Berries, guarded by Nettles

We went berry picking this weekend - twice! Lured into the state forest near our home by the memory of the pink blossoms on budding bushes that we saw about a month ago, we ventured forth with our homemade berry buckets to hunt the wily berry. We were pretty excited. I used to pick salmonberries in Alaska, right outside my kitchen door. By the end of the 'season' I always had a whole cupboard full of jelly for the year. Jewel-red, sweet and mild, salmonberry jelly has always been my favorite. And sure enough, there are bushes - and berries - right here in Washington. We were anxious to get out to our 'scouted' area and harvest the goodies.

Someone else got there first.

The bushes were pretty picked over but we persevered. (If there's one thing we know how to do, it is persevere.) Unfortunately we persevered right into a nest of stinging nettles standing sentinel over a nice bush of mostly ripe berries.

Did we stop to wonder, before reaching in, why there were a bunch of berries still there? No. Were we the least bit suspicious? No. If you'd asked me, I'd have said that I wouldn't recognize a stinging nettle if one bit me. Um... Evidently that would be wrong. As soon as they 'bit' us, we knew.

There is no treatment for stinging nettles. They just have to sting until they are done, which, in our case, was about 26 hours after our encounter.

(I bet you wonder why we ventured out the 2nd time - but it is probably clear: not enough berries to actually make a batch of jelly. We felt a little like Katherine Hepburn and Humphrey Bogart on the African Queen having to go back in the water with the leeches.)

The second day was better though - and we each filled our buckets. Tonight we made a batch of jelly and I think it turned out pretty well. (I'm a little out of practice, but Mark and I together can do anything.) There is something quite satisfying about those little jars of jelly, sparkling on the kitchen counter as they cool.

We might even go for more.