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Salmonberries with oolichan oil

Fresh salmonberries in a feast dish with oil of the oolichan, as at the salmonberry feast of the Kwakwaka'wakw.

Traditional use

Time
10 minutes
Makes
4 people
Image of Salmonberries with oolichan oil
Ariasnow · public domain

Salmonberries are the first berries to ripen on the coast of British Columbia. In 1921 George Hunt described the salmonberry feast of the Kwakwaka'wakw for Franz Boas: women pick the berries with special baskets, the host pours them into a large box, and they are eaten from feast dishes with the oil of the oolichan, a small river fish. Salmonberries were given only to one's own tribe. They are not cooked, and they cannot be dried either: they are too juicy for that.

Ingredients

  • 500 g fresh salmonberries (or raspberries)
  • Oolichan oil (t'lina) to taste, if you can get it

Step by step

  1. Pick the berries when they are orange or red and soft.
  2. Put them in a large dish without washing or cooking them.
  3. Pour a little oolichan oil over them, or set the oil beside them for dipping.
  4. Eat together from the same dish.

Tips

  • In spring the Kwakwaka'wakw also eat the young salmonberry shoots: peeled, raw or steamed, dipped in oil or with dried salmon roe.
  • Oolichan oil is still made by Kwakwaka'wakw families and is hardly sold outside British Columbia. Without the oil the berries are good too, plain and fresh.

Registry

Herbs in this recipe

Read more about effects and safety on each herb’s page.

  • Caution

    North America · Herb · № 973

    Salmonberry

    Rubus spectabilis

    A bramble with pink flowers and yellow-orange to red berries. Leaves and bark contain tannins and are astringent.

    Kwakwaka'wakw medicine

Cultures and traditions

Where the herbs come from

The herbs in this recipe also appear in these traditions.