Something berry good

 

I have a fascination with berries.  Maybe it is due to my mountain upbringing, where every second berry plant you come upon the side of the trail is edible.  Or maybe I just think with my stomach.  But here in B.C. it is not uncommon to go for a stroll down the highway and BAM! in the ditch there is a daring bush full of delectable, juicy, ripe saskatoon berries just begging to be eaten on the spot.  Or to take walk near the beach by the tree line and ending up spending the entire afternoon huckleberry picking instead of swimming like you originally came for. True story.  And then there are the wild raspberries and wild strawberries - not as popular in some circles but a valid edible choice nonetheless.

 

The irony with this photo is that it was not taken in B.C., nor is it of an edible berry.  I took it in Calgary, AB near a place I used to work. I was fiddling around with my iphone on a lunch break, and these berries probably made me think of food.  After all, they are the exact colour and size of the huckleberry, which is my favourite of all the berries.  They have so much tastiness packed into such a small package, both tangy and sweet at the same time.  When you bite into them the flavour explodes into your mouth and fills it, and it is easy to get caught into the trap of eating them till your mouth turns blue. True story, many times.

 

The thing that I've learned about huckleberries is that not everyone appreciates them like I do.  If people have grown up in another province, say Saskatchewan, then the huckleberry is too tart for them.  Or maybe it's because the berry tends to grow on the sides of mountains, and people who have an attachment to the flat lands might hold a unconscious prejudice against things that will only grow in the not-so-flat lands.  That's another interesting fact about huckleberries - they refuse to be domesticated.  There is no such thing as a huckleberry farm, in the same way that there would be a blueberry farm.  No, if you want to pick a huckleberry, the best thing to do is to travel up a deserted logging road up the side of the mountain in your 4x4 and find one of those clear-cut areas that was cleared out a few years ago.  That's where all the best berries are.

 

This weekend I am going huckleberry picking.  And I am excited, because it is a family tradition.  And because I love huckleberries.