The Meditation of Black Raspberry Harvest
The harvest of black raspberries is one I look forward to every year. Often, as spring slides into summer, I will take walks to my favorite spots just to check up on them and see how they’re turning. Of course, every year I inevitably show up way too early in the season, overly eager. Once I see that hint of pink I become borderline obsessive. Black raspberries are one of my favorite berries, if you can’t tell. Not that supermarket berries come anything close to wild ones in flavor or nutrients, but I enjoy that I can’t find fresh black raspberries all year in the grocery store. Yes, you read that right. Although we live in a time when you can shop for strawberries in January, one of the best parts about foraging is the way it allows us to eat seasonally. It makes those berries that much better when they are eaten fresh off the plant and by the time we reach summer every year I’m wild with anticipation for what the season will provide.
Foraging anything is in itself calming and a great way to connect with nature. However I have always regarded harvesting black raspberries to be a meditation. When the entire patch of berries begins to ripen, at first only one berry per cluster is ripe, typically. From afar, it’s easy to see those little dots of deep purple sprinkled throughout the patch. Waking up in early summer before the day is hot is my favorite time to harvest these gems. I will head into the thorns, and begin harvesting, with my handmade berry basket hanging around my neck. There is usually still dew on the leaves and they brush against my legs as I head in. Over years of visiting the same spots, paths have formed in the patches of berries. I take my time and slowly move forward down the path, turning from left to right, harvesting berries high and low, taking my time to harvest all the berries in that area before moving forward. I often spot some hidden deep behind the honeysuckle that grows in that area and reach far to grab them. On occasion they will drop out of my hand or fall off the plant before I can put it into my basket, but I figure it’s just a way to plant seeds for future harvests.
Many times I’m completely alone when I harvest these berries. Occasionally I will spot a dog on it’s morning walk with its owner, or someone riding their bike by. There are many ways to find a meditative state while out in nature, but this one is by far my favorite and the easiest. I find I’m particularly present when harvesting black raspberries and I truly enjoy taking my time to be in the moment. Once I’m done and my basket is filled to the brim, I continue picking and filling my belly up on black raspberries. That’s the nice thing about wild fruit: it’s free, abundant, and nourishing. What would cost probably a hundred dollars at the grocery store I can eat for free with no guilt knowing I’m filling up on some of the healthiest foods known to man.
A couple of weeks ago, I was talking to my partner Clay about this sort of meditation and he said he felt the same way. I wondered how many other foragers have found this while in a patch of black raspberries or if they find this state while harvesting some other wild edible? If you’re a fellow forager I’d love to know how it feels for you to be out gathering wild edibles. Can you relate?