The Craftiest Workshop

When I was growing up, we seemed to do a lot of vegetable, berry and apple picking. We had a garden at my grandparents, my uncle’s farm and some things planted at our neighbours. My grandparents had a large raspberry patch and some strawberries. We would pick crab apples from family friend’s yards and we would go wild saskatoon berry picking.

I recall two such saskatoon picking experiences.

The first was going picking with my dad. We had driven to a a guy’s place, someone he had worked at with the CNR. I stayed in the car while dad went to the house to get directions to where the saskatoons were. A few minutes later he rushed back to the car, got in and we drove home. He just said the guy wasn’t home. I found out later that this guy and his ”lady friend” were sunbathing naked on their deck and my dad had hightailed it out of there as soon as he saw them.

Another saskatoon excursion was picking on my dad’s cousin’s farm. We had found a nice high bush tree with lots of berries. I had settled on a good spot and was picking away when I started to feel something biting me. I started dancing around swatting at all the red ants that had started crawling up my legs. I lost all my berries and ran back to the car.

Lessons learned from childhood berry picking:

1. Always wear long sleeves and pants with closed shoes or boots

2. Don’t forget bug spray.

3. Wear pants with a belt and have a pail with a handle. You strap the belt through the pail handle giving you two free hands to pick.

4. Pick berries in the early morning when they have the most moisture and are the sweetest.

5. Watch out for ant hills and don’t linger too long in one spot

6. Bring along water and a snack. It is pretty hot during berry picking season.

When our kids were small we were able to take them berry picking a few times. We picked raspberries, strawberries and blueberries at U-pick farms in Ontario. I recall one trip out strawberry picking when our youngest was two or three. We had to take a wagon to and from the parking lot to the field. My son had sat with his dad on the way back on the wagon and he had a bucket of strawberries beside him. When we arrived to get our berries weighed, his bucket had considerably less berries and all over his face and hands was a mush of red strawberry juice.

I liked picking wild raspberries when we lived in Fort Mac. They grow along the Birchwood trails a few blocks from our house. You did have to watch in late June into July because the bears tend to frequent those raspberry patches. I saw a few posts on facebook of bears wandering along there just this week.

I was delighted to discover this spring that our new property has a few high bush saskatoons and a couple chokecherry trees. Our neighbour across the creek has a whole field of low bush saskatoons.

I went over and asked permission to pick the saskatoons in their field. The birds seem to find it easier eating the berries on our high bushes as the branches are thicker for them to sit on so we don’t have a lot of berries. On the low bushes in their field, there are oodles of berries.

I picked a larger margarine container’s worth each day the last few mornings before it got too hot.

I just toss them onto a parchment lined cookie sheet after picking out twigs and spider webs and stick them in the freezer. It is easy to fold the parchment paper, lift and pour them into ziplock bags once frozen. By freezing them on a cookie sheet first, the berries don’t freeze together and you can remove only what you need from a larger bag.

I plan to use them to make saskatoon syrup for a hot drink, add them to muffins and maybe combine them with some other berries in a jam.

Any favorite recipes you may have with saskatoons or blueberries(they are similar), send them my way!!