Wild Berries & The Gift Economy
recipes for simple bottled fruits & easy skillet cobbler
Happy 1 year anniversary to Preserving the South!
This week I realized I’ve been writing this lil newsletter for a whole year! It was actually the serviceberries ripening down the block that tipped me off. I am so grateful to you, dear readers, from the newest to the oldest, for being on this journey with me. To mark the occasion, I went back to archives and revisited what I wrote about my favorite season when wild berries are ripening all around us and cobbler and ice cream feels imperative.
The Abundance of Summer
I was listening to an Etta Baker interview yesterday where she described the big music parties that her family hosted around Caldwell County, North Carolina, in her childhood (in the 20s and 30s mostly). She described how they played music and danced, then ate a big spread that people “brought in”, then went back and played and danced until late into the night. She said,
“Everything back then was free. Whatever you wanted to eat was there.”
I was disappointed that the host didn’t ask a follow up question to dig deeper into that statement (and what they were eating!!). She was almost certainly referring to the way traditional farming communities shared resources, without the expectation of a square trade or return, a.k.a. the gift economy. This method of exchange was so common in my hometown that the farmers’ market they started on Main St. a few years ago turned into more of a swap.
Farmers and gardeners couldn’t stop themselves from giving everything away to everyone they knew (and they all knew each other!). My dad brought home a jar of Ms. Glenda’s icicle pickles, and they were so crisp and delicious that I ate the whole jar. The price tag say $2.75 — in 2017 or so!! I remarked, “I cannot believe she is selling these for $2.75! I sell the same thing for $9.” To which my dad responded, “Well, actually, I didn’t pay that. She gave those to me.” Trust me, Ms. Glenda and my dad have it figured out. They gain much more than the profit I earned from selling a jar of pickles!
Living in the city these days, I feel like I can’t take a deep breath without spending $20. Maybe that’s why the free fruit dropping onto the sidewalk and just off the hiking trails makes me giddy with excitement. Juneberries (Serviceberries), white mulberries, chokecherries, and even a few cherries/ sour cherries are ripe for the picking when I stroll through the neighborhood walking my dog. The purple splattered sidewalk tells me it’s time to slow down and look up. On a hike last week, the woods were thick with wineberries just off the trail. Despite local strawberries going for $9/quart, it often feels like I am one of the few partaking of summer’s little luxuries.
You don’t need to go crazy hunting down every wild berry growing in your corner of the universe (in fact don’t because the birds need them too!), but take a minute to exercise those muscles of awareness, patience, and effort. You will be rewarded mightily, and these gifts of nature might inspire you to do a little gifting of your own.
Cobbler Season Commence!
The best thing to do with your free berries is make a cobbler! The great thing about wild berries like serviceberries or mulberries is that they complement the cultivated blueberries, blackberries, and raspberries nicely, as well as rhubarb or stone fruits. Whoever coined the phrase “easy as pie,” had surely never made cobbler. This one is easier than going to the store to buy a pie that someone else made, and I usually have all the ingredients on hand. Eat it warm straight out of the oven. Ice cream required!
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