Berries of Labrador

Berries grow in every part of Labrador―bogs, barrens, forests, gulches, roadsides, yards, mountains, open sand, and wet, shady streambanks. Ripening red, orange, blue, purple, black, or white. Tasting bitter, juicy, sour, sweet, dry. Like wintergreen. Like tobacco.

Berries of Labrador combines storytelling with science to celebrate more than forty species of berries and their various uses, from food to medicine. Beautiful watercolour illustrations by Valerie Powell and short anecdotes from community members accompany each description, highlighting the cultural, historical, and ecological significance of the berries of Labrador.

Raised on a small farm in Maine, Ellen Bryan Obed first went to Labrador at the age of twenty to work at Cartwright Summer Camp. After University, she returned to Labrador to teach school and to research its flora. She married Enoch Obed of Nain and they had three children, Keturah, Natan, and Seth.

Ellen is the author of ten books for children. Her Borrowed Black has been translated into seven languages and appeared in thirteen different editions since it was first published in 1979. The seasons and nature provide the subjects for most of Ellen’s writing. She and her husband, Robert, reside in the town of Ellsworth on the Coast of Maine.

Valerie Powell is a nurse and midwife from Cornwall, England who worked for the Grenfell Regional Health Services on the Labrador Coast from 1978–1989. She became interested in the wild flowers and berries whilst she was there and began painting them.