We have been taking advantage of the longer days around here and going for family walks after supper.
There is a great park just about 10 minutes away. It has a large pond with geese and ducks, a wooden bridge and smooth paths for walking and bike riding. They have done a lovely job of landscaping with native grasses, wildflowers and indigenous trees. It is filled with gold finches, red-winged blackbirds, cardinals and even the occasional heron. In the winter, the pond freezes over and becomes the local hockey rink.
The rascals love running across the wooden bridge...
and along the pathways...
but the best part of park visits in early summer is....JUNEBERRY PICKING !
We often elicit stares as we pick and eat the wild berries in the park. People have even stopped to tell me that they're poisonous, but we just chuckle and say we haven't died yet. I've been eating these berries since I was a kid. They taste similar to blueberries but have a slightly mellower flavour, and in my opinion, they even taste better than blueberries. The kids love picking the berries and can spot a Juneberry bush from quite a distance.
They will stand there, picking and eating until we drag them away.
On this particular evening the berry fun didn't end there. On our way home we stopped at the house on the corner of our street; the one with the giant mulberry tree. And guess what? It was also heavily laden with fruit.
Last year, the kids and I knocked on the homeowner's door to ask if we could pick his berries. He looked at us like we were nuts and said he didn't think they were edible, but we could go ahead if we wanted to. I came back with some containers and we picked for an hour. He didn't complain when I knocked again and left a bowl of berries for him.
I suggest you take a look around your neighbourhood and see what's growing. You never know, you could save some money on groceries.
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