Berry-Picking in Nova Scotia
Contributed by Lisa Roberts, Nourish ED
When I was a child, berry picking was serious business that involved long drives, thermoses of tea, and salt beef buckets. We would return home full of fly bites and with enough berries for a winter’s worth of pies.
Raising my children in Halifax, I rely on farmers to keep up with their demand for blueberries – generally eaten with cereal or plain yogourt. I fill my bucket at the Tare Shop, or shop for the best deal on a 5lb box. But it gives me some pleasure that my children will have their own, modest berry picking memories.
Over the years, we’ve found blueberry bushes next to old railbeds now converted to trails, in a school yard, and planted next to the NSCC-IT campus. We return to these spots most years, and also look for raspberry and black berry canes. (Hint: blackberries should be abundant soon in Point Pleasant and Hemlock Ravine.) We pick with yogourt containers, not buckets, and even as the kids get older they never seem to fill one. But picking berries has been a great way to explore our neighbourhood.
This year, our backyard raspberry canes produced enough for several delicious breakfasts. And I’ve also planted some raspberry canes within arms reach of the sidewalk, in the hopes that some smaller children may delight in them.
