Bountiful Berries

This month’s Green Living article on page 26 reminded me of the wild berries we were fortunate to have in two places we lived.

The first was on our horse ranch, where the mighty wild strawberries abounded along our very long driveway. They were tiny but packed with flavor, and every time I ate some, I thought, “Ah yes, now I remember what a strawberry is supposed to taste like!”

I wasn’t the only one enjoying these tasty morsels. Our wonderful Rottweilers, Jesse and Shiloh, started to notice that we were bending over, picking something, and eating it. This prompted them to check out the promising snack. Loving most food, they began going ahead of us, nipping off strawberries and applying a little slobber to others—which, of course, put a crimp in our strawberry-eating activities. Soon, it became a race to see who could get to the new berries first.

The second place was our home near the ocean, where tons of wild blackberries could be found along the roads and paths in the area. Here, you could harvest buckets of these delectable berries for any number of purposes—pies and jam come to mind. Or just stuff your face and hope to avoid a stomachache from the gluttonous fun. There were only a couple of provisos: one, you had to fight the prickly branches to get at some of the berries, especially when they were picked over by other people—and bears; and two, you wanted to stay away from the lower branches… you know, within dog-peeing height.

A note about the bears. There were so many, it wasn’t “if” you saw a bear—it was “when.” However, there was such an abundance of food between the berries and the salmon (among other edibles), that the bears pretty much kept to themselves and weren’t a problem. I remember one time walking along a path and seeing bear scat—pure salmon, with some berries mixed in!

It’s a wonderful feeling to have these bountiful wild food sources in such abundance—and I’m sure our dogs and the bears thought so too!