Saskatoons

One of the great benefits of living in a community such as the Okanogan Valley is the wealth of agricultural and wild craft knowledge.  It is so simple for me to consult a farmer for just about any product and get their opinion on the best methods in preparing the foods and so much more valuable information and ideas.  The knowledge of wild craft and when and where to harvest is equally abundant. 

I was recently invited to join a group of women to pick Saskatoon Berries.  When I first moved out to the valley I was struck by a wild bush with a sweet flower that reminded me of a small Magnolia.  I have heard the name several times and always failed to remember it.  I now have a lovely memory that has embedded the name in my head.  It is locally called a Service Berry or June Berry, a more common name in Canada and among Chefs is the Saskatoon.

I was to meet the ladies at a lake in an area of the mountains that I was not familiar with.  I arrived late as I got lost several times.  The fact that there are two lakes with the same name in the area didn’t help me much.  My boys and I arrived in time for lunch.  With the older girls watching the children swim and fish in the lake, the women were free to resume picking.  I was way behind as they had already been picking before I got there, however I am sure I would still have ended up with the least amount of berries as they were so much faster than my inexpert hands.

I was taken back to a simpler time when women routinely gathered together in work parties to put up food for the winter.  We stood around the trees laughing and joking, talking about how we would all be considered too skinny if we were really fighting for food as people did hundreds of years ago.  I was excited to be included in plans to go berry picking again.  Such  knowledge is being lost and I am thrilled to learn all I can.  Then with bulging buckets and sweaty necks we all jumped in the lake for a cooling reprieve.  A magical day ending with the children asking when we can go again.

In the city it is too distant a thought to depend on the jarred food that a family manages to put up to avoid starvation.  However, it is not impossible to be snowed in for extended periods of time here in the mountains and those fruits and vegetables solve a lot of problems.  Thankfully it would be a rare occasion for such a thing to happen here on our farm.  It is the thought of the 20 mile trip to the grocery store and ever higher gas and food prices that drives me to store up all the fruits and vegetables that I can manage.

Ok, now I’ve got all these berries that I have never eaten before.  Now what do I do with them.  I searched the Internet for ideas and found a wonderful website chalk full of ideas… www.albertafruit.com  I was thrilled with the find and can’t wait to try some recipes.  Send me your ideas and check back to see what I come up with.