Salal Shrub

Native to Western North America, this beautiful shrub surrounds The Secret Garden.

This year - we dried the berries and leaves in our drying rack. We included Salal berries into a mixed berry jam we made mid-summer with huckleberries, rasberries, strawberries, rhubard and salal berries - all foraged on the land & garden with Sisters and community. You can purchase our yummy homemade jam here. We also made mixed berry fruit leather with all of the berries and then rolled up and stored in the freezer.

We are so blessed with many varieties of berries around - all with their own unique flavor and energy.

Salal Berries are high in antioxidants.

They are easy to dry and store in glass jars for later use of tea or adding to granola.

The fresh berries are amazing to make a shrub out of. It is a vinegar based concentrated beverage that you can add to club soda for a refreshing drink - you can add a bit of champagne if you wish. Dad made them this year and they are so good!

Today, September 14th, 2023 - is the last harvest of the really juicy berries for the season - they are starting to dry naturally and I prefer to commune with the berry when it is juicey. They will come back against next year when this cycle returns.

The leaves can be chewed or made into a tea. You can dry the leaves and store in a jar for winter.

How fun it is to have relation with all the abundance around.
Thank you Salal for your medicine!