RR: Berry Intersting...



R

Roger Buchanan

Guest
With the scorn that Linda showed over me not having returned with any of
my bounty of ripe Saskatoons there was no doubt about the destination of
our Saturday morning ride.

Sometimes a bike can be a means of escape or exploration, but today it
was a beast of burden. With buckets secured to every point on the bike
to which they could be (thank God for bungy cords) we headed out. Owing
to me having spoken about the wildflowers Linda also brought along her
camera.

Now for the few of you that have ridden with me, and the others that may
have a realistic sense of what my pace is imagine going even slower!
Sometimes no more than a dozen turns of the crank would pass before I
would hear from behind me "OOOoooooohhhh! STOP!!!!". Already in the
doghouse I was not one to make any comments about our pace. I quietly
waited until I heard the "click" of the shutter and the "snap" of the
lense cap before I clipped back in and started rolling again... never
certain of how long I'd be riding and when or where my flow would be
interrupted.

As we rolled along through the tall grass just before the warm-up hut
Linda asked if I wanted my picture taken? "God No!" Came my instant
reply. "In this Red riding jersey I'd look just like an International
Harvester Swather going through a Hay field!". We finished the section
of trail without further comments from either of us.

At the warm-up hut she saw the berries and immediately started feasting,
apparently making up for lost time. After the first few handfuls she was
willing to entertain the idea of riding the whole next section of trail
before deciding where we wanted to pick. Well, as it turns out, we rode
the length of the patch, but returned to the start where the berries
seemed the most plentiful/easiest to pick.

While I picked at a good section along the edge of the trail Linda went
crashing through the bush like a rampaging Bear (at least it sounded
like that). She managed to pick three containers to my two, but I
maintain that my containers had more "premium" berries <grin>.

As I was picking a number of riders came by. All were friendly enough.
Although most commented on what we were doing none seemed to have any
interest in the berries themselves. All except for one pair of riders.
The one guys seemed to be showing his buddy around, and introduced him
to the flavour of Saskatoons. They stood around eating for a short time,
and then got on with the rest of their ride. Like I said though, the
other people that were out just kept on riding right by. More for us I
guess!

Cargo lashed every so securely we rode our way back to the car, opting
for the short cut-out to the access road so as to not punish the berries
by exposing them to Roots & Oaks. It was any easy spin back to the
parking lot from there.

At the trailhead Linda opted to go ride a short downhill section that
wasn't too far away. In the meantime I loaded up the gear, put a water
bottle in the front of the car, ensure that everything was secure and
drove off to meet her at the bottom of the run.

No sooner did I pull of the road than she appeared out of the woods.
Lots of "Posey Pic's", a ton of fresh Saskatoons and a nice little
section of downhill cruising managed to put one heck of a big grin on
her face. Over the course of the morning I seemed to redeemed myself for
not having brought her back any berries from my previous ride.

After each of the previous rides I treated myself to a nice cold Honey
Brown Lager. Mmmmmmm...

Good riding to ya folks!!!
--
- Rog

http://www.wpcusrgrp.org/~rogerbuchanan/index.html

NOTE: to Reply to this, remove the phrase "NOSPAM"
from my "Reply To:" address, or it will be returned.
 
On 2004-07-25, Roger Buchanan penned:

[snip]

> At the trailhead Linda opted to go ride a short downhill section that
> wasn't too far away. In the meantime I loaded up the gear, put a water
> bottle in the front of the car, ensure that everything was secure and
> drove off to meet her at the bottom of the run.
>
> No sooner did I pull of the road than she appeared out of the woods.
> Lots of "Posey Pic's", a ton of fresh Saskatoons and a nice little
> section of downhill cruising managed to put one heck of a big grin on
> her face. Over the course of the morning I seemed to redeemed myself
> for not having brought her back any berries from my previous ride.
>
> After each of the previous rides I treated myself to a nice cold Honey
> Brown Lager. Mmmmmmm...


Sounds like great fun! What does a saskatoon taste like?

--
monique

"Get a bicycle. You will not regret it, if you live."
-- Mark Twain
 
Roger Buchanan wrote:
> At the warm-up hut she saw the berries and immediately started
> feasting, apparently making up for lost time. After the first few
> handfuls she was willing to entertain the idea of riding the whole
> next section of trail before deciding where we wanted to pick. Well,
> as it turns out, we rode the length of the patch, but returned to the
> start where the berries seemed the most plentiful/easiest to pick.
>


Huckleberries haved saved me not once, but twice.

The first time was rather early in my career, I'd pick a "blue" trail in
Nelson as part of a getaway weekend for Mr. Adventure and myself. Long
story short, it had rained, I didn't have the skills to ride the trail and I
was really ****** and crying, mostly because **I** had picked the trail and
couldn't' blame it on him. I sat down, just a mess, and lo - and - behold,
beautiful huckleberries, the size of my thumbnail ( this is big) everywhere.

Last year, up on one of our Explore the Clearwater Epics when it was hot,
and we were on the south side of the canyon and just about out of water. The
canyon finally opened into a meadow fringed with filtered forest, and yes, a
huckleberry patch to die for. Mr.Adventure had to drag me outta there.

I don't know about Saskatoons (?) but huckleberries are NW berries,
relative of the blueberry, that cannot be cultivated. They are tiny and
elusive, and it takes forever to fill even a small bucket. A pie's worth is
to be treated and enjoyed like the finest caviar...

http://www.cet.com/~pennys/misc/IMG_0331.jpg
http://www.cet.com/~pennys/misc/IMG_0333.jpg
 
Rog says:

<snip>

>After each of the previous rides I treated myself to a nice cold Honey
>Brown Lager. Mmmmmmm...
>
>Good riding to ya folks!!!


Well, you finally got to the important part ;-)

Sounds like a good one (or two), Rog. Keep 'em coming.

Steve
 
pas wrote:

> Roger Buchanan wrote:
>
>>At the warm-up hut she saw the berries and immediately started
>>feasting, apparently making up for lost time. After the first few
>>handfuls she was willing to entertain the idea of riding the whole
>>next section of trail before deciding where we wanted to pick. Well,
>>as it turns out, we rode the length of the patch, but returned to the
>>start where the berries seemed the most plentiful/easiest to pick.
>>

>
>
> Huckleberries haved saved me not once, but twice.
>
> The first time was rather early in my career, I'd pick a "blue" trail in
> Nelson as part of a getaway weekend for Mr. Adventure and myself. Long
> story short, it had rained, I didn't have the skills to ride the trail and I
> was really ****** and crying, mostly because **I** had picked the trail and
> couldn't' blame it on him. I sat down, just a mess, and lo - and - behold,
> beautiful huckleberries, the size of my thumbnail ( this is big) everywhere.
>
> Last year, up on one of our Explore the Clearwater Epics when it was hot,
> and we were on the south side of the canyon and just about out of water. The
> canyon finally opened into a meadow fringed with filtered forest, and yes, a
> huckleberry patch to die for. Mr.Adventure had to drag me outta there.
>
> I don't know about Saskatoons (?) but huckleberries are NW berries,
> relative of the blueberry, that cannot be cultivated. They are tiny and
> elusive, and it takes forever to fill even a small bucket. A pie's worth is
> to be treated and enjoyed like the finest caviar...
>
> http://www.cet.com/~pennys/misc/IMG_0331.jpg
> http://www.cet.com/~pennys/misc/IMG_0333.jpg
>
>
>



NJ and Blueberries go hand in hand. The BB festival is coming up next
week, although I'll miss it. We've been picking them for weeks though.
Next up... Cranberries! I am cultivating my own crop in an abandoned
cranberry bog. So far, they seem to be growing. The key will be to
figure out how to pick them without actually wading through the old
mucky bog. The drain is long busted (the farm closed in the 60's) so I
can't empty it. I've been using a canoe for now but it might be too
tippy for picking the berries.

--
o-o-o-o Ride-A-Lot o-o-o-o
www.schnauzers.ws
 
"Monique Y. Mudama" wrote:
> Sounds like great fun! What does a saskatoon taste like?


Uhm... Kinda like a blueberry with a very faint hint of tartness. I'm
really bad at tranlating tastes into words (sorry). They are about the
same size as wild blueberries, and roughly the same colour/shape.

The best part is that these berries were on bushes about head high and
grew in clusters. Just bend the bush over your container and roll the
berries off with your fingers. If you have the touch the ripe ones roll
off easily while the unripe ones remain attatched to the bush. We picked
a Gallon of them in about 45-50 minutes.

--
- Rog

http://www.wpcusrgrp.org/~rogerbuchanan/index.html

NOTE: to Reply to this, remove the phrase "NOSPAM"
from my "Reply To:" address, or it will be returned.
 
pas wrote:
> couldn't' blame it on him. I sat down, just a mess, and lo - and - behold,
> beautiful huckleberries, the size of my thumbnail ( this is big) everywhere.


The first time I rode clipless I crashed in a big cloud of dust and
wound up with this gooey sticky mess for a shoulder.

Linda came over, and rather than a comment of sympathy she uttered
"OOOoooohhhhhhh, you found Blueberries!".

I'll never live it down. I was still clipped in at that time, and the
mess on my shoulder wasn't me, it was the Blueberries...<sigh>

--
- Rog

http://www.wpcusrgrp.org/~rogerbuchanan/index.html

NOTE: to Reply to this, remove the phrase "NOSPAM"
from my "Reply To:" address, or it will be returned.
 
Roger Buchanan <[email protected]> wrote in message news:<[email protected]>...
<snip>
> Good riding to ya folks!!!


Berries on a ride are quite the bonus. I know a few wild raspberry
patches around here and on that note, will go ride there today.

JD
 
On Tue, 27 Jul 2004 11:23:04 -0700, pas wrote:

> Anyone seeing my bush mountain biking posts? I think they are getting
> dropped.


I saw two of them (from you).

Back to berries, you gotta be careful - I got a serious stomach ache after
chowing down on trailside blackberries. They don't tend to be as picked
out as the bushes near the trailhead, making the temptation very strong.

Also, you gotta watch out for the purple deer sh*t.

--
-BB-
To reply to me, drop the attitude (from my e-mail address, at least)
 
BB wrote:
> On Tue, 27 Jul 2004 11:23:04 -0700, pas wrote:
>
>> Anyone seeing my bush mountain biking posts? I think they are getting
>> dropped.

>
> I saw two of them (from you).


Doh!! so sorry - I have my own filters set to kill anything with Bush in
the subject line from rec.backcountry, LOL,

penny
 
Penny says:

>BB wrote:
>> On Tue, 27 Jul 2004 11:23:04 -0700, pas wrote:
>>
>>> Anyone seeing my bush mountain biking posts? I think they are getting
>>> dropped.

>>
>> I saw two of them (from you).

>
>Doh!! so sorry - I have my own filters set to kill anything with Bush in
>the subject line from rec.backcountry, LOL,
>


Hoist upon your own petard.....

;-)

I'm not alone.
 

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