Berries

I hope that by inferring to the “56 odd villages” that I didn’t imply the villages themselves were truly odd. That is not to say that some of them are a little different than the others, but all have their beauties and idosyncracies.

I have been doing a lot of berry picking lately. The two main varieties are blueberries and salmonberries. The blueberry you should know. Out here it is a little smaller than the grocery store variety, but has a much greater flavor and less pulp. Delicious. The salmonberry is something like a raspberry, but salmon in color, and in my opinion lacking the flavor or tartness of the other multilobulated berries. That being said, people love them out here. They are picked and collected in 5 gallon buckets to insure quantity sufficient for the winter. Blueberries are everywhere. Salmonberries are a little more rare, although this is supposed to be a good year for them. There are signs all over town with salmonberries for sale for $250 per 5 gallons. I went into the wrong business.



Needless to say, I didn’t collect any salmonberries, but I do currently have about 2 gallons of blueberries in my freezer. The possibilities are endless. I became a little pathologic on my collection, as many of us who fish or gamble know, it is hard to stop when things are going good. I’ve never seen so many berries in my life, and it was very difficult to stop picking, despite my over abundance. Tomorrow I am supposed to go drift netting for salmon. We’ll see how my addiction carries over to that.

I almost forgot to mention...the berries are made in to jams, preserves, and akutuq - eskimo ice cream. Akutug is usually a mixture of berries and seal oil, reindeer fat, Crisco, or some other fat, and sugar. I have tried it. I can't say I like it. Perhaps it was just because of the salmonberries. Lots of sugar cures almost anything.