Saskatoon
Amelanchier alnifolia
Also called Serviceberry, Juneberry
We do not have a Blackfoot or Cree name for this one yet. Tell us the name and we will add it, with your word on where it comes from.
The berry shrub of the coulees, and one of the most important food plants in this territory. Sweet purple berries in midsummer, dried in quantity for the winter and pounded into pemmican.
Commonly shared knowledge. Learn it, gather it, and follow the protocol.
What it is confused with
Harmful look-alikeBuckthorn and dogwood berries
Neither carries the five-pointed crown at the tip of the fruit. Dogwood berries are white or bluish and sit on red stems. If in doubt, do not eat it.
Easily confusedChokecherry Prunus virginiana
Chokecherry berries hang in long narrow clusters like bunches of grapes and each has a single hard stone. Saskatoons sit in short open clusters, have several small soft seeds, and carry a little crown at the end.
How to know it
- Leaves
- Oval to nearly round, blunt at the tip, and toothed only around the upper half. The lower half of the leaf edge is smooth.
- Flowers
- White, five narrow petals, in loose clusters, opening early before the leaves are fully out.
- Berries
- Purple to nearly black when ripe, with a bluish bloom, and a small five-pointed crown at the end of each berry where the flower was.
- Habit
- A tall shrub or small tree, often in thickets along the sides and bottoms of coulees.
The country it grows in
- Coulee slopes
- Aspen parkland
- Riverbanks and willow flats
- Foothills and shrubland
Landscape types only. We do not publish where a patch is, and we are not going to.
When it is ready
- Berries July to AugustRipe when fully dark and they come away with the lightest pull.
Right now it is July. Something on this plant is in season.
What it is used for
- Food and drink
- Teaching with youth
A staple food, eaten fresh and dried in quantity, and one of the two main berries pounded with dried meat and fat to make pemmican.
Berry picking is one of the easiest ways to get children out on the land, which is why it belongs in the teaching category.
How it is prepared
- Food
Eaten fresh, cooked, or dried whole in the sun and stored.
- Dried and stored
Spread in a single layer and dried until leathery. Dried saskatoons keep for a year or more.
Protocol
Ask the plant first, and offer something before you take anything. Tobacco is what is most often offered here. Say who you are, and say what the medicine is for.
Harvest the mature plants and leave the small ones to grow. Never take the first plant you find, and never take all of them.
Take only what you will actually use. Medicine picked and then left to rot in a bag was taken for nothing.
Leave the ground as you found it. Put back any dirt you dug up, and return any plant material you do not use to the earth.
Do not gather beside roads, highways or trails, where the plants take up whatever has been sprayed or spilled there.
If you are not certain what a plant is, do not pick it and do not put it in your mouth. Ask someone. Being wrong in the field is how people get hurt.
Pick from many bushes rather than stripping one, and leave the low branches for the children and the high ones for the birds.