Berry Picking in Garden Hill

Cranberries

Two weeks ago, shortly after being married, Alex and I packed up as much of our lives as we could into as few boxes as possible (5 boxes, 4 bags, 2 backpacks, one computer bag and an unwrapped ukulele to be exact) and drove over 2,000km to Winnipeg. We spread the 27 hours of driving out over 3 days and enjoyed good weather and infrequent Radio 1 signals connections most of the way.

Checking the map.

Once we reached Winnipeg we bought as many groceries as we thought we should bring (3 more boxes and still not enough) and shipped everything by cargo up Garden Hill, another 610km away. That night we had one final drink (GH is a dry town) with my friend Amanda from art school who is now living in Winnipeg with her boyfriend. The next day we boarded the plane to our new home for the next 10 months where Alex and I will be working as teachers. He is teaching grade 6 Science in the elementary school and I am one of four grade 7 classroom teachers in the high school. I'll be teaching Math, English Language Arts, Social Studies, Science and Art.

Alex hiking.

Right now it's Traditional Week here, or 'Hunting' Week as everyone affectionately calls it. For one week in the fall all of the First Nations schools take a week to focus on traditional cultural practices. Technically it's still school but the learning takes place outside of the classroom. Regardless the schools are empty and Alex and I have a chance to reflect on the past week and try to plan for the first term. Considering that I'm a qualified Art and English secondary teacher I'll definitely need the week to work out lessons and strategies for the subjects I am less comfortable with.

Our guide Felix.

This car has seen better days.

Yesterday Alex and I were invited out by some friends to go berry picking along one of the many trails in the area. We were hunting for cranberries and blueberries, and although it was late in the season for both we were hopeful.

Alex all bundled up.

Beavers!

Like many reserves Garden Hill is a bit of a mess. Irresponsible leadership and an isolated location mean that city services like water management and waste disposal that we take for granted don’t always work the way they should. The dump is poorly managed here and expands and moves depending on convince. So there was a lot of trash along the beginning of our hike and in some ways the rusted car skeletons were really beautiful.

Autumn is here. 

Puffball mushroom.

Berry Picking

Moss runner.

Further out the air is clean and crisp and because of the moisture there is moss everywhere. Wild cranberries need a lot of moisture to grow and they lay down their runners where the moss stays wet. Usually the moss turns red in these areas so finding patches was easy, however most of the vines are picked clean this time of year. Still, Alex and I managed to find enough berries for at least a small batch of something.

Cindy mixing bannock dough.

Felix cooking.

Further on we made a small fire and Felix and his partner Cindy made us all bannock and tea over the fire. There were blueberry bushes in the area but little to no berries. Alex blames the squirrels.

Bannock.

We also saw a number of mushrooms along the way. A number of them are likely edible as well but seeing as I don’t know how to identify them I’d rather not risk it.