• Wednesday-What'sUP July 11 - 10:33 pm

Brenda Leigh has been a busy lady, hunting down the elusive wild berries of the U.P. and it looks like she's found herself a variety.

Her first photo is a Wintergreen berry, which Brenda said is just about done now, but she picked enough to make some delicious jam.

The blueberries aren't quite ripe yet, just a few here and there, but Brenda says by the looks of the bushes she's seen, it's going to be a banner year for them. The day she took this photo, she only picked a few, just enough to add to their morning pancakes.

When Brenda spotted these thimbleberry plants and blossoms, she was quite excited, as she said she's never before seen them growing on the eastern end of the U.P., near the Soo. She figures maybe a bird carried the seeds with them, as they flew from the Keweenaw. But however they made their way to that part of the Upper Peninsula, Brenda is elated they're there and is keeping the location of her "secret garden" to herself.

The last berry here today, is the wild strawberry. Very small and very tasty, especially in the homemade jam that Brenda made from them. The bowl full of berries represents a good portion of time bent over picking, but the effort is well worth it when you taste the sweet goodness of these little wild berries.

From the local buzz around town, I hear that this is going to be a good year for the berry pickers and that they seem to be all ahead of time for when they're going to be ripened for picking. So if you're thinking about getting some, better start checking your patches early!

Some of those look good enough to eat. Mmmm, hmmm!!!

Eating healthy isn't so bad......give me the blueberries please!

Hi
Years ago, we went for a very long walk down the coast of Lake Huron on a trail that went in and out of the woods, and gradully went up on a bluff. We came out on a broad sunny, grassy area that was covered with wild strawberries. They were sweet and sun-warmed and I've never had berries so tasty again.

I'll take the wild strawberries! WOWOWOWOWOW!!!! Way to go Brenda! And I've never heard of wintergreen jam....wow...I bet that's good stuff...

I love to walk and eat the wild berries as i go! Delicious! However- I am not familiar with the Wintergreen berries.Great pics!

Lovely photos! Looking forward to picking wild blueberries in the UP in a couple of weeks. We like blueberry pie, and blueberries over ice cream! :-)

Looks like Brenda is ready to pull an MC5 and kick out the jams, brothers and sisters.

Jaby, wintergreen berries have a unique flavor; if you've had wintergreen-flavored gum or mints, that pretty much it. They are more to refresh your mouth than they are a sweet treat.

I have a berry good time looking at these photos. Thanks 4 sharing.

One of us will for sure be doing a lot of picking when we're UP next month. My cousin has a cabin down on the lake from Freda. Hopefully he's there so we can go pickin'!!