Today we get a look at Thimbleberries in the wild and where Barbara Bouwkamp risks limbs and her life to pick these deep, red berries. Don’t get your hopes up though, as we aren’t revealing the location. They are expensive little red orbs that make the most delicious jam. Barbara explained why the berries themselves sell for upwards of $29 a pound (last years going price), saying that they are worth every penny of hard, back breaking and tripping issues in the gullies and woods when picking them. And her big fear is tripping and breaking a leg all alone in the brush where no one can find you until you’re a skeleton for ten years! So she says she wouldn’t sell the thimbleberries she picks for $100 a pound.

Barbara’s fourth photo is quite interesting. That’s a flower called Indian Pipe, also referred to as Ghost Pipe. I thought it was a mushroom or fungi, but according to the US Forest Service it’s a perennial wildflower. You can read more about it on the US Forest Service link in the previous sentence.

The last photo is shared by Tailor Atwood, reminding us about the upcoming Gem and Mineral Show at the Houghton Elementary School this coming Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Nathalie Brandes (Dr. Nat) will be giving a presentation on Friday and Saturday at 4 p.m. The video here today is from Visit Keweenaw from a previous Gem and Mineral Show, but it gives you a quick idea what to expect when you attend.

I love thimbleberries! We've picked 11# off
them this year. My kids and grandkids will
be happy to get some jam for free, lol.

Barbara's fears sounded a bit tongue in cheek but even so I recommend looking into a 2-way handheld satellite communicator. They are not fancy but allow for 2-way texting anywhere on the planet, have an SOS button and can be bought for as little as 5 pounds of Thimbleberries.

Indian Pipe seems fairly rare and so delicate. I saw my first (and only so far) on Isle Royale a few years ago.

Wow Mary… that’s a pretty scary scenario;
“…all alone in the brush
where no one can find you until you’re a skeleton for ten years!”
Has someone been watching a lot of horror flicks or what?

I meant to add that in with Barb. We
wouldn't sell them for all the tea in China.
My back hurts beyond measure every night. I
have to sit on a heating pad in the summer.
And my legs are all torn up from all the
branches I'm tripping and climbing over.
Lost my shoe a couple of times in between
branches. But I don't go alone and I won't
say where we pick either.

They are everywhere. That's a weed if you ask me.
I don't like thimbleberries...I'm a weird one, I
know! I know the monks pay huge bucks for them.

Those Indian Pipes are so cool....Those are way
harder to find than thimbleberries!!~!~

And oh...that Gem and Mineral museum is so
incredible. If you haven't been there, you need to
go...the gift shop is first, and there's no charge
there, but there's a charge to get into the
rocks/minerals. I so wish I could go. Dr. Nat has
some incredible videos on You Tube...she uses them
to teach~! Way cool...

Deb,

All that hard work must make them taste delicious?

D.A., they do taste delicious.

Poor Donna doesn't like them. We do all have
our own tastes, don't we? Thankfully a lot
of people haven't acquired a taste for them.
That leaves more for the rest of us.