LOVE picking Wild Berries!

When Nathan picked me up last weekend at the Seattle Airport, he greeted me with about a pint of wild berries he’d gathered along the side of a Forest Service road just outside Sedro-Woolley.  On Friday, he loaned me an old pair of Carharts, took me to the secret spot, and taught me the ancient art of wildberry picking!

The delicate Thimbleberry!

We found Thimbleberries, more delicate in structure (and sweeter in flavor—YUM!) than raspberries, prolific in this part of Washington.  When I first tasted a wild “Thimble,” I wondered why on earth people didn’t sell them in stores—they would rack in a fortune because of this berry’s superior yumminess.

Picking Thimbles

But as I picked them I found the answer: no matter how softly I picked, the Thimbles would mush in my hands and leave my fingers red-stained and sweet.  Not the most packageable berries out there.  But oh so delicious!

And then Nathan found the Motherlode … He is probably the World’s Biggest Fan of Red Huckleberries, and tells me that as he hikes for his job, it is often “Red Hucks” that sustain him on longer days.

Nathan finds the Motherlode!

They are one of the most refreshing berries I have tasted—tart and zesty.  Nathan is convinced that they have cleansing properties.

As we walked along the road, we looked up to see the most massive bush of Red Hucks that we’d ever seen—with berries nearly the size of marbles!  It took Nathan about five minutes to pick as many berries off that one bush as it had taken us to fill our bucket with Thimbles.  And they were the sweetest Red Hucks he’d ever tasted.

The day ended with a miraculous orange sunset over the Skagit Valley, the Skagit River snaking its way toward the Sound.  Nathan and I promised each other that we would spend one afternoon out of each weekend picking berries together, and would “deposit” a portion of our collected berries into our freezer so that we’ll have a savings stored up for the winter.

Walking back with Nathan into the sunset, my belly full of berries, I couldn’t think of a time I’d been so happy.

Happy.