BEARBERRY : The Fruit That is Popular Among Bears and Bedwetters (Uva-ursi)- Weird Fruit Explorer
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- Опубликовано: 9 фев 2025
- Episode 506: BEARBERRY - Weird Fruit Explorer
Latin Name: Arctostaphylos uva-ursi
Location: Filmed in Lapland Finland and New York, USA.
Grown in Finnish Lapland and Washington state, USA
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During the economic depression in the 1930s Finns used these berries as emergency fillers in bread, since they don't really taste like anything and they grow everywhere. These berries have many names in Finnish, and one of them is "jauhopuolukka", which translates into "flour lingonberry" due to this little bit of history.
Usually they're called "sianpuolukka" in Finnish, which translates into "pig's lingonberry". Other names include "pahapuolukka" ("bad lingonberry"), "sianpuola" ("pig's cowberry"), "koiranmarja" ("dog's berry"), "sianmarja" ("pig's berry"). All these names imply this berry is kind of underwhelming, since "pig" and "dog" are somewhat derogatory terms in Finnish -- and one of the names simply states these berries are straight up bad.
While it was also used for making syrup and vinegar, the actual useful part of this plant are the leaves, which contain arbutin/methylarbutin. When arbutin is metabolized it turns into an antiseptic compound called hydroquinone. This has been shown to be an effective treatment for urinary tract infections. In fact, this plant falls under pharmaceutical legislation in Finland.
In ancient times, Finns also used these berries for tanning leather and for coloring fabrics, but they're no longer used for that... I think.
Is arbutin a stable compound when exposed to heat?
One of the traditional uses of the leaves of this plant in the Pacific Northwest through Alaska was as an admixture to tobacco for smoking.
The leaves were dried and mixed with poppy leaves, damiana, tobacco and a number of other plants depending on the region and season.
We call them grisebær(pig berries) in norway. I always thought it was because only a pig would enjoy them.
They are just boring... and since noone picks them... their abundant.
Berry in the video is Arctous alpina (Riekonmarja) not Arctostaphylos uva-ursi.
Those are some nice little fun facts there fellow internet stranger. Thank you for sharing this, as I really found the fact about the bread making very interesting. Idk why i felt like adding this reply but I just feel really happy and your comment certainly helped keep me happy.
jeez ...how damn knowledgible you are kudos man bless you for putting in efforts for sharing your wisdom in such a precise manner ..lobe and bleessings seems like you should do your own channel too .
The preferred berry of bed-wetting bears.
Wow. I had no idea you call these bear berries!
Another confusing one. In Swedish "björnbär" (direct translation "bearberry") is what you call blackberry.
This one we call "mjölon". The word "mjöl" means "flour" or "meal" (seems appropriate since your description was "mealy" 🙂), and the additive "-on" is common for berries in sweden like "lingon", "hallon", "hjortron" and so on.
I have actually never tried this one. Not very popular in Sweden, where I live at least. I will have to try this now!
The name used for this berry in Alaska is kinickanick.
I assume this to be a native word, but can't find a translation.
The leaves are sometimes added to tobacco along with other plants to help stretch supplies through the worst part of winter.
The leaves are also used to make tea.
Mjölon spoil lingon sylt, if you by mix them up by mistake, they do ferment while lingon does not.
In russian we call it "toloknyanka", from word "tolokno" which means "flour" or "meal" too.
Melbær in Norwegian, "flour berry" directly translated.
Silly English...
I don't think the berry in the video is "mjölon", I think it's "ripbär" (literal translation into English "Ptarmigan berries").
Since "ripbär" grow outside the geographic zone where I usually forage, they are outside my area of expertise. So I'm just guessing, because I've been told they look similar to "mjölon", and because the berries in the video doesn't look like any "mjölon", that I have seen. It could still be a local variety of "mjölon" though.
linnaeus.nrm.se/flora/di/erica/arcto/arctalp.html
I've watched black bears raking the ground around blueberry patches, when they're in season. It's super cute: like a dog playing with hedgehog; or a cat playing in the litter box, kind of silly. They'll scrape in half-circles toward their back legs to amass a pile, then plop down of their bums to chow down. Definitely something awesome to see 30 ft outside your window or tent
The spoon couldn't bear the bearberries. This coincidence is unbearable
A strong spoon is just a bear necessity
>: (
Hey I want in... all of that work and a broken spoon and the berry flavor was *bearly* detectable.
@@let_uslunch8884 you forgot to say beary
@@celestialdiscord2716 you are absolutely correct. How careless of me. Oh well a missed opportunity lol.
Wow, he really doesn't give up in this video! Love it!
how the hell did you manage to break the top clean off that spoon 😂
Chinesium.
Fatigue
he has a great diet so he became super strong... eat your fruit guys!!!!
dats bed
Its a pewter / tin spoon they are not very strong, but they are easily melted into another spoon which is good :)
i absolutely love that the spoon breaks and not the glass
He had a mortar and pestle the whole time lol
I'm surprised the glass didn't break when he crushed the berries in it with the pestle! 🤦🏾♂️
He's using it lightly but enough just to destroy the berries
@This Guy: Mebbe it was because it's the flagon with the dragon.
id be very alarmed if i had a glass that broke due to using a wooden pestle.
Judging by the slightly serrated leaves those first shots are of Arctostaphylos alpina. Arctostaphylos uva-ursi leaves are more reminiscent of lingonberry leaves. A. Alpina berries change colours from green and red to black as they ripen and are more gelatinous than mealy in texture when fully ripe.
Dude, thank you. I was rather curious as to why it was green, I've never once seen bearberries a color other than red.
@@brandon9172 Both of these two "bearberry" species are light green unripe, uva-ursi is red when ripe and alpina gets black when edible. What you know as bearberries may be different species altogether.
@@juhahellstrom4306
Well, the berry I'm thinking of has the exact same leaves, flowers, taste/texture, growing conditions, and it's smack dab within the distribution range of Arctostaphylos uva-ursi. I've seen the red berries and flowers year round, never once seen them green. I can't seem to find any image of them being green nor has any of the regional foraging and plant books for my region I've read said anything about them being green. they're also called red bearberries as well...
Are you sure they get light green?
@@brandon9172 Well, guess we'll have to wait until next summer to know for sure :) I usually don't really pay much regard to uva-ursi when I see them, so no, I'm not sure anymore. But the thing with unripe greenish berries is that they are kind of hard to spot among the greenery. It's really hard to get a feeling of what the harvest of, say, lingonberry is until they get a bit of colour to them. It just seems there isn't any at all and then suddenly they're everywhere.
this is definitely A. Alpina, mountain bearberry, rypebær in Norwegian. I can tell by the serrated leaves and the dead leaves underneath, uva-ursi is evergreen, this specimen is not.
As someone with selective eating disorder (or arfid as its called now) I am jealous you get to try all these weird fruits but I am also glad you share this so people like me get an understanding of these weird things.
For those curious about SED or arfid its different from person to person but for me I can only eat certain things without gagging or vomiting and even sometimes the things I normally eat still cause this weird reaction. For me personally its 90% texture and like 10% taste but I am stuck eating meat, bread, cheese, and highly processed foods. I can't do fruits or vegetables aside from like french fries and other things like that. It sucks. I would love to be able to eat a salad or strawberry but I physically just can't. There are treatments for it but since I am normal weight and height I have never thought about seeking treatment or really cared to. Also being american means treatment like that is expensive. But hey there is one benefit to this. For me its like food is just a thing I need to survive so I don't over eat or really crave many things.
Have you tried vegetable dishes cooked to have the same texture as breads/casseroles/chips/ etc.? Puffed Cauliflaur casserole is delicious, as are puffed snap peas(there are several brands of these snacks) kale chips (that one is likely no good to you) there are plenty more recipes like this online, and you can get creative and make your own recipes, too.
I have an ED too, but AFRID or not, *vegetables are not an optional part of your diet* (like dairy or sugars are). Humans *NEED* vegetables and fruit to survive long and be healthy. Ideally, they should be 50% or more of all the food you consume. If you actually "dont do" vegetables/fruit, you will die very early, and are already vitamin deficient for sure. Find a solution to your problem fast, definitely before you stop growing if thats the case.
Also, one word if texture is what bothers you: make fucking smoothies. Buy a blender. Buy frozen fruit. There really is no excuse to not eat veggies and fruit in modern society, unless you are trying to kill yourself very slowly through disease.
Iv only recently discovered your channel , the first episode I saw was your adventure to Finland for the Cloud Berries. I have been really interested in those for years and your content really was great n gave me so much info, thanks you. I really enjoy your content for not only the interesting fruits you collect and your knowledge n joy you get from doing what you do but also to see the beautiful places round the world you travel. Keep up the great work yo, Tuning in from good ol Kansas
Same with me haha!
Cool! About fifteen years ago I was travelling around Colorado with some hippies in a van and we picked up this one hitchhiker dude who turned us onto smoking bearberry leaves, known as kinnikinnick by the Native American tribes who use it. He said someone taught him about it in the Army, and that they would smoke that because they couldn't smoke cannabis. He said there was some mild cannabis-esque effects, and that was definitely the case, and this came in handy because we all ran out of weed up there in the mountains and had to resort to smoking kinnikinnick. Of course, it's not something you can use to really get high on, but the taste of the smoke is fantastic and it does have a pleasant, but very mild, effect.
I often think about that hitchhiker. He said he was dying of stomach cancer, and was hitchhiking to see a girlfriend. Some unfortunate gastrointestinal events during a psychedelic trip later that evening seemed to confirm this. He also claimed to have been in the Army special forces, and he showed us some techniques that were quite impressive. One thing he demonstrated was particularly astonishing, and was quite the head trip to witness and learn about on a few grams of cubensis. He said this one thing was classified, and I can imagine situations where that info getting out there could really harm captured Special Forces soldiers, so I won't reveal it, even though I am adamantly opposed to the military-industrial complex. If what he said was true (and I can't imagine any less-horrific way for him to be able to do what he showed us) then those dudes are way gnarlier than most people even suspect. Too bad they work for the devil.
Are we all gonna ignore the fact that our man just broke a spoon on berries?
The sigh as he uses the handle to stir it XD
I'm still surprised it was the spoon and not the glass.
The virgin spoon vs the chad glass
Was it made of pewter?
@@qdmc12 All spoons are made of stainless steel, except wooden and plastic spoons.
How did you break a metal spoon in a glass cup I would think that the glass would break before the spoon 😂 lol
The North American variety grows all over where I'm at (Montana). The natives used them in pemmican and fried them. They weren't choice food, but used when needed. Also the leaves are smokeable and were used in tobacco blends or as a tobacco substitute.
Do they have a stimulating effect like tobacco?
@@nicksalvatore5717 not really they just have a pleasant flavor smoked and were used to stretch out the tobacco when supplies were low. I don't smoke tobacco but have found their flavor to be pleasant especially during colder months.
Keep fearing he's gonna eat a berry that isn't edible.
I don’t think there’s a berry that taste good that poison ☠️ let alone a berry that will kill you
@@christophern7921 baneberries in Alaska taste sweet and are red but will put you into cardiac arrest in a couple minutes. Some berries kill
he tasted a glueberry
Edible is a relative term
Atropa belladonna / deadly nightshade could be considered a berry , 2 pea sized berries will kill an adult
It grows native here in the PNW too, its called Kinnikinnick
Technically, the smoking blend make from it is called kinnikinnik. i used to call the plant that too, though. Some people think its a drug and gets you high, just because the First Peoples smoked it . Morons. Lmao
@Amos Allender you will never get "drunk' on any compound that isnt an alcohol.. smoking lots of uva ursi is more akin to the mild relaxation of benadryl or maybe cbd.
10:22 me trying to come up with a closing paragraph for an oral presentation at school
i also find it cute that bears eat berries , wolves too , which is why huskies like some types of berries and nuts i think
also rip spoon , RIP AND TEAR THAT IS lol
Over here in Maine, the native people of this area have used this plant for thousands of years as part of an herbal smoking blend called kinnickkinnick.
Same thing in the Pacific Northwest.
In modern times it's mixed with a number of other plants as well.
We call them serviceberries in Montana
Kinnickinick we call red willow.
@@barryoconnor721
Are you sure about that?
Mistaken identity perhaps?
Red willow doesn't even grow in Montana, and the saskatoon berry/sugar plum/service berry is a high bush berry from the northeast.
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amelanchier
And
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salix_laevigata
@@kaisersose5549 First nations traded heavily across the continent, was common to trade things like maple sugar, acorn flour, etc from the east coast tribes for Ooligan grease ( type of oily fish), cedar bark, etc from the tribes of the west coast. All items were available to some degree everywhere among them. They had trade routes.
Found your video after watching a Smarter Everyday video so it’s awesome to see he’s a big supporter of the channel!
Dang you really earned that bear milk. Thanks for the laugh.
Man, I've really been enjoying all your footage from Finland. Great stuff, and thanks.
Before a frost its pulpy and tart and mealy. After 1st frost its a swwet ball of nectar. Ive got 6 oz bags of both kinds atm in a freezer from gander Newfoundland. They call them partridge berries. Also our best spots where high highway cuts in areas where there was coral looking moss or caribou moss growing. Sunlight side or the highway high peaks had more and closer to the cut face the more we found. And its easier to look up from a ditch then down lol
Great video! Never knew this berry existed. I started watching your videos pre-100k and I'm really happy to see your channel growing and how far its come. Once I have some money, definitely donating to your cause.
Thank you!!!
Awesome! Thank you!
Just wanted to let you know I love your videos, I like ASMR and you are very soft spoken and give a lot of intriguing info about the different fruits you review and it gives the same feel. Garuntee you could make a great ASMR video!! Keep up the great work and stay safe during your travels
This is the earliest I’ve got to one of your videos! Nice!
this video made my day! geez i seriously thought i was the only one always breaking my spoons ahaha
This channel gives me life. You seem like a really cool dude, I am inspired to continue to eat fruit.
I was watching PewDiePie and got recommended your other videos and subbed. Glad I did, went on a binge watch lol
A very wonderfully thorough analysis
Wanted to give you some intel, as a botanist, on what you were eating here. You actually tasted two different species (and genera!) in this video but called them both bearberry. The foraged berries that you were eating in Finland were Arctous rubra, which we call Red Bearberry in North America. The fruits that were sent to you from Raymond were true bearberries (Arctostaphylos uva-ursi), which we call Kinnikinnick in the Pacific Northwest. Just thought I'd let you know, in case you detected a different flavor between the two and were wondering why
Moreover, in the northwest we have Oemleria cerasiformis which is known as "Indian plumb" or "Oso berry", "oso" meaning "bear", so at first that's what I thought this would be about.
These fruit aren't bad, but there isn't much pulp around the seeds, kinda sort in the way that evergreen huckleberries (Vaccinium ovatum) are seedy.
Oh and thanks for the proper plural of "genus" :D
And this explains the true value behind latin! World-wide, language-wide specifics ;)
I love learning about plants and recipes arond the world, some I've even wanted to try and seen! Your videos are the best of youtube.
Loving these Finland videos! Lots of berries I have wanted closer coverage of, thanks!!
I like how the spoon broke before the glass. Either that glass is impressively strong, or that spoon is impressively weak.
Just saw your channel and it's really interesting keep up the good work
New subscriber love your content keep it up
I recall seeing uva-ursi as an ingredient in a diuretic tea from a German-style apothecary shop in I think Chicago...I think it was leaves, not berries.
I was told it was the leaves.
Yeah it'd be the leaves
It's still for urinary tract infections. There's a substance in there that gets turned into a phenol type compound once in the bladder.
Hence it basically disinfecting your bladder.
That's also why the legal warning says to use it max for two weeks per year due to potential damage to the bladder.
It's an option for bladder infections if you can't obtain antibiotics.
There's much more effective plant based diuretics with proven effect available in actual German pharmacies.
Wow nice to have you in finland where I'm from
Great content. Leaving a comment for the algorithm.
leaving a reply for the algorithm
Thank you. I left a plate of cookies on my PC tower... for the algorithm.
@@WeirdExplorer glory be to our numeric overlords
Nice fruit for the urinary tract system and more! Thanks for sharing:)
" I'm half expecting this to catch fire "
- Jared 2020
I like the detail of the flavour explanations! 👌
The spoon destruction is something out of a dystopian nightmare. I'm amazed the glass didn't break.
This was dangerously close to Homer Simpson preparing Mr. Burns breakfast :P. Great episode, as always!
I so thought you were about to break the glass, never thought for a moment you would break the spoon.
uva-ursi was one of the many herbs i was using to make tea back before the pandi. i never knew what it did but it is a nice one it is cool to know it has a berry!
You didn't have to go all the way to Finland. Arctostaphylos uva-ursi grows wild in the U.S. in many locations, including California, New Mexico, and the Appalachians. The Arctostaphylos genus is commonly known as manzanita. Most species in this genus are native to North America.
I've been binging your videos and for once I'm early woah
Gotta be early for my favorite berry videos
Thanks for sharing. I never heard of bear berries before you brought it to my attention. Thanks
He said, "You should do what I just did" after he broke the spoon.
Earlier,I ate a large salad w/1,000 island dressing on one half& blue cheese dressing on the other .I used to like1,000 Island dressing when I was a kid so that's all I remembered when asked what kind of dressing I wanted from the store.I already had blue cheese dressing.
A very nice one to try is the flowering quince ( chaenomeles japonica )
damn you just broke a spoon
Bears do love anything sweet. It might be a strange visual to imagine, but if there's berries about on a bear's path it'll likely be constantly snacking on them.
Hey! Was about to go to bed and saw this video, everyone have a great day
The grouse I hunt in early season have these in their crops. They love them
There are also so many different locales of uva-ursi since it is such a widespread plant. There are also a bunch of cultivars grown for aesthetics. I wonder if the fruit of different forms and varieties throughout the world has different tastes as well. I grow the local native type in my garden, the same that I have foraged wild, so that's all I have experience with.
1:22 I think you are looking at a species of _Arctous_ there. Similar and closely related genus to _Arctostaphylos_ , but different from bearberry.
Oh wow! these grow in my part of Canada as well! used to eat them all the time as a kid XD
have you tried the tambalacoque it only had a few living trees last i heard
Lingonberries are also used to help urinatry tract infections, and they are much more popular in Finland than uva-ursi for their strong (maybe an acquired taste, theyre kind of bitter) taste. Its mostly used in juice or jam with mustamakkara, an easy favourite. :-)
Great!
Sounds like they got a nice crunch at least!
bro how do you break a metal spoon
Chinesium
pewter, not steel
what are your spoons made of?
Short answer is melted soda cans, long answer is mentioned in my 3 part series on the secret war in Laos: ruclips.net/video/tjGhMPN52qY/видео.html
@@WeirdExplorer well... Didn't expect that answer, but now the spoon breaking makes sense.
watching you hunt for these fruits and eating them makes me wanna do the same 😂😂
0:52 would 100% make a good line used in a videogame for getting a 1up / doing a flip it something
Not sure if you are still reading the comment section of this a bit older video :D ... But i would like to know if this kind of tastes like tea berries (Gaultheria)? it really looks like them and i had them in my mom's garden a few days ago
Nice
This guy is a god
Couldve sworn you already made a video of this fruit. Anyways, tea made from the *leaves* is better for medicinal use, if i am not mistaken. (EDIT: You mentioned this)
What tea/smoking the leaves is really good for, is lucid *dreaming.* Bearberry has some compound that enhances dreaming when drank as tea/smoked with tobacco or on its own, i used to do this for spiritual reasons when i was younger.
Coupled with a banana or some ice cream right before bed, (smoke the bearberry's leaf at this time too) and you will have better access to memories of any dreams you may have that night. Also promotes lucidity/vividity of the dreams.
8:50 I remember that sitcom from the late 80s/early 90s.
I was totally expecting the glass to crack under the pestle at that point.
Have you tried partridge berries?
Petition to grant an additional appellation to these: Spooncracker Berries.
I believe those in the beginning weren't uva-ursi, but other bearberries(from genus arctostaphylos). Arctostaphylos uva-ursi have round, thick, leathery leaves. The plant in the video had thin leaves with a serrated edge.
I've also always been told as a kid that they're poisonous, but apparently they're not that much. Still, they shouldn't be eaten raw so much, because both the leaves and the fruit, albeit in smaller quality, contain hydroxyquinone, the same thing that some black celebrities have used in the past to bleach their skin.
Where did you find these?
mmm yummy berry
They are much better dried than fresh. They get sweeter and the mealy character is replaced by a more palatable powdery one.
Did you try any wild strawberries (Fragaria vesca) while you were in Finland?
In my area of Florida they grow rampant along with wild blueberries
In my hikes I've always wondered what in the world those were, thank you. Its all over New England.
Great videos, been watching the past month, and I have a question. Have you ever considered mushrooms? So many to try, just in the states alone. While they arnt fruits in a traditional sense, they are the fruiting bodies of fungi. Maybe a stretch, but I think its enough of a reason to start exploring fungi near and far. Caution is to be exersized always, but you do well to identify poisonous fruits, mushrooms should not be to difficult. While I'm not sure which you've tried or even if your a fan of mushrooms, some easy to identify are chanterelles, morales, oyster (pretty common in a market environment), lobster mushroom ( some what present in some markets), chicken of the woods, hen of the woods, lion's mane, and inky caps. Please if you see this do provide your thoughts.
I don't like mushrooms.. I wouldn't be a good judge
@@WeirdExplorer understandable and thanks for the reply, not sure if you've tried many varieties. Texture is usually pretty consistent across all fungi, and I know thats a big turnoff for alot of people, but taste does differ. But the fruit man had spoken "no fungi", good day.
Nice haircut!
This would make a interesting pie
Just wonderring how is it that you can travel to Finland and back? Did you need to test first? Do you need to self quarantine for 14 days there and on your way back, testing ect., very curious.
I went last year. Borders are closed to the US now :/
@@WeirdExplorer Ohhhh! Well that's good to know!
hey have you tried southern california loquat its one of my favorites and not many people eat it
how does your metal spoon break and not the glass? That was crazy.
The metal of the spoon where the bowl meets the handle was work hardened which makes it more brittle. Better that the spoon gave way rather than shards of glass.
The berries were harder than metal obviously
Blueberries with milk are also nice.
They look like what we call Partridge berries, or are they cranberries because bedwetters I heard that term before for people that have urinary tract infections
I like when the spoon broke XD what was that spoon made of lol if it was metal what are the berries made of O.o
That’s funny. We have bearberries («bjørnebær») in Norway too, but ours are what you call blackberries, rubus fruticosus... ☺️ These berries though, we call «melbær» («flourberries»), as their inside is «mealy», if you know what I mean. They grow all over Norway as well. We usually don’t pick them, they’re generally not seen as very tasteful, at least not where I am. I remember learning as a kid that you can eat them, but that they aren’t very flavorful, so they’re basically not worth the hassle (of going to the woods and picking them)... 😊
Do they taste anything like raw cranberry ?
have you tried the black Aronia berries ? easy to grow and high in vit c
You should try monkfruit!
he had a pestle the entire time lol
I so want a plant they look cool & yummy