Salal berry
Gaultheria shallon · Berry
Top 10 pairings
The salal berry is the small, dusky blue-black fruit of Gaultheria shallon, a sprawling evergreen shrub of the Pacific Northwest understorey and a member of the heath family (Ericaceae). Mealy, mildly sweet and faintly resinous-aromatic, it was a staple fruit of the region's Indigenous peoples and is still gathered for jam, syrup, wine and fresh eating.
Picking a good onedrag
Matte black and plumpWeeping or fermenting
Black and softeningEveryday bestThe ordinary good punnet, safe to eat as it is. Rinse and dry it, this being wild fruit, then jam, syrup, pie or wine, where the seediness stops mattering.
ColourBlack but dulling, a few still carrying a red shoulder
SqueezeSoft, dents under the thumb and eases most of the way back
Stalk and scarScar dry, a few short red stalks loose in the box
SmellAlmost nothing — a quiet fruit, and that is normal