The Farm’s Ethnobotanical Garden will host 2 native species of Oregon Grape: Tall and Low. Bonhoeffer Botanical Gardens adds a third, the Creeping Oregon Grape. The Tall Oregon Grape is a shrub 3’ to 6’ in height. The State of Washington uses it on beach slopes to prevent erosion and it is visible from almost any ferry ride. Its leaves are leathery and glossy green with spiny leaflets that resemble a holly’s. The most ubiquitous is the Low Oregon Grape with blue berries usually found under the cover of trees. This writer, as a boy, was sent into the woods to gather their berries, along with those of the Salal. White flour bags were suspended from a porch rafter holding a crushed mix of the 2 fruits (slightly sour and sickeningly sweet, respectively) with a bucket below to catch the strained liquid. This juice was made into a unique jelly enjoyed by the Pioneers and Native Americans for 100 or 10,000 years before. Make some jelly, you will remember it for a lifetime. Member of the Berberidaceae Family, these 3 species are found by Kiosk 7. Pilchuck Learning Center’s sponsored Western Washington State University SAM Project extinction possibility for all 3 species is slight.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35069611/
http://naeb.brit.org/uses/search/?string=mahonia
https://plants.usda.gov/home/plantProfile?symbol=MAAQ2
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahonia_aquifolium
https://thewholeu.uw.edu/2020/07/08/summer-berry-guide/
https://www.boskydellnatives.com/salal-oregongrapejelly.htm
https://www.plc215.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Kiosk-07.pdf
https://extension.oregonstate.edu/sites/default/files/documents/9806/sp50536wildberriesandfruits.pdf
A still popular jam is made from Oregon Grape berries and the berries of the:
grace many rural tables today (the former is tart; the latter is sweet).