The Craftiest Workshop

As I have the last two summers, I spend a few weeks in July/early August picking wild Saskatoons and wild raspberries. Both berries grow in little patches here and there throughout our property. Every year I find new patches which only adds to the amount of time I spend picking.

I get up sometime between 6-6:30. I quietly put on a pair of work pants, a t-shirt, hoody, ball cap and rubber boots. My mosquito head cover gets shoved in the pocket of my hoody. My phone is in my back pocket and I grab a handful of shelled peanuts for the chickadees. I wear a belt (a repurposed duffle bag strap) and bring a 4L pail with a smaller lidded container inside it. The smaller container for the raspberries and the pail for the Saskatoons. The last thing I do is give myself a good spray of bug spray making sure to do the backs of my hands as that is the only exposed skin.

Berry picking in the heat of summer is not for the faint of heart. Although this year there are hardly any, mosquitoes can be fierce when you go inside the tree line. This year it is the wasps. They start to work when the morning mist lifts. I have seen quite a few wasps or hornets sleeping on a cluster of berries in the early hours of the day so I pay attention when I grab. Wasps will also create a nest underground. If you see a hole like this, steer clear. I saw wasps pouring out heading to work the other day.

I was out picking the other day and heard a growl quite close by. I circled back to the house to see a deer emerge. A coyote had been stalking it and let me know by growling that I needed to leave. Another day I was out picking and heard something walking towards me. I thought it was Chris as he will sometimes come out to check on me. I turned my head and heard a sort of gasping sound and saw two deer high tail it back in the direction they had come. I have also seen moose tracks made the night before so I try to make noise on the slight chance that it has bedded down in our trees for the night.

There are beautiful sights and sounds to be discovered while out berry picking in the early hours of the day. I can hear the cow bell ring as the cows make their way to the pasture about a mile away. The neighbour’s rooster lets out a cock a doodle doo. I hear the Sandhill Cranes with their familiar cooing. A family of Northern Flickers often visits me as I pick though none get too close. The chickadees have returned in quite a number and I must have fed different birds from my hand twenty times one day.

I have tried picking in a light rain. There are no bugs but I got quite a shower every time I would pull down a branch to pick Saskatoons. My jacket is only rain resistant, not rain proof so I was quite soaked by the time I got back to the house.

I try to do my picking in a circle stopping at all the berry locations along the way. The wild Saskatoons are not ready all at the same time. This is a normal bunch of berries; some ripe, some almost ripe and some still white. This means going back to the same picking spots every few days.

I discovered a new mother lode of wild raspberries this week. When we had company last week and did the walk around tour, I spied a new bush that I didn’t know about. I inspected closer after they had left and discovered that there are raspberry plants for about 100ft on and around a pile of trees the farmer had built up over time. The raspberries were also hanging on the edge of the willow thicket like grapes.

While this does mean more raspberries, they don’t grow as thick or as big as a garden raspberry does. Most of the berries are still small and only a few per plant but the taste is worth the work.

I alternate sections now each day picking half the property each day. I am gone about three hours then come back and water the garden. After that it is picking and weeding in the garden, some days I don’t sit down for my morning coffee till 10:30.

The berries have to be picked clean of leaves, twigs and bugs. I freeze them on parchment lined cookie sheets then put them frozen into large ziplock bags. I have picked six bags worth of Saskatoons and one of raspberries, so far. It is more than I thought I would get because of how much of the bushes the deer ate last winter. Last year I picked 25 bags of Saskatoons and 3 bags of raspberries.

There is still a week or two left of picking but I think I have reached the climax; there will be less berries now each time I go out. Roughly 3000 steps walking around picking every day with lots of reaching and balancing trying to pick in awkward locations. It is great exercise to start my day and I never quite know what wildlife I will stumble upon.