such as lowbush cranberries, crowberries,
and rose hips, may be picked after the frost. This is a matter of personal
choice, as some people feel that these berries are sweeter after the frost.
Though we often want to wait on the frost to pick highbush cranberries, they
actually have a better flavor in the late summer, before the frost.
Another thing to keep in mind while you're berry picking is to keep watch for wildlife.
Remember that bears like berries, too, and a watchful eye is very important
when you're in the berry patch. Make some noise as you go through the woods.
Most wildlife will scurry out of your way if they see or hear you coming.
Sing, talk, or yell to make sure you don't surprise a bear. So where do
you look for berries? Many berry pickers won't tell you where their favorite
picking places are, but here's some general information about where to look.
Look for areas where the ground has recently been disturbed for building, or
maybe a fire has recently occurred. There's a natural progression that
occurs when wildfire occurs. When the fire burns off the brush and trees, the
berries returning are often the first step in the reforestation. For this
reason, look for areas of recent burns first. Check out the edges of the road
for favorites like raspberries, and bogs for those berries that like their feet wet,
and high, south-facing sunny slopes. Each berry has a different habitat, so
let's take a quick look at the 10 most sought-after berries in Alaska and
describe their habitat. Blueberries grow on an erect shrub up to 2 feet high.
The leaves are small and oval-shaped. There are three main types of blueberries here
in Alaska. The bog blueberry grows in the bogs, woodlands, and wet and dry tundra
up into the alpine areas. Flowers are bell-shaped and light pink.
Early blueberries are found in the moist, coastal forests and meadows. The Alaska
blueberry grows on a shrub, upright to 6 feet tall in the Southeast and in Southcentral.
Look for the dark fruit that has a whitish bloom on the surface.
Crowberries -- The crowberry looks similar to the blueberry, but the plant has
almost juniperlike needles. It grows in woods, bogs, wet and dry
tundra. The shrub is a low, trailing evergreen and forms mats on the ground.
The leaves are small, narrow, and needlelike.
It's found throughout Alaska in the alpine muskeg of southeastern Alaska
north to Yakutat and west to Kodiak on the Alaska Peninsula in the Aleutian
Islands and on the tundra throughout Interior Alaska north to the Arctic.
Currants have both red and black varieties. Red currants are 1 and 1/2
to 5 feet high with reddish- brown, shredding bark on the twigs.
Leaves are 3- to 5-lobed and toothed. They grow in moist woodlands and clearings.
The black currant grows in southeastern Alaska north to Skagway and Yakutat,
on the Kenai, and in central Alaska. It grows in woods and rocky
outcroppings up into the alpine. Highbush cranberries grow on a shrub
up to 8 feet high with slender gray branches. Leaves are almost maple leaf-like,
either shallowly 3-lobed or not lobed at all, with the edges coarsely toothed.
It grows in woods and meadows from lowlands into the alpine. The highbush
cranberry has a distinctive musty odor and flavor. The fruit has a single
cream-colored, disc-shaped seed. Lingonberries, or lowbush cranberries,
grow on an evergreen vine that has small, thick, oval leaves with a whitish
underneath and edges that roll under. This is a very small plant that's
usually less than 6 inches tall. It grows in tufts or in hummocks and can be
found in bogs, woods, and dry tundra. The stems are very slender, creeping through
the moss and rooting. Nagoonberries are another short plant that's only 5
to 6 inches tall. The plant is erect, arising from spreading underground root stock.
Each leaf has 3-toothed leaflets and coarse veins.
It's found in damper woody places in the coastal and Interior Alaska. It's found
on wet coastal districts of southeastern Alaska, the Gulf of Alaska, the Alaska
Peninsula, and the Bering Sea. Raspberries tend to grow in clearings, dry meadows, and
the edges of woods, about 2 to 4 feet high. Leaves are 3 to 5
leaflets with whitish, hairy underneath and margins irregularly toothed.
The raspberry looks very similar to those that are grown commercially with small
droops and fine white hairs. Salmonberries grow on a shrub from
1 and 1/2 half to 7 feet tall. The stem is woody and the bark is yellowish brown.
Be careful when picking because shrubs may have some prickles. Leaves have 3 to
5 leaflets. The fruit is similar to raspberries in appearance but is usually
larger and may vary from yellow to dark red. Serviceberries grow on a shrub or a
tree from 6 to 16 feet tall. Leaves are 1 to 2 inches long with toothed edges
and thin prominent veins. They grow in dry, exposed areas from sea level up to subalpine.
It grows in thickets and borders of woods. Wild strawberries look
very much like regular strawberries, but the plants aren't as large or robust as
commercial strawberries. Leaves are on long, slender stalks and there are 3
leaves in a group, with margins sharply and deeply toothed. Fruit is oval and
small, up to 1 inch long. More berries will be shown at the end of the module.
Okay, now the berries have been picked. What do we do with those berries for
long- and short-term storage? As soon as you get home,
refrigerate the berries or keep them in the cooler to keep them fresh
until you're able to process them. Remember that more nutrients are preserved when
you process the berries quickly, so aim to get them in the refrigerator or
freezer the same day that they were picked. Next, we'll move on to equipment.
Cleaning and preparing berries for storage is a simple process. You'll need
a cutting board or a cookie sheet, a towel, plastic freezer containers,
freezer bags, and a marker. Berries should be cleaned as soon as possible. It is not
necessary to wash them unless they were growing near a road or populated area
where there is a danger of dust or other impurities. Clean the berries by wrapping
a towel around a board or cookie sheet elevating one end and rolling the
berries down the surface. Leaves and other debris will stick to the towel.
Prop or hold the board at a fairly low angle so you don't bruise the berries.
Gentle rolling is the key to removing the debris but not harming the berries.
We'll be back when we finish cleaning these berries.
Now that the berries are cleaned, they are ready to store by freezing, drying, or canning.
We'll be referring to Alaska's Wild Berries for specific information on
how to preserve your berries. So let's talk about freezing. One of the most
popular ways to save your berries is to freeze them. Berries may be packed with
syrup, sugar, or dry packed. Work in small quantities. This will prevent loss of
quality and nutrients. Most berries have a better texture and flavor
if packed in sugar or syrup; however, the sugar is not necessary to safely
preserve the fruit. If you are watching your sugar intake, choose to do a dry pack.
The type of pack you choose should be based on the intended use.
Those packed in syrup are great for uncooked desserts. Those dry packed or packed in
sugar are best for cooking purposes, since there is less liquid in the product.
So, you'll need berries, sugar, water, bowls or containers,
freezer containers or bags, spoons, and a marker for labeling.
When preparing berries, don't use galvanized copper or iron equipment. The acid in the berries could
react with the metals, forming "off" flavors. There is a difference in plastic
storage bags. The freezer bags are considerably thicker than storage bags.
Always choose the freezer thickness to protect your product from freezer burn.
If you can only get the thinner bags, use two bags for extra protection.
Next we'll discuss packing berries in syrup.
A syrup pack is a good way to preserve berries that are to be eaten uncooked.
The proportion of sugar to water depends on the sweetness of the berries.
For most of our Alaska berries, we recommend a medium syrup.
Mix and dissolve 2 and 1/2 cups sugar in 4 cups of water.
It's easiest to dissolve the sugar in lukewarm water but then chill the syrup before using.
Warm syrup will deteriorate the berries.
You'll need 1 cup of syrup for 4 cups of prepared berries. Put berries in
the container and pour syrup over until the berries are covered, leaving 1 inch headspace.
Seal tightly. Label with the berry name, amount, and date.
Get the berries in the freezer quickly to preserve both the quality and the flavor.
A sugar pack is a good way to freeze berries that are to be cooked.
Sprinkle 1/2 cup sugar over 4 cups of berries. You can mix gently until the juice is drawn
out and the sugar dissolves, but with delicate berries such as raspberries,
it's easiest to layer the sugar in the berries and then let them stand for 15 minutes.
Don't stir the berries. They will deteriorate. You can see the difference
between the berries that have just been sprinkled with sugar and these that have
been sitting. Fill pint- or quart-sized freezer bags 3 to 4 inches from
their tops. Squeeze out the air and seal tightly.
Label with the berry name, the amount, and the date. Now they're ready for freezing.
Next, let's talk about how to dry pack.
A dry pack is a good way to freeze whole fruits that give a good quality product without sugar.
We recommend this method for raspberries and strawberries. Place dry fresh berries in
plastic freezer bags or containers. Seal tightly and label containers. Berries frozen in this
manner may need to be used in recipes where whole, separated berries are not important.
To keep whole berries separated, spread the fruit on a cookie sheet,
freeze until hard, and then transfer to bags or containers.
This will keep berries frozen individually so they are easier to use a
few at a time. That's it for freezing. We'll be back in a minute to can berries.
Berries are high in acid so are safely canned in the boiling water canner.
The best source of instructions for home canning are available from the USDA and
the Cooperative Extension Service, University of Alaska Fairbanks.
You will need a boiling water canner or similar large pot, a large spoon, a jar
lifter, a magnetic lid lifter, a ladle, a canning funnel, jars, 2-piece lids, clean
towels or paper towels, and clean, hot pads. To begin canning, wash jars and
prepare lids according to manufacturer's directions. Jars should be clean but it
isn't necessary to sterilize them if they are processed for at least 10 minutes.
Berries may be covered with your choice of apple
or white grape juice, syrup, or water. A hot or a raw pack may be used.
Let's go through each method.
For a hot pack method, place berries in a boiling
syrup, juice, or water and boil for 30 seconds. Fill clean jars with the hot
berries and the juice or syrup, leaving 1/2 inch headspace.
Wipe the edge of the jar with a clean paper towel or cotton towel and attach
prepared lids and rings. Hand tighten and then process in a boiling water canner.
Fill your canner with hot water and preheat to 180 degrees Fahrenheit,
140 degrees Fahrenheit for raw packs. Load hot, filled jars into the canner, making sure
that the jars have at least 1 inch of water over the top of the jars.
Add hot water, if needed. Cover with canner lid. When the water
boils vigorously, lower heat to maintain a gentle, steady boil, then start the
timer for the recommended processing time. Half pints, pints, or quarts, when hot
packed, are processed for 15 minutes. For raw packed, process the pints for 15 minutes.
When processing quarts using the raw pack method, process for 20 minutes.
If you need additional information on hot water processing,
refer to our module for specific information.
After processing time is completed, remove jars from the canner with a lid lifter and place
on a towel or rack. Do not retighten rings. Air cool jars for 12 to 24 hours
and then check seals. An indented top indicates sealing. Use a spoon and tap
gently on the lid. A clear, ringing sound indicates a sealed jar while a dull thud
tells us it hasn't sealed. Label jars and store them in a clean, cool, dark place.
If the lid did not seal, the jar may be reprocessed using a fresh lid or
it can be refrigerated and used immediately. Or the headspace can be
adjusted to 1 inch and the product can be frozen. Berries are best if consumed
within 1 year and safe as long as lids remain vacuum sealed. Let's take a
look at other berries that you may find during your berry picking outings.
As with many wild products, the production of berries is dependent on the weather,
rainfall, and even the presence of insects, so one year there may be an
abundance of blueberries and the next there may be none. Ask your friends and
neighbors about the berries they've seen and you'll know what to plan for each year.
Whether you find lots of berries or just a few, berry picking is always a
great way to see the beautiful Alaskan countryside, get some exercise and some
good fresh air. Happy picking!