Last Summer we collected Siberian cherries outside our front door. Melody preserved many of them. Raspberries were by far my favourite. As a rule we had no where to collect them, but babushkas were always selling them at bus stops and in markets. Raspberries were a highlight of Summer in 2010.
This year we have preserved a LOT more raspberries. Last Winter we enjoyed them with ice cream when it was -40 outside. You need something to cheer you up at -40! So here's hoping we have enough really cold days to use all our raspberries up.
Last year we also collected lots of crab apples from an old orchard that is now merged into the Akademgorodok forest. Crab apples (Ranetki in Russian) may not be fun to eat fresh, but they make a great apple crisp in Winter.
Coming up to Baykit, we joined in with Yura and Alona today, going out to the forest to collect berries. Picking for the best part of an hour I personally collected a bowl of blueberries. It's slow work, picking one small berry at a time. I felt like such a city boy, boring of the task after a while. I remarked to Melody, that while it is a fun novelty for us, necessity is a far bigger motivator. And since we don't have the necessity in life to eek out a subsistence life, we struggle to maintain the motivation. Still it's a fun thing to get out into the forest and collect berries. Even if blueberries are not my favorite.
2 comments:
just curious, what is the incidence of ticks in this part of the world?
People are always paranoid about them here in the Summer time. And we have heard of people getting them occasionally.
The incidence is lowered when you realise that apparently 1/16 of them are diseased. It is possible to treat encephalitis. It's expensive for the medication though, so a lot of people get insurance.
I'm fairly confident the numbers are lower in Baikit in August. Nobody even mentioned them up there.
(City people and village people often differ!)
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