Cherries, and Berries, and Jams! Oh, My!

There are tiny jewels in the bushes and trees of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.  They arrive as tiny, sour buds in the spring and mature into colorful, juicy, and sweet berries during mid to late summer.  Last year’s mild winter made for an early berry season this year, and during our recent stay in Michigan, Amanda and I were able to sample some of these Northern delicacies.

Michigan is well known for their cherries, and no cultivated cherry could taste more rewarding as compared to the small, wild Michigan cherries,  ripened to deep maroon, nearly black in color to be eaten sweet, rich, warm, and slightly tannic from the sun.

We arrived in Michigan just in time to taste the last of the early summer strawberries, the tiny wild berries that grow in low bushes,  kissed by the sun, cooled by the breeze, and matured to a size no bigger than the tip of a pinkie finger.  The few strawberries we found were the last holdouts of the season, and I am convinced that they must have been the sweetest specimens, having survived a long season on the bush to ripen, mature, and develop their bright, fruity sweetness.

Meanwhile, Michigan blueberries were just beginning to be bountiful, and many blueberries were plump and ready to be picked and eaten by us–the eager foragers.  It is a thrill to be walking through the woods and stumble upon a bunch of blueberries bushes, abundant with berries ready to be eaten right from the branch, or to be gathered as a snack for later, sprinkled over cereal and milk, oatmeal, or, as Aunt Lynn suggests, for “plumping them on shredded wheat.”

These woodland blueberries have a taut skin that give a satisfying “pop” when bitten or squeezed between the tongue and roof of the mouth, exploding with sweet juice that has a hint of grassiness and tartness that can overwhelm the palate upon first taste, overloading the taste buds, sending a wave of stimulation into the brain, and prompting the saliva glands to release their salivary deluge.

We were a month early to taste the fresh thimbleberries which ripen in August and are king of all the berries in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.  These berries are plentiful, but not yet ripe: we saw many young thimbleberries growing everywhere on the roadsides and on the edges of the forests.  When mature, the thimbleberries have a shape similar to raspberries,  but they are lager, deeper red, and have a hole large enough to fit over the end of a finger.

Itching for a taste of these late summer sweethearts, we bought some local thimbleberry jam made from last year’s harvest.  These berries are often cooked into jam because they are very delicate and easily fall apart after being picked.  The jam has many seeds that are slightly larger and more tender than found in a raspberry jam.  The flavor of the thimbleberry jam is  similar to  raspberry jam, but with a vibrant, deep, rich, plum-like flavor.

Having seen some of the early berry season up in Michigan, we have only begun to whet our appetite for fresh, local berries and the thrill of foraging for them.  We plan to make a second trip up north later this summer, so “stay tuned ” for more updates on berries and some fresh berry recipes!