Are Salal Berries Edible? The Overlooked Wild Berry of the Pacific Northwest
Ripe purple-black salal berries and red immature fruits can appear on the same shrub. When I first moved to Washington State after marrying my husband, there was one plant I noticed almost every time we walked along a road or forest trail. In spring, its newest leaves appeared in an almost yellow-green color. They were so bright and glossy that they seemed to glow whenever the sunlight touched them. Nearby, I would sometimes notice clusters of tiny pale-green fruits. Later, some of them turned red. Because I knew almost nothing about the wild plants of the Pacific Northwest at that time, my natural reaction was to reach out and ask my husband, “Can I eat this?” He would immediately tell me, “Never eat the red berries.” Years later, I finally learned the name of this plant. It is Salal ( Gaultheria shallon ), one of the most familiar evergreen shrubs in the Pacific Northwest—and one of the wild foods many people walk past without recognizing. My husband’s warning carried an importa...