Planning a trip?

Oregon's South Coast is your destination. Check out these wonderful Bay Area activities.

70 Wheel chair access trails Wheel chair access trails

For those traveling with people who use wheelchairs or who have o ...

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71 Hook up your horse trailer Hook up your horse trailer

Hook up the horse trailer and head out into the wilds of Coos Cou ...

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69 Pick a peck of berries

Pick a peck of berries Berries, berries, berries the South Coast has them!

First in the season are the brilliant orange salmon berries, a member of the raspberry family. Sweet and watery, they are a perfect thirst quencher for hikers, sort of like natural Gatorade. They seem to peak about the same time that schools let out for the summer, and for the children, are a herald of three months worth of free time.

Next are thimble berries, scarlet-red and shaped like a small cap. They also are members of the raspberry family and are a tasty summer treat that last into mid-summer when salal berries begin their sweet purple appearance.

The salal berries are a member of the heath family, closely related to huckleberries and blueberries, and they taste best cooked into jam, jelly, pie or cobbler. Only eat these sweet berries around your family and closest friends who would still find you attractive with purple teeth and a black tongue because these berries are rich in dark colors that stain hands and mouth. A nutritious berry with a long season, the Indians of the South Coast favored salal berries, drying them into cakes to be dipped into melted tallow and enjoyed during the winter months.

The most popular berries on the South Coast today are the several varieties of juicy Himalyan blackberries. These versatile berries can be picked with the risk of encounters with prickly thorns, but many consider the chance of blood-letting worth it.

Mashed and poured over ice cream, in pies, cobblers or as jam or jelly, these berries carry the richness of summer in their shiny orbs. Himalyan blackberries ripen in mid- to late August and early September. They are plentiful along many trails.

Stop by local bookstores or the South Slough National Estuarine Research Reserve visitors center near Charleston for books on berries and other native plants.
68 See Shell Island 70 Wheel chair access trails
 

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