Dwayne,
All the best back to you!
Re Saskatoon berries, when we lived in the N. Okanagan I never could figure out why people from the prairies liked the seedy semi dry berries so much. But they are much better east of the big mountains.
One of summer's pleasures was getting someone from outside the area to taste a sopalalie (swhooshum) berry! Those little red dudes pack a punch of flavor! Too bad it is so bad to my taste. Have you ever tried Indian ice cream made from sopalalie juice? The juice has a foaming agent in it and a table spoon of it beaten with a fork or electric beater will foam up like pink meringue and fill a big mixing bowl. Add lots of sugar as you beat it-- and to me it still tastes awful!
Way up by Enderby I know where we used to find the first ripe huckleberries, usually by this time of year. But it's a long ways up to the Monashee River valley for you, especially when they will be more abundant at higher elevations near your house in a few weeks.
A blackberry pie is in the oven as I type...
My grandmother [salish] made hooshum ice cream, it was one of the most awful things I've ever tasted. As kids we would gorge on wild berries, one of my favorites is the huckleberry, followed by Saskatoon, wild strawberries and raspberries are always a treat. Down on the coast of BC they have blackberries...they are really good, but we don't have them where we live.
