People might think of the Great North State as a barren place with little sustainable vegetation. However, if you know what to look for, that is the furthest from the truth. In this guide, I will go over a list of some of the most common and nutritious edible berries in Minnesota that grow in the wild.
Indigenous people have inhabited Minnesota for the past 10,000 years while utilizing all sorts of edible berries and natural resources to sustain themselves throughout history.
Recommended Guidebook For Minnesota:
This guidebook is a Minnesota Forager’s best friend. The book is small enough to be a field guide, yet still organized sufficiently to trust. It’s color-coded and shows both edible and poisonous berries in Minnesota.
It’s the best book I’ve found regarding wild berries in Minnesota.
Overall, Minnesota is an ideal place for foraging wild berries due to its diverse and abundant native flora. Minnesota also has quite a lot of federal wilderness with vast forests, meadows, wetlands, and prairies available across them.
With that being available to us all, Minnesota offers a unique variety of habitats where one can find many different kinds of wild berries.
Minnesota has a conducive climate that promotes the growth of various species such as the infamous blueberry bush, which creates an abundance of delicious and nutritious fruits to be enjoyed.
Warning: This post is not a guide that teaches you how to identify wild edible plants. Rather, it is a post that includes basic identification that is meant to inform you of what plants are located in the northern woods so that you can do your research and receive professional guidance.
Before we begin, it is important to note that wild animals rely on these fruits. Let’s make sure to not take it all!
My guide to edible berries in Minnesota is free! I’ve included links to books or products that I have personally owned and found useful to my learning. If you purchase an item through these links, I get paid a very small commission at no extra cost to you. I then use the money to make the world a better place!
What Are Some Edible Berries In Minnesota
Minnesota has an abundance of edible plants and berries. Here listed are many of the most common ones. At the end of this article is a great field guide on this region’s berries.
Now let’s begin!
1. Wintergreen Berry
My uncle who lives up North showed me Wintergreen when I was a kid, and this was one of the first wild edible plants from up North that I learned about.
The unique thing about Wintergreen is that you can find this berry throughout winter beneath the snow if you know where to look.
Edible Uses:
The berry is eaten directly and the leaves are often steeped to make tea. Both the berry and leaves smell strongly of mint, hence the name. The plant also has many medicinal properties.
Similar to Aspirin, sipping wintergreen tea can help relieve a headache, aches, sore throat, fever, etc. Lastly, the oils from this plant can act as a deterrent for insects.
Habitat And Notes:
You will have to be looking directly on the ground to find Wintergreen as the plant only grows to about 6 inches. Wintergreen prefers areas with good drainage, moisture, and a bit of shade. You can harvest the berries and leaves year-round up in the Boundary Waters.
2. Juneberry
Juneberries (or Saskatoon) are one of my all-time favorite edible berries up North. The abundance and tastiness of the fruit make it very enjoyable to come across.
Edible Uses:
If you know what to look for, there are not any toxic look-alike plants in the area. The berries have numerous health benefits including immune support, lowered heart disease risk, reduced risk of cancer, and more, and can be eaten raw. Also, the berries just taste damn good!
Due to how common this berry is, it has worked its way to become one of my favorite berries to forage in the area.
Habitat And Notes:
I found Juneberry bushes and trees to be extremely abundant at most campsites, portages, and rocky areas in the Boundary Waters. The berries typically ripen up during all times of the summer, depending on the location. However, they seem to be most abundant in June and July.
The best fruits are the ripe, softer ones, and they will sometimes either be a cherry reddish color or more purplish to even black.
The plant itself can either be a shrub or a small tree, ranging from 3 to 20 feet in height. You will find clusters with crowns at the bottom of the fruits. The best way to identify this berry is by the leaf. The base of the leaf begins smooth and rounded but becomes finely toothed.
3. Blueberry
Most likely, we all are aware of how great blueberries are. However, wild blueberries from Minnesota are even better! When I spent time in the wilderness of Minnesota, blueberries were always a part of my diet.
Edible Uses:
Commonly Eaten raw, Blueberries have been a staple, and natives regularly dried and stored them throughout winter, as well as most of the berries on the list.
Habitat And Notes:
Blueberries are common around canoe portages and sunny areas. Also, the blueberry pops up commonly in areas with recent forest fires, as well as many other areas in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area wilderness.
They were very abundant throughout later July and carried over into later August. I found them often on rocky outcrops that I could easily climb onto as well as most sunnier areas with less dense forests.
4. Thimbleberry
The last time I spent a month in the Boundary Waters, I felt that I came across Thimbleberry on most days. However, I was never able to find berries that were on the plant and were instead left with stems lacking fruit. I’ll find them next time I hope!
Edible Uses:
The red and ripe fruit can be eaten raw, and leaves and roots can be boiled for tea. However, the leaves are toxic if eaten raw. Dried Thimbleberry roots can be used to treat Diarrhea.
Younger Thimbleberry shoots can be eaten raw and consuming the berries can prevent scurvy as it is high in Vitamin C.
Habitat And Notes:
The berries typically appear in the early summer, and continuously ripen all throughout summer. The plant is found in sunnier areas where light can reach. Oftentimes, I found it bordering the portage trails.
5. Strawberry
Strawberries are also an awesome fruit that we all know about. However, the wild strawberry is much smaller (yet even tastier) than the store-bought varieties.
Edible Uses:
Strawberries are eaten for the majority of summer when they are darker red and soft. You can also use the leaves and create a tea or just nibble on the leaves directly. Strawberry leaves can also be eaten medicinally as they can help reduce arthritis pain.
Habitat And Notes:
The only place where I found wild strawberries were areas where there were obvious signs of human disturbance such as open fields. For example, these were in a field near an old Forest Service cabin. If you find one strawberry plant you will typically find many more as they usually come in a “patch”.
6. Red Raspberry
Raspberries are another common and great-tasting edible berry in Minnesota. Luckily, they are pretty common to find and simple to distinguish.
However, during my last trip to the Boundary Waters, I noticed that many of the raspberry plants weren’t bearing a lot of fruit due to the drought. If this is the case, eat sparingly as many wild animals rely on these foods.
Edible Uses:
Raspberry fruit is delicious as we all know. Both the leaf and the berry are extremely high in nutritional content. Drinking raspberry leaf tea tastes good and is also known to be quite helpful for women during pre/post labor. Look it up, it’s interesting!
Habitat And Notes:
Raspberry is very common along fire burnt areas. You can find the plant in many open and sunny places and the fruits usually begin to ripen in midsummer.
Survival Tip: Aggregate berries such as Raspberry, Blackberry, Thimbleberry, Dewberries, etc. are known to be 99% edible. Aggregate berries are fruits that are made up of multiple connected berries. This could be important to know if ever in a survival situation!
7. Bunchberry
Bunchberries, also known as bog cranberry or mountain cranberry, are a type of wild berry native to North America and one of the common edible berries in Minnesota.
These small fruits are deep red and have a tart flavor that is often compared to cranberries. Bunchberries can be found growing in wet and marshy areas of the northern United States, Canada, and Alaska.
Bunchberries are used to make jams, jellies, pies, sauces, and syrups. They can also be dried or frozen for use in baking and other recipes.
Bunchberry juice is a popular flavor of soda pop in Canada. The fruits are also packed with vitamins and minerals such as vitamin C, potassium, and iron.
The bright red berries are not only edible but also have medicinal properties. Bunchberries are said to help relieve pain, reduce inflammation, and boost the immune system. They can be made into teas or tinctures to treat a variety of health issues such as sore throat and digestive problems.
Edible Uses:
The fruit is edible, yet not thrilling. Although the fruit is a bit less of a delicacy, it still is an important plant to know if edible plants are a passion of yours.
Habitat And Notes:
These plants can be found growing in moist forested areas and along streams.
8. Bearberry
Bearberries, also known as lingonberries, are a common edible plant found in Minnesota.
In addition to being a tasty snack, bearberries can also be used as a natural remedy. Many believe that consuming berries can reduce inflammation and improve digestion, while others claim that they can help boost immunity and provide relief from cold symptoms.
Furthermore, some research has indicated that berries can help to lower cholesterol and promote a healthy heart.
Bearberries are also used in traditional medicine, as they have been thought to have anti-bacterial and antiviral properties. In addition, Native Americans have long believed that bearberry tea can be used to treat a variety of ailments, such as fever, indigestion, and diarrhea.
Edible Uses:
Bearberries can be eaten raw, cooked, or frozen and are commonly used to make jams, jellies, spreads, sauces, and pies. They can also be added to salads and other dishes for a burst of flavor.
The berries are highly nutritious, containing Vitamin C as well as important minerals such as potassium, magnesium, and iron. Moreover, bearberries are known to be high in antioxidants, which help to protect the body from free radicals and other toxins.
Habitat And Notes:
They tend to grow in forests and shrublands, typically in cool climates. The shrubs themselves can reach up to three feet tall and boast small white flowers that bloom during the summer months until they ripen into clusters of deep red berries.
9. Dewberry
Dewberries have edible berries that are native to Minnesota and parts of Canada. These edible treats have an almost sweet and tart taste and can add a unique flavor to a primitive meal in the forest.
Additionally, the young edible leaves of dewberry plants can be added to salads for a mild peppery flavor. Edible dewberry fruits can provide powerful antioxidants when consumed raw.
Edible Uses:
Native Americans had many uses for dewberries, some of which are still used today. One of the most common uses was to make jams and jellies as a way to preserve the sweet taste of the berries.
They also ate them raw or cooked in stews, pies, and other dishes. It is also believed that dewberries have medicinal properties and are used to treat ailments such as headaches and fevers.
Habitat And Notes:
Minnesota is blessed with an abundance of edible plants and dewberry berries are certainly one of them. Growing wild in open woods, tall grass meadows, and old fields, they are commonly found in northern Minnesota (hint: In the BWCA Wilderness).
The fruits are bright red when ripe and can be eaten directly or made into jams and preserves.
Best Guidebooks On Edible Berries In Minnesota
Minnesota is my favorite place to forage for wild edible berries and plants, so I have many different guidebooks to help me learn about berries in Minnesota. Here is my favorite book that I recommend to anyone interested in exploring the wild forage treasures of Minnesota.
Wild Berries & Fruits Field Guide of Minnesota, Wisconsin & Michigan
By Theresa Marrone
This field guide covers more than 50 edible fruits that grow in Minnesota, and my favorite part is that the book is color-coded.
So if you are out and find a weird-looking purple berry, you can pull up the guide and jump to the color purple to see which berry it might be. Not only does it list the edible berries in Minnesota, but it also speaks about the poison look-alikes and provides detailed descriptions of each berry.
This guidebook is amazing.
More Resources For Edible Berries In Minnesota
Other Suggested Reading:
Canoe Country Flora: Plants and Trees of the North Woods and Boundary Waters by Mark Stensaas
This book is an essential piece for any outdoor enthusiast looking to learn about the plants of Minnesota’s north woods. This field guide presents detailed descriptions of many different species of plants, trees, and fungi in Minnesota. I first learned of the book when rummaging through a northern Minnesota thrift store.
Thanks for checking out my complete guide on edible berries in Minnesota!
Here are a few more related articles:
- Best Foraging Books: Guide To Uncovering Secrets Of Nature
- Boundary Waters Packing List: The Complete Guide To Wilderness Canoeing
Hey there! My name is Tanner and I specialize in outdoor survival, bushcraft, expeditions and adventure travel.