Saskatoon Berries

We went berry picking with my grandson. It was the perfect morning. Cool and breezy enough to keep the mosquitoes away. Overcast too.

Saskatoon berries are sort of like blueberries, but a whole lot easier to pick, I think. They are a prairie delicacy and loaded with antioxidants (things that are good for you).

Mike Michaluk met us on his golf cart and told us which row to start picking in. He told us he planted this field of saskatoon bushes for his wife, Shirley, about 20 years ago. A pretty expensive gift of about $17,000!

 

 

 

The picking method is sort of a tugging gently the cluster hanging together.

The ripe ones will easily come away and the unripe ones should get left behind.

Of course your hands get pretty stained.

Three ice-cream pails took two of us about two hours to pick.

Eating them fresh with plain yogurt or ice cream is awesome.

And we made freezer jam from this recipe:

http://wordeats.blogspot.ca/2011/07/saskatoon-and-raspberry-freezer-jam.html

First crushing the berries with a potato masher.

Then adding the sugar.

Then adding the liquid pectin and lemon juice.

Voila! Delish!