For this week’s nature walk, I went for a walk at Mount Work, the Munn road entrance. The freshly fallen snow made this walk even more magical than normal. This trail connects to Durrance Lake further on. I went into this walk hoping to find some snowberries as I had hoped to title this weeks blog post “Snowberries in the Snow”. Surprisingly, I did not find any. However, I did find many Salal shrubs. One fun spot you can find on this walk is Kinghorn cabin, a cabin that used to belong to the Kinghorn family until they donated it. It is a fun spot to explore! I will include a photo from inside the cabin and the outside below.
Salal, also known as DAḴE IȽĆ in SENĆOŦEN, has distinct shiny, leathery evergreen oval leaves. They have dark purple-blue berries that come out in the fall. One of the traditional uses of Salal is using the berries to either thicken other jams or make a jam just using Salal berries. Salal berries can also be dried and eaten similarly as raisins. Not only can the berries be used, but the leaves too! “Use leafy branches in pitcooks for flavour and to protect food from direct heat and soil.” (Pacific Northwest Plant Knowledge Cards). Both the new leaves and berries are excellent sources of vitamin C.
One medicinal use of Salal is chewing the leaves to suppress appetite. As well as rubbing new flower buds together and then applying to the skin to make the skin softer. I have attached a video that demonstrates how to identify Salal berries and a recipe for Pemmican.