Are Salal Berries Edible?

Salal Berries have a long history in the Pacific Northwest as edible plants with health benefits and medicinal purposes. Today, they’re just starting to be recognized for all they have to offer, including a high antioxidant content that rivals blueberries.

Are Salal Berries Edible?

Yes, Salal Berries are edible plants. Today, they are popular with hiking enthusiasts since the salal plants are abundant in the Pacific Northwest, especially west of the Cascade Mountains.

What Do Salal Berries Taste Like?

Salal Berries have a unique flavor. They’re often compared to blueberries. Anyone familiar with blueberries knows that depending on the level of ripeness, you may be eating very sweet, tart, or mildly sweet berries. Salal Berries tend to taste more like the mild and pleasant version of blueberries. They’ve been described as a blueberry crossed with black currant.

Blueberries tend to be juicier than Salal Berries, which often have a more leather-like texture.

How People Eat Salal Berries

Salal Berries have a long history in the Pacific Northwest. Native Americans along the Pacific coast ate the Salal Berries fresh, used them as a mild sweetener, dried the berries, and made them into cakes.

Today, many hikers will gather both Oregon Grape and Salal Berries to combine them. The Oregon Grape is very tart. The mild flavor of the Salal Berry can help balance the Oregon Grape, also found along the west coast of the United States.

Salal Berries are high in pectin. This gel-like consistency makes them a popular berry for jams. They’re also a solid choice for adding to yogurt. Some outdoor enthusiasts practice collecting Salal Berries starting in the late spring and going well into the late summer, freezing them, and then adding them to yogurt throughout the year.

While the high pectin content gives them a gel-like consistency, they can be worked into a liquid and made into wine.

The high pectin content also makes them a popular choice for fruit leather, particularly when mixed with other berries.

The Safety And Health Benefits Of Eating Salal Berries

While Salal Berries are common plants along the west coast, you don’t often see them sold in grocery stores. Because of this, there aren’t a lot of studies being done on the safety of eating these wild berries. There is a long history of Native Peoples eating them, hikers enjoying them, and there is growing research being done on the safety and benefits of eating from the Salal plant.

Of particular interest has been the work done by a plant biologist at the University of Victoria. Biologist David Constabel has found that Salal Berries have three times the antioxidant capacity of blueberries.

This is particularly interesting news since blueberries are often referred to as a superfood due to their high antioxidant capacity. Antioxidants aren’t found in large amounts in many foods. Studies have shown a correlation between eating foods high in antioxidants and a reduced risk of heart attack, strokes, and Type 2 diabetes, among other diseases. The high antioxidant levels of salal berries have raised interest in them in recent years.

Where Will Hikers Find Salal Berries

Hikers find Salal Berries in the coastal areas of western North America. They’re commonly found in Northern California all the way up through Southeast Alaska. They prefer to grow in shady areas where the soil is moist. They’re often found in coniferous forests.

Early in the spring, Salal Plants will have light pink flowers growing in neat rows. These spring flowers have been popular in the floral industry. When they aren’t collected for floral arrangements, the flowers become dark blue berries in the late spring or early summer.

The berries grow in neat rows along one main stem. They’re difficult to remove from the stem. Because salal leaves have medicinal properties, many hikers will break off the stems and bring the entire thing home with them so they can collect both the berries and salal leaves. Once at home, hikers may need to use scissors to free the berries from the stem.

Does The Salal Berry Have Medicinal Purposes?

The Salal plant is among the well-known medicinal plants of the Pacific west. Early on, indigenous people found many uses, particularly for the leaves of the plant.

Young leaves of the salal plant can be used as an appetite suppressant. Salal leaves have anti-inflammatory properties that have been found to help with sore throats, coughs, diarrhea, digestion, and other flu-like symptoms. Because of its anti-inflammatory properties, many have reported that salal leaves help with inflammation in the urinary tract. The plant has been used to reduce bladder inflammation and keep urine flowing.

For medicinal purposes, the leaves can be dried and used in teas throughout the year.

Native People, including the Quileute People, Samish People, Bella Coola People, and Swinomish People, have all discovered their own ways to use the Salal leaves. While tea has been a popular choice, the leaves were also found to be useful for burns and sores when chewed in the mouth and then placed on the wounds.

We Are Still Learning More About Salal Berries Today

These plants are plentiful along the pacific coast, edible, and have interesting medicinal purposes and health benefits. While Native People have been learning about Salal Berries for a long time, that knowledge is only just starting to become something more people are learning about, like through the research at the University of Victoria and elsewhere. It will be interesting to see how more people become interested in the plant as more is known.

For now, avid outdoor enthusiasts are finding Salal plants along the coast, learning about how to gather them safely, and finding fun and interesting uses for these plants at home.