Growing Thimbleberries

Another fine article from Practical Self Reliance. I'd never heard of thimbleberries before. Tastes like raspberry candy, has medicinal properties, will grow on marginal land. Pollinators are crazy for them. The fruit is , but if you can process them quick enough, thimbleberry jam is a luxury (cash) commodity. The new canes are edible in the spring. I'm wondering if mature canes could be woven.

How to Grow Thimbleberries ~ for Food and Medicine

https://practicalselfreliance.com/thimbleberry/

meta4's picture

Thimbleberries grow wild in Western Oregon. We often stopped to pick them on hikes. Came across a guy once collecting them commercially (the Forest Service issues limited permits for such things; mushrooms are the big draw). They have kind of a fuzzy quality but quite sweet when ripe.

The author is in rural Vermont. According to the USDA Forest Service, thimbleberries grows in about 18 states. The map is pretty impressive.

https://www.fs.fed.us/wildflowers/plant-of-the-week/rubus_parviflorus.shtml

Also in Canada and coastal Alaska

https://www.fs.fed.us/database/feis/plants/shrub/rubpar/all.html#Distrib...

Ashley at Practical Self Reliance says the leaves make good toilet paper if you are out in the woods. I was thinking it might be useful to plant around an outhouse. Folks used to plant hollyhocks around outhouses, so ladies never had to ask for directions. Might be unpleasant doing your business if you are surrounded by bees.

Climate change may

David Trammel's picture

Heres a couple of pictures.

Pictures from The Wild Garden"

I can see why the leaves would be a good replacement for toilet paper, broad and supposedly soft. An added, the vines are thornless.

Not sure how much it matters, but we have two different plants here. The video says it's a Rubus odoratus, Purple Flowering Raspberry. The range maps I shared are for Rubus parviflorus. They do hybridize. At this point I am not sure which one Ashley was talking about in the original post.

David Trammel's picture

I missed that Sophie and will delete the video

I don't know if it was a problem. As I said, you can interbreed the two. And somewhere down the line, that information may be handy. Obviously bees love both of them. I think the video is fine if everyone realizes they are two different but closely-related plants.