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Berries to bucks: Residents cash in on thimbleberries
By Karin Emond
for Keweenaw Today
10/05/2000
For many, the word unique defines the Keweenaw Peninsula. Unique is also the word that best describes one of the peninsula’Äôs distinctive botanical residents.
The thimbleberry, Rubus parviflorus, a little-known relative of the raspberry, is found in a limited habitat extending from southern Manitoba and far southwestern Ontario, Canada, through
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Ripe thimbleberries bask in the late afternoon sun along M-26 near the Jam Pot Bakery in Eagle River. The monks of the Society of St. John are just one of many groups of Keweenaw
residents cashing in on the popularity of this unique berry. |
northernmost Minnesota, Michigan’Äôs Upper Peninsula and the northern quarter of Lower Michigan, to Wisconsin’Äôs Door Peninsula. With its large maple-leaf-like foliage, it fills the dappled sunlit spaces
along roadsides, trails and streams and in the open forest with cooling shades of green. From mid-June through mid-July its one-to-two-inch blossoms, resembling those of a strawberry with their five white
petals and yellow centers, join nature’Äôs symphony of summer flowers. Finally, by mid-to-late August the berries ripen into small, edible, scarlet packages of intense raspberry-like flavor. Not only pretty to
look at, thimbleberries also represent a unique economic opportunity.
Thimbleberry jam has probably been in the pantries of Copper Country families
since shortly after settlers came to the area over a 150 years ago. The advent of the tourist trade years later brought the discovery that the jam is also a popular way for visitors, many of whom never
heard of the berry until traveling to these northern areas, to take home a taste of the Keweenaw.
Enterprising area residents have been cashing in on the tasty wild berry ever
since. For over 30 years, jam maker Barb Perrault of Centennial Location has
Barb Perrault, owner of Barb’Äôs Favorite Jams and Jellies in Centennial Location, sells a variety of jams and jellies in her gift shop. Woodwork by her husband
Clifford and artwork by several of her daughters are also for sale in the shop. |
been tapping into the thimbleberry’Äôs tourist appeal. Owner of Barb’Äôs Favorite Jams and Jellies, she calls the berries ’ÄúU.P. gold,’Äù converting a saying from her native Texas where
’ÄúTexas gold’Äù refers to one of that state’Äôs major crops ’Äì pecans. But mining this ’Äúgold’Äù has its challenges. The thimbleberry is found only in the wild. So far, attempts to cultivate the
delicate berry have met with failure. This translates into a supply of berries limited not only by narrow habitat, but to what a sometimes fickle Mother Nature produces. And, while berries on cultivated canes are
concentrated in the grower’Äôs fields, the untamed thimbleberry crop is scattered over miles of rugged terrain. Under these supply parameters, obtaining
enough thimbleberries to convert into jam requires more effort than for many other types of jams. This has opened a door of opportunity for berry pickers.
These folks are willing to brave the terrain, the elements, insects and the occasional bear to harvest berries for jam makers who, because of time,
production demand or health constraints, choose to buy their supply of berries rather than harvest them themselves. This year, Perrault says, the going rate for
a pound of cleaned berries is $8. In years of tight supply, the price has gone as
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How to make thimbleberry jam
By Karin Emond
for Keweenaw Today
10/05/00
Each year, hundreds of jars of thimbleberry jam are produced and sold by local jam makers to feed the appetites of visitors hungry for a taste of Keweenaw. Each year, many more jars are produced in
homes throughout the Keweenaw Peninsula to feed families hungry for a sweet breakfast companion or after school snack. But even seasoned jam makers must learn new ways to meet the unique challenges
facing them throughout the entire process. Two characteristics of thimbleberries present the first hurdles to a would-be jam maker: It grows only in the wild, and it is extremely fragile.
It is not unusual for home jam makers to gather their berries in the wild. Wild blueberry and strawberry jams have been popular for decades, perhaps centuries. However, these
fruits can be gathered in just about any type of container, including boxes, baskets or pails. Not so the thimbleberry. So delicate are these berries that they break open from the weight of the
berries above them in the pail. Even the most careful picker cannot avoid bruising them. To prevent the juice of the berries from being lost to the forest floor, only a watertight- or in this case
juice-tight-container will do for gathering. Plastic five-quart ice cream pails are perfect for the job.
If a jam maker is unable or unwilling to gather blueberries or
strawberries in the wild, a trip to the local berry farm or grocery can quickly provide as many berries as desired. This is not an option with the thimbleberry. If you are unable to pick
thimbleberries yourself, locating a person who picks berries to supply commercial jam makers is the only other option. Even if the cost of the berries ’Äì anywhere from $8 - $15 per pound depending
on supply and demand ’Äì is not prohibitive, the home jam maker may still be left without berries because the pickers are often committed to providing their whole supply to a specific commercial jam
maker.
The challenges with the thimbleberry don’Äôt stop once a supply is obtained. Longtime local jam maker Barb Perrault explains the process she uses to turn the delicate
berry into the delectable bread spread she sells at Barb’Äôs Favorite Jam’Äôs and Jellies in Centennial Location.
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Barb Perrault, owner of Barb’Äôs Favorite Jams and Jellies in
Centennial Location, carefully cleans a tray of thimbleberries. While her family members help pick most of the fruit, Barb is the
sole jam maker for the dozen or so varieties of jams and jellies she sells in her shop. |
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Too fragile to be washed, the berries are cleaned by a tedious, painstaking task. Spreading a layer of berries onto a cookie sheet, Perrault
carefully picks through them looking for undesirable berries, insects, leaves and debris.
’ÄúIt takes you as long to clean them as it does to
pick them,’Äù quips Barb, as she carefully examines each tray a total of three times before the berries are mashed in the next step of the process.
The mashed berries are allowed to sit for about 30 minutes to give any previously undetected undesirables a chance to float to the top of the juicy
pulp mixture. After one final inspection, the cooking process begins. Barb’Äôs recipe calls for equal parts of berries and sugar. The thimbleberry, unlike other
berries, contains a natural pectin. Therefore, no pectin is added to the berry/sugar mixture. The natural pectin doesn’Äôt set as firmly as commercial
pectin so expect thimbleberry jam to be a bit looser than other jams, says Perrault.
Pick a sunny day to make your jam. In her many
years’Äô experience, Perrault has noticed that jams and jellies don’Äôt jell on cloudy days, a phenomenon she has confirmed by talking with other jam makers.
If a watched pot never boils, in thimbleberry jam making a watched pot never burns. Even conscientious cooks may sometimes leave a jam recipe heating on the stove unattended and
unstirred for a minute or so, usually without ill consequence. However, thimbleberry jam isn’Äôt so forgiving. The mixture requires constant stirring
because thimbleberries instantly stick to the bottom of the pan and will quickly burn if left unattended, says Perrault.
After the mixture comes to a boil and starts to
’Äúpuck,’Äù a condition where it thickens and starts to spatter when the vapor bubbles pop, it is boiled three more minutes before being poured into jars.
Thimbleberry jelly is produced following the same steps as the jam except that instead of the entire berry, only the juice is used. Also, pectin is added to this recipe.
To extract the juice from the berries Perrault uses a Scandinavian steamer/juice extractor called a Mehu-maija. The extractor works on the same
principle as the double boiler, but with some modifications. It incorporates a removable stainless steel colander in which the food, in this case the
fruit, is placed. The colander fits inside a stainless steel shell that collects the juice. This shell has a small outlet an inch or so from the bottom. As the
juice is extracted, it drains from the collection pot through this opening and is transferred via a piece of attached tubing to a stove-side bowl. Just as in a
double boiler, the colander/collection shell assembly sits over a pot of boiling water. The steam it generates provides the heat needed to extract the juice.
Perrault lines the colander with cheesecloth to trap the tiny thimbleberry seeds which would
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Perrault demonstrates how a Mehu-maija works. The Scandinavian steamer/juicer makes extracting
juice from berries much easier than the time-consuming boiling and straining method. |
otherwise fall through the holes in the colander and have to be strained from the juice. The extraction process takes about an hour. Before the Mehu-maija, juice
extraction was much more time-intensive. Water was added to the berries. The mixture was boiled for about 20 minutes and then strained through cheesecloth.
In the final step, the filled jars are capped with sterilized lids and immersed in a boiling water bath for two minutes in order to kill any pathogenic or
spoilage organisms. The jars of jam or jelly are allowed to cool overnight.
After labeling the jars, the jam maker can sit down and savor the sweet rewards of successfully
meeting the challenges of the thimbleberry. |
high as $15 per pound. It might seem that thimbleberry pickers rake in the money at these rates, and certainly some generate a tidy income by picking other wild fruit and berries as well. Often,
however, berry picking is just a way to pick up some extra pocket money.
Perrault can vouch for the fact that it is hard-earned money, in either case. Along with family members, she has
been picking most of the berries she needs since she started making jam. As with any wild food, supplies can fluctuate based on the amount and timing of annual rainfall, the severity of winter,
temperatures at critical times of the growing season, insect infestations and other natural or man-made disasters. Perrault says that you can never be sure what you’Äôre going to get on any picking
excursion. She and her husband Clifford often cover miles of back road territory, scouring patch after patch on all-day picking adventures. Other times, ice cream pails full of berries can be collected
in just an hour or so. Then there are times when a three-or-four-hour hunt yields few berries.
To translate effort into economics, consider this example based on Perrault’Äôs business. Her
recipe requires four and a half pounds of berries for every case of jam. She, her husband, eight family members and three pickers harvest the 225 pounds of berries she needs to produce the 50 cases of
jam she tries to put up each season to satisfy her regular customers and supply her shop. Assuming the berries sold at $8 per pound, the 225 pounds would have fetched $1,800. If you take the
math one step further and divide the proceeds evenly among 13 pickers, each one would garner only $138.46 for the effort.
As if the natural supply limitation weren’Äôt enough,
the berry is also extremely fragile. Just the weight of the upper layer of berries is enough to crush the lower ones and start the valuable juices flowing, Perrault explains. If the berries were to be
collected in a basket, these juices would be lost. For the same reason, the berries are not washed prior to the jam-making process. They are cleaned only by several careful visual inspections to
remove leaves, bad berries and insects.
’ÄúIt’Äôs the only berry I have to pick in a plastic pail. All the others can be placed in baskets,’Äù she notes.
Most jam makers
prefer to work with fresh berries, although some use frozen ones. As the popularity of thimbleberry jam has spread, jam makers from areas outside the berry’Äôs home territory have tried to import
supplies; but the fragile nature of the berries prohibits their shipment.
’ÄúI’Äôve had people call me from Lower Michigan asking me to pick a lug of thimbleberries and ship
them, but they don’Äôt understand,’Äù Perrault says. ’ÄúThey’Äôre not like strawberries. You just don’Äôt pick a lug of thimbleberries to ship. They’Äôd never make it.’Äù
This year, an
eight-ounce jar of thimbleberry jam is retailing anywhere from $6.70 to $12.50. The lion’Äôs share of profit from the sale of thimbleberry jam is reaped by the jam-makers. They often have the most time and
effort invested in the product. Many pick their own berries in addition to making, packaging and selling their products. Those who buy their berries have made a sizable investment in raw materials. For people
selling jams and jellies locally, there is no doubt that thimbleberry jam is the reigning queen of the local jam kingdom. It accounts for a third of Perrault’Äôs annual production and sales, although it is only
one of 10’Äì12 different varieties of fruits and berries represented in her product line.
Those jam makers who don’Äôt open a shop of their own have found a market for their product in local
gift shops. Donna Holmstrom, a membership liaison with the Keweenaw Peninsula Chamber of Commerce, estimates that regardless of their specialty, about 90 percent
of the gift shops in the area carry thimbleberry jam because it is a specialty item for the peninsula. They have been quick to recognize the one-of-a-kind nature of the product and capitalize upon it.
Tony Bausano, owner of Copper World in Calumet, carries a complete line of local wild berry jams and jellies, including thimbleberry. The thimbleberry is the runaway leader in sales.
’ÄúIt’Äôs thimbleberry 10 to 1 of the others,’Äù Bausano says. ’ÄúWe sell it because it is unique to the Keweenaw. It grows in only about a half dozen places in the
whole world. Of those places, the Keweenaw is the only one who does anything with it. The Keweenaw has found a way to market it.’Äù
The trend is similar for Barb Foley, owner of the County Village Shops in Copper Harbor. Of the 20’Äì30 varieties of jams and jellies she carries in her
Country Store shop, thimbleberry is by far the biggest seller, accounting for about 75 percent of her sales in that category.
Says Foley, ’ÄúWe don’Äôt make a lot of profit on it, but it is a drawing card. If they (tourists) know we have thimbleberry jam, they come in for that. Then
they might see something else they like.’Äù
Foley capitalizes on the berry in other ways too, by selling thimbleberry fudge, ice cream sundaes topped with thimbleberry sauce and thimbleberry
muffins in the Thimbleberry Shop.
Tourists have played a vital role in the rise in popularity of thimbleberry jam. Foley, who purchased the Country Village shops from her parents and thus has
two lifetimes of experience to draw on, says that sales of the jam have increased proportionately with the increase in the number of tourists visiting the area.
Notes Perrault, ’ÄúAt one time if I sold ten cases I felt real lucky. Now, as much as I have is as much as I sell.’Äù
Bausano, with 26 years of experience selling to area tourists, estimates that he’Äôs selling 20 times the amount of jam he sold 20 years ago, even with prices over three times higher.
’ÄúBack then it was selling for $2 a jar, now I sell it 3 jars for $20,’Äù he says.
Bausano adds that tourists also help spread the word when they take home
jam for friends and family. He relates the story of one customer from Arizona. It was her first visit to the area and she took one jar of jam home with her. She took the jam to work with her and everyone got a taste.
’ÄúWithin a week she called back and ordered a case. Since then she’Äôs ordered two more cases for friends and family,’Äù he notes.
Another customer, an elderly lady from Chicago, orders a case a month to give as gifts. Bausano quotes her as saying that her friends and family ’Äúwon’Äôt
take money, but they all take a jar of jam.’Äù
It is difficult to place an exact dollar amount on the income generated by local pickers, jam makers and gift shop owners since the role of the
thimbleberry in the local economy has not been studied to any great extent. But, while hard to define, it is fairly certain that for those who are turning berries into
bucks, the unassuming, unique little thimbleberry will continue to play an important and ever increasing role.
Photos courtesy Karin Emond.
Editor’Äôs note: Karin Emond, of Green Bay, Wis., is a guest writer for Keweenaw Today. A former writer and photographer for The Daily Mining Gazette, Karin enjoys returning to the Copper Country to visit her old haunts.
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