Motherlode

The sun beat down from a brilliant blue sky, the sound of families chattering carried over the light breeze but they remained hidden. The crows pipped up occasionally. Somewhere in the vicinity a smoker worked its magic and while it smelt amazing I had no appetite for meat at that moment. I was literally standing in my kind of heaven on earth.

Conditions this year were not stellar for native saskatoon berries plants. I scoured the scattering of bushes throughout the pastureland and didn’t eat more than a handful. I know every year can’t be a bumper crop so I wasn’t expecting what we had last year but I wanted some.

Which I guess is the advantage to living near a place called Saskatoon. People have berry orchards here of saskatoons so I used my fingers to do some price checking. Then I used the phone to verify availability and hours.

Today we took a break from construction and did a road trip. It’s a bit of a hike (38 kms) but it’s closer than buying say, grapes, from Peru.  Seems it is my favourite fruit I felt the need to replenish the freezer.  The “littles” are awfully fond of being berry monsters and so Nan needs to have berries on hand.

It’s safe to say I was blown away by the picking conditions. The berries were so big! The branches were very heavily laden. We picked a row and started picking and eating. There was no such thing as calling out that I’d struck a motherlode as every bush looked the same! It’s a seriously good thing they don’t weigh the pickers on the way out as I ate a lot of berries.  It was pick 3 and get the 4th for free so it seemed logical to us especially as the picking was so easy.

The drive itself was stellar as the canola is abundant and so brilliant against the skies. I never tire of this view. It fills my soul to the brim. I could insert 6 more pictures here; one taken every day for the last week since it started blooming.

The road trip also included a trip to pick up the berry monsters for an adventure at Nan and Grampa’s house. With loads of berries to wash and get on cookie sheets to freeze all hands on deck meant a lot of berries were eaten by tiny hands. All those fresh berries deserved their spot light so Young A measured and stirred (and tasted of course) the ingredients together. Then, with a helping hand from Little C (I am shocked he didn’t eat the dough but he passed it down and put it on the lid) she rolled them into dumplings. Then they gobbled them up after eating a stellar supper of garden carrots, potatoes, onions and farm raised chicken (straight from their own farm).

I branched off into uncharted (to me) territory after the littles were asleep. I canned four points and four half pints of berries. It’s definitely more work but it’s an interesting take on what I normally do. No freezer space required which is always a bonus. I follow a local woman who blogs about growing your own food and flowers. She might be a lot younger than me but I regularly learn stuff from her so check out Shifting Roots if you want the “deets” on how to can these delicious morsels of food or grow a cut flower garden or… You get the drift, she’s a font of info.

The construction project didn’t get much done on it today but it will still be there tomorrow and the day after and the day after and the day after …..today we grabbed some quality time together and stored food for the winter ahead.

As usual the opening paragraph flows smoothly and the closing statement eludes me. Ah well I will still hit post and perhaps it later the words about gratitude and blessings will come to me.

Not a single edit on this photo

Bernie