Harvesting Alaska's Wild Berries | Homemade Jams and Dessert
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- Опубликовано: 15 авг 2023
- It’s berry time in Alaska! Join us on our berry picking adventure. We harvested blueberries (bilberries), watermelon berries, and red currants, but that’s not all we found! We even came across crowberries, cloudberries, and black currants. As Summer comes to an end, it will be exciting to see what additional berries we will have on our property. We made some amazing jams and a delicious blueberry dessert!
Thank you for following along with our adventure and supporting our channel!
Katie & Chris
Red Currant Jam Recipe: practicalselfreliance.com/red-currant-jam/
Watermelon Berry Jam Recipe: ournutritionkitchen.com/about...
Watermelon Berry Jam Recipe:
10 Cups of Watermelon Berries
1 Cup of Water
5 Cups of Sugar
5 TBSP Lemon Juice
3.5 Packs of Sure Jell Pectin (I ended up adding 1 additional pack to thicken)
Heat Watermelon berries and water until boiling. Turn down to a simmer and reduce down to 50% (30-40 minutes). We placed jars in the freezer.
Alaska has the best wild blueberries. They are so sweet and delicious.
The cloud berries are so delicious. Wait until they are ripe and they are so yummmmy. !
What a great couple of days just walking the property and gathering berries. So relaxing
It really was a fantastic couple of days! 😀
Wow! You found some Chagaa on that birch tree and called it a burrow and it’s medicinal
I was wondering if that was chagaa
It might be! We will go check it out around Chagaa harvest time and find out 🙂
Blueberries grow like crazy during a wet summer season and also in a Wildland fire scar, say 2 to 3 years afterwards.
Highbush cranberries are out of this world....cooked w/sweetner taste so much like sour cherries...w/bannock so good; could pass for cherry pie.
We can't wait to harvest enough to make pie! The cranberries didn't do well at all in our area last year 🤞 fingers crossed for more highbush cranberries this year!
I believe you have purchased a fabulous piece of property!
Just subscribed. I'm on no. 12 vlog. Will watch the rest tomorrow. They are enjoyable. ❤
Glad you have found us and enjoy our videos 🙂
As a kid we very seldom ever had sugar but my mama used to make a cobbler with black berries and honey. That was a big treat for me and my sister.
Yum! That sounds amazing - we love cobbler! I bet the cobbler with honey was delicious. It was a bit overpowering with watermelon berries. They don't have a strong flavor, so the honey takes over.
Pretty sure that burl on that birch tree is Chaga!! You might want to collect some of that. Brown Gold!!
We took a sample of it recently, but it doesn't appear to be chaga. Very unfortunate. We were looking forward to trying chaga tea!
The process of boiling the jars in water is adding extra heat to the contents, which is allowing a vacuum seal to form.
Ahh yes, we only made freezer jams at this time 🙂
There are forests where I live, but I don't go into them because I am afraid of ticks. ❤❤❤
We had ticks back in PA. There is only 1 species native to Alaska. We haven't seen them (yet!) but they aren't known to have any negative side effects on humans. That being said, other species can be brought in from domestic animals being transported here, but less likely to come across than other areas.
I’ve seen another RUclipsr make syrup out of the watermelon berries.
Looks like fun. Red currants are the absolute best. You are so lucky to have them growing there.
So fun! We really wish we had more red currants to freeze for other recipes.
Red and black currants make yummy jelly and syrup for pancakes and waffles.
Currants are wonderful! Cream currant pie is my favorite dessert.
Ohhh that sounds delightful!
You can also make fireweed jelly from the fireweed flower.
chickens really like berries
They do!
You just can't beat homemade jams and jellies. Looks delicious.
Thank you! There's nothing like homemade. Yum!
Thanks for showing all these varieties of berries and the alaskan nature.
Absolutely! Thank you for watching 😀
I love how you guys forage for the wild edibles. We can never get enough back to our kitchen to process into anything. Munchers get most of them. LOL Still fun to get out and see what is out there.
We were happy to see that we beat the munchers to the berries. There's still plenty out there for them, though. We will have to go back out again next week when more are ripe. You are absolutely correct, though. It certainly is quite fun to go out!
That is some awesome land you guys have
Thank you!
This reminds me of the days that we would pick blackberries at grandmas' house back in the day. Grandma would make cobbler using the blackberries and it was amazing!
That sounds wonderful! Such fond memories 😀 blackberry cobbler sounds delightful!
It is literally 102 degrees here in northeast Texas as I watch this with y’all wearing jackets. We haven’t had rain in nearly 3 months (usually have 50” of rain each year). After a late hard frost, none of our peach, pear, apple or fig trees produced any fruit. Gotta say, I’m a little jealous.
Oh my! That is warm! The first day was a bit too warm for long sleeves as the sun was out and in the mid 60s, but the mosquitos were also out, so it was good that we wore long sleeves. The second day was mid 50s and very windy. Unfortunately, we only had 2 weeks of summer weather here as it has been in the mid 50s and raining since May. We wish we could send some of the rain your way! We are sorry to hear about your fruit trees ☹️
What a gold mine in Berries! Heaven on Earth! Love to try that Blue berry dessert!! Yum, Yum!
Yes! We are thankful for so many berries! If you have the chance to make the dessert, definitely give it a try. It's one of our favorites! The recipe is in the description 😀
Good job
Thank you!
Omg. I absolutely love the videos. You both are doing amazing job. I really enjoy watching the videos. Keep them coming. Katie we all miss working with you ❤!
Thank you :) I'm so glad you are enjoying the videos and we get to share our adventure! I miss you too!❤️
You need to get a colander to put the cooked berries through to remove the skins and seeds.
Hi! For jellies, I would have usually done the same, but for these jams we decided to use the entire berry to give it a thicker consistency. 😀
Wow, the cones and rods in my eyes are in full berry overload. Good job taking advantage of the natural resources on your property. Chris...You are very fortunate to have a lady who can turn foraged berries into those delicious jams and that Blueberry desert. You guys have successfully made me hungry. There is now a high probability that I will eat something Nutritionists would tell me is noy good for me...yeah, like I would really ask! Keep your superb videos coming!
Haha, your comments never cease to disappoint! 😁 Thank you for the kind words, we are glad you enjoy our content!
Your property is so beautiful! I love that you have access to all the fruits! Especially blueberries! They’re my absolute favorite! AND I’ll have to make that blueberry dessert! ❤️❤️✌️
Thank you! We are blessed to have so many berry bushes on the property 😀 There's nothing like fresh picked berries! We highly recommend the dessert. 😉 We've always made it with blueberries, but blackberries, strawberries, or all 3 would be wonderful!
We don't have quite the variety of berries that you have but I always pick a bunch of whatever I find and my wife makes the best jellies and jams. I've been to Alaska several times and always foraged while I was there, yummy!
Yum! It is hard to beat fresh foraged wild fruits 😀 homemade strawberry jam was always my favorite!
WOW those blueberry plants as you say were abundant with berries, which is due to the wet feet / roots. There is a bog in Amherst, NH with large blueberry plants 7 - 8 feet tall but with small berries, these remind me of your plants, although your plants are shorter and more fruit.
Thanks for showing us the various plants and some of those mushrooms are good for 1 meal each -- wow --.
We have had a very wet summer this year, so that makes sense! We found some that didn't have any berries on them, and others were very abundant! But certainly nowhere near 7 to 8 feet. That's a big blueberry bush! Most of ours were between 2 and 3 feet tall but were several feet wide. We did find so many huge mushrooms! We are in the process of learning more about them because, as you said, they are 1 meal each! It would be wonderful to try some edible ones as they are so abundant around the property.
Beautiful berries, beautiful land you have. The desserts and jams look wonderful! Thank you for sharing, always look forward to your videos!💚
Thank you for your kind words! 😀
Amazing the variety of berries you have on your land. Yummy to all the jams and the blueberry dessert looks really good. Thanks for sharing. Love and be safe!🤗😘🌼🇻🇪
Thank you for the kind words! We really are thankful for the variety of berries that we have here. 😀
You will enjoy those berry things in the middle of winter.😂
Watch out for bears, they love berries too.
They do!
I think a blueberry rake would help
That big mushroom looking thing is a conk, they are great for painting on and souvenirs, our watermelon berries are over ripe here, I’ve been picking them for 3 weeks now got a bunch of them, your property look lush and amazing, have fun guys your Willow Friend, oh by the way I have a juice from berry extractor Amazon has them and there’re like a double boiler but it pulls the juice out of the berries, it works amazing for watermelon and high bush cranberries it leaves all the seeds and skins behind, if you’re gonna make a lot of jam and jelly you may look into them, they work amazing
Our summer season was later than everyone futher north, and a little over a week ago, our watermelon berries weren't quite ready. A few days of sun, and they were almost too ripe on some stalks! 😀
We love that idea of painting the conk! It's funny, there's an abandoned cabin on this property, and we found a painted conk in there a few months ago. That's definitely a great idea to paint our new cabin on one. They are so fascinating!
We will have to look into the berry juice extractor! That would certainly be helpful for large batches!
We really appreciate your kind words and suggestions!
@@northtoalaska2022 I can send a link if needed but you’ll find it I’m sure, i really like them, make it so easy and I have a burner and do it outside so it doesn’t smell up the house, and when doing rosé hips they will get smelly 😂 Good luck
I went ahead and sent the link
We can't wait to find rose hips! We have an outdoor burner, too, but that's a good tip! We will make note to do the rosehip when we find them outside!
Thank you! We appreciate it and will keep an eye out for it!
Yum 👍🏻
Looks like your property is a gold mine! That’s chaga mushroom!!!
Ohhh I thought that was a burl! We might have to go back over a take a closer look! Thank you for identifying that! 😀
You need a Blueberry rake !! We call Cloud berries BakeApples in Eastern Canada . Newfoundland has an abundance of them. They are excellent in Cheesecake !! Is that Chaga on the Birch tree ??
We did revisit the burl to test and see if it was Chaga. But it appears to be rotten wood or very old Chaga, not orangish harvestable Chaga.
Wow! Amazing!! Thanks for sharing 😊
Thank you!
And thank you for watching! 😀
Good content, I see your south of me, nikiski, i add 1/4 pack of coolaid in my watermelon jelly, adds some flavor. Thanks for the video, was interested in the currents.
Enjoyed watching
Thank you for watching! We are glad you enjoyed the video the video😀
Thanks for identifying the bunchberries. We have a lot of those along our driveway; I thought they might be low-bush cranberries but the leaves aren't waxy so I was stumped. Our blueberries were still tiny little green BBs 2 weeks ago, I'm going out tomorrow to see if they are bigger and ripe, or if I missed my chance and the bears ate them all like last year 🙄.
You're welcome! We noticed that our low bush cranberries are growing in the woods, and the bunch berries are out in the sun. Hopefully, your blueberries will ripen up soon! Ours took about 1 to 2 weeks once they started producing fruit to ripen up. Good luck, and we hope you get to pick them before the bears! 🤞
Wow guys, what an amazing property you have and a fabulous resource right there on your doorstep. Also massive congratulations on the success of the channel, you guys are blowing up big time and we wish you continued success on your journey 😎
Thank you for the kind comments 🙂 we really enjoyed picking the wild fruit and the jam! It's looking like we will get more wild edibles than food from the gardens this year unfortunately 😐 the weather has still been raining every other day and little sunshine. It actually feels like fall is already setting in! Our channel is gaining some traction, and that is a bonus. We think it is too early to call success yet. We are just glad we can share our experiences with those who are interested in this lifestyle, and maybe it will inspire someone else to live their dream, too. Thanks again for your support!
@@northtoalaska2022the weather is definately a bit funky this year but at least you guys got a good foraging harvest. No doubt the garden will be vastly improved for you next season. Definately feels like autumn is coming early year, we're getting storm after storm here when it's usually the best 2months of the year. What can do only adapt and work with it. Again congratulations on your success and best wishes from both of us here.
Watermelon berry jelly is my favorite
This was our first time making it, and it was so amazing!
see one thing i like is apply butter jelly or jam it remind me of my child hood
Yum! Apple butter is so good!
Save me some of that jam when you make it, great job guys really nice looking property
Haha! 😀 Thank you very much!
Gotta get you one of them fancy berry pickin rakes for the blueberrys. You will get alot more alot faster!
Unfortunately, they kill the bush 😒
@@northtoalaska2022not the one with the teeth on a bucket kind, I've used them for years on the same bushes. I made my own years ago out of a coffee can. But have seen some people rake bushes and kill them, just be a little gentle, besides it makes cleaning the berries easier too.
Those currents remind me of high bush cranberries, I thought they were the same but I was wrong, we used to pick blueberry’s in central eastern Alaska, they and true cranberries,(low bush) grew plentifully there on the mossy deltas and hillsides. we also had a small black colored berry called a crow berry, they were edible and mildly sweet but we never picked those, I’m not sure if anyone makes anything out of those, I usually didn’t bother with the cranberries either, not a fan. Rhubarb also grows really well in Alaska, and makes excellent tart sauces and pies.
Hi! We actually have both high bush cranberries and red currants. We even found a patch of black currants as well. The mountain sides up north are very abundant in blueberries! Unfortunately, we were able to get up that way this year. These were all found on our property on the Kenai Peninsula. We've heard crowberries make great abated goods and plan to try some! They are best picked after the first frost (which was last week for us), so time to try!
Funny enough about the rhubarb, our property was an abandoned homestead that hasn't been lived on in over 20 years. We found a patch of rhubarb growing in an old m, overgrown garden that the previous homesteaders had! They make wonderful desserts!
Thank you for watching! 😀
You will have to invest in a berry picker. I don’t know the correct name of it but it is a hand held bucket approximately 2-3 cups with a comb in it. You basically comb the bush and the berries fall into the cup/bucket. I can’t imagine it is that pricey as it is just plastic.
We have seen these , and they would be a useful tool. I am unsure how true this is, but apparently, the tool can kill the blueberry bush if not careful while harvesting the berries. I must say it is tough to harvest the blue berries and would like to try the tool out sometime!
Comecei a assistir seus vídeos, gostei , e muito mais da simplicidade de vocês. Deus os abençoe. Um grande abraço.. Brasil
Hi! Thank you for your kind words! We have more videos coming soon. 😀
that looked like chucka the burl
It might be! We will go check it out around Chagaa harvest time and find out 🙂
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😀👍
Pomona pectin is a very good product you use 4 cups fruit to 2 cups sugar
We will have to give that kind a try! Thank you for the suggestion 😀
In the fall the cranberries smell like dirty socks which is a sign they are ripe.
Thank you for the tip! With all the rain and lack of sun this year, the cranberries didn't come out on our property. They leaves grew but little to no berries on those bushes this year. 🤞 There's always next year though!
the berry looks great but you should get book about mushroom they are so good for you
We have a ton of mushrooms! We would love to learn more about them. We ended up getting a mushroom ID book, but I think we will have to wait until next year to forage for some :)
Thank you for watching!
That looks so good. But how are you managing to keep the skeeters off you? They look horrible.
They were bad that evening! We found some oils repel them and deet although we try to avoid the DEET on the skin. When they are this bad it is best to wear long sleeves and a face net.
Those big mushrooms I think are Turkey tail . Which are supposed to be very healthy. That is as long as the are not Toadstools which are very poisonous.😮
Oh, that would be wonderful if they are turkey tail! We plan to learn more about mushrooms for next year. We have so many it would be fantastic to harvest what we can. 😀
Not Turkey tail!! They are called Artist conks.
that burrel is chaga great for tea go back and get it
We think it may be too! We will go back this winter when it is time to harvest and check it out 🙂
Dang. Jealous of the blueberries. You could make dozens of cuttings and plant them everywhere all along your entire road. They're a perrenial, so with a tiny bit of TLC at first, you'll have a low maintenance bumper crop every fall.
Yes!! There were so many plants not producing. We aren't sure if from lack of sun or too much rain, but we definitely want to propagate some and see if we can get a better berry production out of them over the next few years.
Thank you for watching 😀
I would so love to taste the cloud and watermelon berries!!! I was wandering how you stored all the jams?I didn't see you water bath for long storage? You keeping them all in the frig. Also when waterbathing, the jars need to be filled to 1/4 inch headspace for half pints, processed 10 minutes.
They are very delicious! The cloudberries definitely aren't what you would expect! 😀 We knew they tasted like custard, but it still took us by surprise tasting them!
We did freezer jams. We considered canning, but we've heard mixed things about whether or not watermelon berry jam is shelf stable, even after canning, so to be on the safe side, we froze them all 😀 If we get more berries next year, we may can them instead.
Thank you for watching! 😁
Wonderful! Now I understand the head space. Freezing can expand. They are so pretty. Hopefully one day I will get to visit Alaska and sample them myself.
I want
well with some berry jelly you have cut back on the sugar
We definitely could have used less sugar on the watermelon berries for sure. The funny thing is, they really aren't too sweet, even at prime ripeness. We used 3 cups less sugar than the blueberry recipe I was following called for and it was still sweet! 😅 we will definitely have to remember that for next time.
What realtor did y'all use. I'm looking to buy up in Alaska
We only have experience with realtors in the southern kenai peninsula, but we used Bay Realty. We highly recommend just looking on your own, then reaching out and letting them know which property or properties you are interested in. We believe they get so many inquiries from people who aren't serious that they don't answer everyone. We went by ourselves to look at properties because of that issue and reached out to one when we wanted to put in a bid.
@@northtoalaska2022 ty
I started to watch your channel building a house and mill which is interesting not picking berries
Try out Perkins Builders Brothers. Hopefully, it's more your style. We post anything we are interested in and we understand not everyone else may enjoy that. This is not a job for us, just a hobby.
Bears eat berries !!!
Yes they do!
Those blue ones on those bushes are actually Huckleberries. Blueberries grow on low bushes close to the ground .
Can you eat those mushrooms
We are in the process of learning more about mushrooms and which varieties are edible and which are not. We likely do have some edible ones on our property, but because we don't know 100% which varieties all of these were, we figured we would leave them for now 😀
What brand are those chest rigs Chris?
Hosking Holster out of Idaho. It is the best chest rig I have owned out of 3 brands. I can forsee the straps will wear out quickly from everyday use. But overall, they are a great holster, in my opinion. Check his website out.
Hiya, just wondering if your bread is homemade aswell?😊
Yes it is 🙂
Leave your kid home when picking. He seems to eat more than he picks. 😂😂😂
🤣🤣 I think we were both guilty of that!
Curious how much land you guys have?
How many acres do ya'll have
We have about 10 acres 😀
And is your house site far off the road? Deep in the property?
To jellifies your jam-making process, you can add one spoonful of corn syrup or starch, which is "available at most Chinese wholesalers".
Where did you find the blueberries…in Homer?
They were actually in the forest on our property 😀
I am in Nikiski, we bought our house and property in May. The previous owner said they picked blueberries on the property last year. Turns out I have lots of false azalea, that looks lots like blueberry, but has no edible fruit. I do have some lingonberries that I hope to pick later in the fall though. I love those. If you know any good spots to pick wild blueberries on the peninsula, other than your property, I would love the tip.
@hankandgreta hi! We are new here, too, so we don't know of any other spots than our property. Check your hillsides exposed to the south, that's where we had the best luck. 90% of our blueberry bushes did not have any fruit at all, so they were easy to miss and were usually right next to the false azaleas. The lack of fruit could have been due to all the rain and very little sun this year on the peninsula. Hopefully, you can find some blueberries next year! 🤞 Ours were in around the 1st to 2nd week of August this year.
Thank you for watching! 😀
@@hankandgreta have you tried off of Marathon road…seen a post on Facebook for the Alaska Berry Pickers group
@@craigmartin1727 I will have to check that out. I am in that Facebook group. There are so many posts there each day, it’s hard to keep up reading them all, so I missed that one.
Do you know who else likes berries, grizzly bears?
Yes, they do! 🙂
Do you have bears, they like berries
We do have bears. We haven't seen any bears yet, but we have seen remnants of them.
Just a thought I had while watching you guys pick wild berries........do either of you carry a weapon to protect yourselves from the inevitable encounter of local wild life???
Yes, we do! We see moose almost daily, but most of our local moose seem friendly enough. Bears do pass through our property from time to time, and we have seen lynx in our forrest, although they would only threaten our chickens and dogs more than likely. We have been told that wolves live nearby, but we have not seen or heard them. At least one of us always has protection, just in case.
My uncle was berry picking around Soldotna and was charged by a territorial brown bear who didn't want him there. All he had was a 30.06 and it took 5 rounds to stop the bear and he hit him with every round.
Good lord that is a tough situation!
Don’t bear eat berries?
Yes, they do, but they seem to prefer salmon in our area. We luckily did not run into any while gathering.
I didn't think you could leave that much airspace in your jars, above the jam?? I was told that is air space, that canning can't get rid of, and it can cause bacterias to grow and ruin your jam and/or make you very sick.???? Freezing jars with that much airspace is fine, so I've read and been told. Maybe research it yourself?
Hi Lisa! We made freezer jams out of all the berries in this video. We have heard mixed results regarding watermelon berries and their ability to be canned, so we just decided to go the safer route. We left additional headspace to allow for expansion in the freezer. 😀
Why do only you carry a pistols? She should carry too.
She does
Why do you care? Bears, wolves, wolverines, Moose, etc.