My mom was reading a book that mentioned the Whooshum Berry which grows in northern BC. It is small and pink and edible and apparently made a wonderful drink and icecream too. I can't find anything about it on the internet. Does anyone know the botanical name or other name that it goes by? Is there a photo? Thank you for any info.
Using Moerman's Native American Ethnobotany and the only reference to whooshum I can find online... The Skeetchestn are members of the Shuswap First Nation. In the book above, it lists only one species of plant being used by the Shuswap peoples as "ice cream": Shepherdia canadensis. This species is also listed as being used in a beverage. Read more about soopolallie (PDF). Other plants listed as being used for ice creams, but only in the far north (i.e., by Inuit peoples or -- the term used in the book -- Eskimos) include species of Anemone, Arctostaphylos, Dryopteris, Empetrum, Hippuris, Honckenya, Rosa, Rubus, Rumex, Vaccinium and Viburnum. The Paiute of southwestern North America also made "ice cream" flavoured with seeds of Descurainia or from ground seeds of Pinus.
my mom says "thank you so much....that was incredibly helpful!" a very interesting plant/berry. Must convince her to get a computer!!
A whooshum - soopalalie mention in a recipe: http://ominecawilderness.wordpress.com/wilderness-gourmet/the-wilderness-gourmet-recipes/ First time I've ever heard it called whooshum :-) frog
I tried these berries while camping near Bella Coola beside the Atnarko river and found them quite bitter and hardly worth the effort picking them. They are more like a medicine than a dessert.
Apparently you can get stomache trouble if you eat too many of them. I guess if there's nothing else to eat they could provide vitamin c and keep you going until other food is available. Maybe things tasted better before we were so spoiled with the abundance of sweet fruits and berries.
Pojar & Mackinnon (1994 edition) say Indian ice-cream made from the "extremely bitter" fruits is sweetened with "salal berries, camas bulbs or hemlock cambium". http://www.lonepinepublishing.com/cat/1-55105-530-9
