Yesterday the Edwards kids (Katy, RT and Mary Ellen) invited me to go to the Michigan Land Use Institute fundraiser, Taste the Local Difference. The ride down was very entertaining, and you can look forward to a post or two about some cats named Pumpkin, Tofu and Miso. Very appropriate, considering that we were headed to a foodie’s paradise at the Grand Traverse Resort. There were quantities of excellent treats, but of everything there, I decided I had to show you . . . saskatoons!
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The Traverse City Record-Eagle has been giving a lot of coverage to the hardy berry (Saska-Who? There’s a new berry in town) and offered samples, cunningly mingled with cherries, the staple food of the Grand Traverse Bay Region. Who could resist? Saskatoons look like blueberries, but they don’t taste like them. More like applesauce. I liked them, and would be glad to see them in the woods, but I wouldn’t choose them over a nice handful of blueberries. Still, an alternative crop that likes our weather is always welcome, and the local restaurants are finding creative ways to use them.
Carolyn Morrissey from the Record-Eagle advertising department was there explaining it all for you. She gave me an apron–oh the irony!–and I came home with some recipes. Maybe I’ll be adventurous and add saskatoons to some scalloped pineapple. I’ll let you know how it goes. I’ll even get someone to take a picture of me in an apron.
Torch Lake Views 
Wendi
June 30, 2010
You could add anything to that scalloped pineapple and it would be wonderful!
Gerry
June 30, 2010
Thank you, Wendi. I believe I must bring The Pineapple to the Stone Circle Picnic. It won’t be as good as the potato salad, because nothing on this earth is as good as the potato salad, but it will be good.
P.j. grath
June 30, 2010
I think I’d love them for their name alone. Saskatoons! It rolls off the tongue. I don’t suppose anyone was sharing information about thimbleberries? And what about those little red Swedish berries? Smooth ones? What’s their name? Wouldn’t they grow here? –Ah, lingonberries! Can you believe I remembered the name before submitting my comment?
Gerry
June 30, 2010
Ah . . . the marketers are good. The plant is also known as the humble serviceberry. Saskatoons by any other name are still–serviceberries.
I don’t know of anyone who has ever tried to cultivate thimbleberries, but among the several people I do not know (:))there is probably someone who is doing it. At least half the people I know go out in the woods and compete with the bears for the berries. They are that good. The other half of the people I know buy their thimbleberries made up into jam, often by those friars who live in the Keweenaw, and avoid the bear thing.
Lingonberries, now–do they grow in Michigan at all? Because if they do, a person could save a lot of money by finding them here rather than ordering tubs of them from Sweden.
Fee
June 30, 2010
Just when I thought I’d tried every fruit, someone has to go and find a new one. Tastes like applesauce, eh? I like applesauce. Sadly, they’re unlikely to hit our shores in the near future. I’ll stick with blueberries in the meantime.
Gerry
June 30, 2010
I think everyone around here has simply become jaded and is looking for something that is Not a Cherry. I almost called this post “Saskatoons! They’re not cherries!”
The Kings say they’ll have blueberries in the market on Friday–oh joy!
flandrumhill
June 30, 2010
I always thought ‘Saskatoon’ was just another name for ‘blueberry.’ I don’t think they grow around here, but blueberries certainly do. (The blueberry capital of Canada is in Nova Scotia).
Gerry
June 30, 2010
There’s another fine reason for spending time in Nova Scotia. (Cora Stoppert also speaks highly of the codfish. She says what we are able to obtain locally is but a poor imitation of the real thing.)
Anna
July 1, 2010
Saskatoon? I wonder where the word derived for this berry? Wait a minute…. I researched at Wikipedia and Saskatoon is a Canadian city. Wikipedia states:
The name Saskatoon [in Cree: sâskwatôn, “Saskatoon” or the locatives: misâskwatôminihk, lit: “at the saskatoon berry”, misâskwatôminiskâhk, “at the place of many saskatoon berries”, mînisihk “at the berry”] comes from the Cree inanimate noun misâskwatômina “saskatoon berries”, which refers to the sweet, violet-coloured berry that grows in the area.
Hmm… What an interesting name and berry. I haven’t heard of the Saskatoon or eaten any. I learn something new every day!
Gerry
July 1, 2010
Yup. The Saskatchewan city got its name from what the European settlers thought the Cree were saying when they pointed out the serviceberries.
Karma
July 1, 2010
Are cherries something that grows readily in your area? I’m still waiting for some decent cherries around here; seems our cherry season is regretably short.
Saskatoons, eh? Never heard of them or serviceberries for that matter. Very curious.
Gerry
July 1, 2010
Um, Karma? The National Cherry Festival is about to begin in Traverse City. Our roads are full of trucks hauling lugs of cherries from the orchards to the processing plants. Our hills are covered in acres and acres of cherry trees. Montmorencies and Balatons and Ulsters and Cavaliers and . . . Karma, we have cherries. We have festivals to bless the blossoms in May and festivals to bless the harvest in July and cherry recipe contests in the off-season. We can sell you fresh cherries and dried cherries and chocolate covered cherries and cherry juice and cherry concentrate and cherry wine and cherry pie and cherry preserves and cherry nutraceuticals and cherry dog biscuits. At the gift shop in the Cherry Capital Airport in Traverse City you can buy anything from postcards to t-shirts to sets of luggage emblazoned with cherries.
Now as to whether they grow readily here, well, no. Nothing about any kind of agriculture is easy, on account of Mama Nature having her little ways, but farmers are a stubborn lot, and born optimists, too, which is why they keep at it. I can see that I have been remiss. It must be time to do A Cherry Post.
Karma
July 1, 2010
Well, I have been educated! If you find yourself sick of cherries this month, please feel free to send some out this way! 🙂
Gerry
July 1, 2010
I am almost sick of cherries but not quite. Tomorrow morning I’m putting up a post about U-pick at the markets this weekend. You could always come here! 🙂
Reggie
July 2, 2010
I’ve never heard of saskatoons either, but we do have cherries here!
In fact, it’s even possible to pick your own during the growing season (end of November to end of December), when you go to a farm like Klondyke Cherry Farm in the mountains outside Ceres.
I’ll have to find out whether we have saskatoons here too…
Gerry
July 2, 2010
Virtual travel is so broadening. It would never have occurred to me that there would be cherry orchards in South Africa. Good to know.