THERE'S MORE OVER HERE

      Picking gooseberries the other day reminded me of my Dad. In Far Sides  last post she mentioned picking chokecherries and that brought back a lot of memories.

      My Dad was a fanatic about a few things. One thing he was nuts about was picking berries.

     Now let me set this up. I was a kid through the 1940's . Where I lived only about 50% if the land had been developed. So there was much native habitat left. Where I lived at Esk, Sask there was much brush but not many trees. Berries made up much of the shrubbery. One of the main berries was something called Saskatoons, Amelanchier alnifolia. There are many other names for this shrub.

     Now saskatoon berries were my Dad's favorite. He loved to get a groups of friends and neighbors together and go for a day of berry picking. People would bring sandwiches, cakes, cookies and sealers of tea. At some time they would stop for a picnic lunch.

     Now my Dad picked berries like there was no tomorrow. There had to be lots of berries around him. So Dad was constantly on the move and you would hear, "There's lots of berries over here." He was great for getting back in the car and going to another berry patch.

    Now I was a little guy and because slave labor was in force I had to pick berries. I hated it. I would ask Dad if I'd picked enough to stop. He would say,"No, pick until your pail is this full." I would pick some more and go crying back to Dad to see if  could quit. Finally ,I'd give up and just pick berries. 

    So we'd get home around 4 or 5 oclock and poor old  Mom would have to sort and clean the berries. Most of the berries were canned. One year she canned 98 quarts. Pies are excellent but you have to use fresh berries.

    Now my Dad had four daughter in laws. He insisted that they go picking berries with him. They all went with him at least once. Now my Dad had very little tact and sometimes none. He would look in the daughter in law's pails and loudly proclaim who had picked the most. He was a poor influence as he did not get one daughter in law to pick berries.

    Dad  was not only a berry picking fanatic but he was a fanatic about fishing. You heard the same cry, "There's more over here!" 

    Sadly most of that land has been developed and there's very little natural habitat left. Saskatoons have been domesticated and they are raised in your garden . 

Red Visits the Raspberry Patch

      Each year we find a upick farm that has raspberries and we pick enough raspberries for the year. Today was the day to pick raspberries. This year our only choice was the Jungle Farm.

     We arrived about 10:00 AM and picked until close to 2:00 PM. We wanted about 10 pounds but ended up with 15 pounds which was quite allright. This patch was extremely large as raspberry patches go and there were  lots of good berries. The patch had received hail about a week ago so many of the berries were bruised but there were still lots of good berries to choose from. This patch has not been well maintained so there was tall grass and weeds in with the raspberry canes.

      We freeze most of the raspberries and pull them out all year when we want them. Now most of the time we just put a little sugar on them and eat them. At one time the cook did other things with the berries but this cook is getting tired.

      My wife loves picking raspberries and any other fruit. She  picked  blueberries with the Inuit where the plants are about 6 in. high. It's the one thing she liked to do with my Dad as my Dad was just nuts about berry picking. He would get his neighbors together and lead them on whole day  of picking Saskatoons. He would move from patch to patch as he was always looking for something better. At the end of the day he had ten gallons of Saskatoons. My Dad fished the same way. He was always looking for a place with more fish.

     I'm not a berry picker. I'm not even that fond of raspberries but I do go out and pick what we need for each year.  So today I did my duty and spent my three hours in the raspberry patch and will enjoy raspberries this year. 



Four little guys out picking strawberries with their mothers.