Late July brings the ripening of salal berries (Gaultheria shallon), with the fruits darkening from pink to deep blue-black and developing their characteristic sweet flavor. These berries were among the most important traditional foods for indigenous peoples throughout the Pacific Northwest coast, eaten fresh, dried into cakes for winter storage, and mixed with other foods. Salal berries are still gathered by modern foragers who prize their unique flavor—sweet with hints of wintergreen and a slight medicinal quality. The berries ripen progressively through late summer, with coastal populations fruiting earlier than inland or mountain populations. Salal forms dense understory thickets in many Pacific Northwest forests, making berry patches highly productive and reliable year after year. The tough, evergreen leaves are also commercially harvested for the floral industry, representing a significant non-timber forest product worth millions of dollars annually.