illicit berries

Word to the Wise DO NOT, I repeat, DO NOT pack GLASS or CERAMIC items for shipping in paper or newspaper. You think you can protect them with that and you are sooo wasting your time. If it ain't wrapped in bubble wrap (or at least some clothing if you're being cheap) you might as well drop it a few times before you even stick it in the box just to get a feel for what it's gonna look like afterwards. Really folks, paper doesn't do SHIT to protect glass. Nothing. Nada.

Now that I've gotten THAT out of the way...

Here we are in the month of June, still a cold cloudy rainy month here in lovely Portrainland, but nevertheless the cherry trees are laden with cherries. I found a few strawberries in the garden but they were nothing much to look at. Over by the vacant lot, there are filbert trees and all along Vancouver i walked with my bag picking linden blossoms and cherries. There are some FINE looking cherry trees in this city lurking in abandoned spaces and vacant lots, with limbs and boughs full of impossible to reach, but tempting cherries. I walked all over picking them, sour and sweet, seemingly the only one (besides the birds) who has discovered their bounty.

I also discovered a raspberry vine on this stroll which was my first clue that raspberries are ripening here. When I lived at Declerye we had a huge lovely patch of black raspberries growing on the west side in the shadow of the magnolia tree. Year after year, around this time, I would walk out the back kitchen door and sneak over to the bush and pick a handful every morning while they lasted.

After I left Ashland, I never dreamed I'd have access to fruit again. Living in the city, it can be hard to come by, but if nothing else there's the endless profusion of Himalayan blackberries when they are ignored and allowed to take over. But it's nice to know that there are also salmonberries, rubus calcynoides, wild strawberries, walnuts, hazelnuts, cherries, kiwi, plums, and service berries growing within a 6 block radius of my front door. If I walk a little further, I know where a grape vine can be found next fall. Ah illicit fruit. You are a fine tradition. We go back to the days when I heisted raspberries out of Myles Brand's garden...