Berry picking 29 July 2018
We went by our favorite fishing hole to pick berries. We are amazed at how many we got!
We ended up with my bucket and the pink one full, but the weight kept popping the handle out so we ‘split the pot’ so to speak.
So we started out around 1600/4pm.
My awesome view, Gir and Zim nodding in agreement.
10-12 miles down this road to our destination.
Once we go to our spot we seen this party foul! Not cool, but it shows the berries are here!
Now we start walking into the woods.
Yay we are finally starting to find some. Not bad, it’s keeping us motivated at least.
Here is a close up of what we are looking for.
The Cloudberry aka salmon berry. Or as the Alaskan natives call it “akpik”. You get one berry per plant, just one. So you have to find a feild to get a good amount.
I figured I might want to drop a pin where the car is.
Bigger berries and more in the bucket.
Then we find signs of humans...
Also an empty pack of smokes 😡🤬
Then I found this awesome dude 💗
Yes I caught a frog, I have been since a kid.
These are those cool frogs you see on documentaries, the ones who freeze solid and then thaw in the spring/summer. These dudes are awesome!
I think he peed on me because he was extra slimy and hard to grab/hold.
We found some blueberries too, we tried them but they are very sour.
Here is some eye candy
Starting to hit patches, yay!
Found some wolf poo
Hell yeah! Look at this feild!!! SCORE!!!!
They are bunching up and getting thick!
My bucket is getting full, and about this time the kids started to dump theirs into mine.
One of my kids found a “dinosaur foot print”.
I really did look like one!
Last berry feild before heading out.
My kids said they seen one of these plants eating a bug, it was stuck in the droplets.
So maybe a carnivorous plant 🤷♀️
My bucket is starting to over flow and we are not done with the last patch. So it’s time to fill up another bucket, the pink one.
I spotted a trail of wild Alaskan cotton. It was strange to see, because it went in a straight line; left to right.
So I walked up to the end of it and looked down the trail it made.
A four wheeler spread the seeds long ago, you can still see the damage from the tires making ruts.
We filled up the pink bucket to the point the handle kept popping out so we divided the load.
I checked my map to see how far out we were.
Not to bad, I had to check it one more time before arriving at the van. I was going to fare west and noticed.
I hope you enjoyed berry picking with me.
We went fishing afterwords, we broke a pole. I sunk up to mid calf in mud and left empty handed.
Except for this flower one of my boys got me
After two hours of fishing, after berry picking, we headed home.
This is my FAVORITE view head home from fishing
This is all down hill 😊
Hope you all are having very productive summers 💗
ALL PHOTOS ARE MINE
The maps are screen shot from my iphones map app
My son and I enjoyed the berry picking. Thanks for taking us with you.
Cloud berries are stingy, only one berry for one plant :) You hit the jackpot of them on the field and that was very sweet of the boys to give you a flower it looked like it's waiting for a bug and close it's petals
Cypyre welcome 😊
Cloudberries are very stingy! I always thought it was an extra special berry. It’s more like you don’t tell anyone where the berries are because people will use rakes and kill the plants.
You have so many berry varieties! We have two that are edible, or at least well known to be. I'm curious to see how your landscape changes in the next few months.
We really do, we also have a few poisonous ones too.
I bought a pocket book on Alaskan wild berries.
I wonder if you could find info on berries from elders.🤔
Or older archives 🤷♀️
Yeah our land scape changes for sure, lol
I wish there was a way to get your posts to the top of my feed so I don't miss any, always love seeing what you are up to, get a camera crew on this woman already.
What the hell type of flower is that? It looks like it wants to latch onto your head and lay eggs in your brain.
LOL No camera crew! Not my cup of tea, don’t like that kind of attention. Thanks though.
I have no idea what the hell it is. It does look like it belongs in a horror movie, but I’m not sure which one.
That crazy looking flower, the carnivorous plant, the orange berries, and some of your scenery shots make me think you're on an alien planet lol. Like something in a movie. Looks like a great place to hike and explore though. I've never seen cloudberries before. Now I have to know what they taste like. My husband has around 20 raspberry bushes of different colors. And I have currants and blueberries. Cloudberries are a new one to me.
Cloudberries taste like a mix of sweet and sour. They have a balance that is very unique!
When I first tasted them ever they reminded me of a sweet high bush cranberry.
Absolutely awesome scenery and environment!
Thanks 😊
I love the summer time just for the trees and green 💗
But I could totally live without the mosquitoes
Awesome! Well, except for the broken pole & no fish, but the berries, the view and the frog! Out here they call them Wood Frogs. And it's pretty amazing how they can survive our harsh winter's! 😉
Yeah. We have some in Fairbanks/North Pole, Alaska that survive the harsh winters up there, every winter it reaches -50°F but sometimes -60°F.
But considering the burrow into the ground and then are insulated by the snow, it really isn’t that bad. The amount of snow has dropped a lot in the years. Less snow, less insulation for animals and humans.
Beautiful photos and what an epic adventure for you and your boys! I am blown away by those cloudberries.. what a treasure that you have those growing near you :) Thanks for sharing your wildcrafting adventure!