Saskatoon

These are growing all along the tree line on Highway 12, closer to 22x.  I was hard pressed to collect as much seed as I did, only because I had to sample so many.  

Saskatoon berries were an important part of the Indignous people's diet.  The Blackfoot mixed saskatoons with buffalo fat and blood to make a favorite dessert. Saskatoons were also a major ingredient in pemmican.  

Red-osier Dogwood

Found all over Alberta.  Native peoples in northern Alberta used the outer bark to make a dye and tanning solution for hides.  The stems were woven into birch baskets to add colour. Also, original native dreamcatchers were made from the young branches of the Red-osier dogwood.

Beaked Hazelnut or Beaked Filbert

I found these on my favorite lease not far from home.  Judging from the incredible abundance of this shrub, I would guess that it is easy to grow!  Can't wait to go back in the early spring to see the flowers.  This shrub is one of the earliest flowering plants in Alberta. 

Beaked hazelnut is a member of the birch family.

I suspect I may regret offering these for sale, they are going to require some heavy gloves to clean the nut.  Update, heavy leather gloves & a dental tool makes quick work of it.

Sold Out

Ground Juniper 

Forming mats in open and wooded areas.  Plants are male or female, females produce the blue cones which is where the seed is collected from.  

Of note, the blue cones can be made into tea or roasted and used as a coffee substitute. Although after cleaning them I'm not sure I'd try it?

Juniper communis is also used in the production of gin.  Juniper berries are excellent for seasoning wild game.  Although I've yet to try it, I've been told it is perfect with elk. Berries are ground and used as a dry rub.  Please see our "Other Goodies" tab to purchase dried Juniper berries for your spice cupboard.

Creeping Juniper

A shrub with horizontal stems growing up to 5 metres long, often forming large mats.

Larch or Tamarack

There are a lot of larch around here.  One of my favourite views is the line of larch trees shown in this picture.  They turn this wonderful mustard colour in September.  Simply beautiful.

Larch lose their needles in the winter.  

Twining honeysuckle

I love the colour of the emerging blooms.  Buds starting a pale almost buttery yellow turning to scarlet.  

Berry is inedible.

Bracted Honeysuckle

White Spruce

These are quite common throughout Alberta, in fact I never have to go far to collect seed. They are easy to identify and easy to collect seed from.

Lodgepole Pine,  Twisted pine, subsp. latifolia

An evergreen conifer that grows in the Rocky Mountains and into Saskatchewan.   The cones need to be exposed to high heat (forest fire) in order to release the seeds.  

Limber pine also called Apinus flexilis

This is one of my favourite trees.  In spite of the harsh conditions they are exposed to, they survive, they grow, they provide food and shelter to the critters that also survive in this climate. Limber pine grows all around Lake Abraham, AB, some of them at Windy Point grow horizontally due to the wind.  The cones are beautiful, up to about 20 cm long, when opened they make wonderful Christmas decorations?

I do wonder how they will grow in conditions that are not so harsh?

Red-fruited Choke cherry

Found in dry open areas and edges of aspen forests.  A shrub 1-3 metres tall.

Chokecherries make a delicious jam or jelly although they are sour to taste fresh picked. 

The Blackfoot ground the entire fruit (with pit) and formed dry cakes which were consumed as trail food.  Ground berries were also added to pemmican and fish.  The Blood tribe would boil the fruit with bison blood as a treat.