Leaves and Berries

Above, top to bottom: Delicious blackberries picked on Bald Mountain in the Carpathian Mountains outside of Turka, Ukraine on October 18th, 2008; "Edible?" I asked Yura. He picked a small piece off the stalk and put it on his tongue after smelling the fungus thoroughly. "Ta, Edible. But not very good," he said, before tossing my precious mushroom into the forest, where it shattered into a million pieces over a log; Blackberries and many fruits are readily available and easy to pick, but you have to know what you're eating. Some are best for teas and boiled, while others are safe to eat right away. Mushrooms are even more difficult to distinguish, but if a small piece burns or irritates the tongue, it's generally not edible; Juniper Berries; these red berries are the first ones described below. They have a hard outer shell and are ripe in autumn. 

"Can I eat this?" I said, holding up a red, diamond-shaped berry.

He chatters something in ukrainian at Brett, and eventually I get "nie recomenducja" out of his slur. Brett nods and confirms: "sure, but I told you so." I bite in anyway, and Yura was right, it is bitter, dry and falls apart in my mouth as if I had bitten into a packet of flour. 

Using the forest as your grocery store is a practicality that takes some getting used to. I love eating out of the woods, it's the closest thing to childhood. My teeth stained purple by blackberries, I bite into another mountain fruit Yura has selected: a red, orb-like berry bunch that he says goes well in "Chai," Ukrainian for "tea." No Starbucks here. It pulls my lips into a pucker faster than a lemon, and I spit out the pit and skin on the ground. 

Near the peak of the cliff, Yura explains that the next delicacy is quite expensive in stores. Brett and I recognize the pea-sized, stiff, purplish balls to be juniper berries. The juniper branches are prickly and sting in the cold, but it's worth a handful. Yura slaps his stomach and explains in Ukrainian that these are good for your liver. Don't eat too much, they'll make you sick. 

Along the same path, Brett and I gorge ourselves on blackberries, push a dead tree down for firewood, and find a giant mushroom. While hauling the wood back to camp, a local man comes running up the mountain and jogs past us. We realize he's hiding an 8-inch Bowie knife look-a-like in his right hand as he runs past. Yura's machete, which looks more like a scimitar, is home-made and gruesome, but our only defense in case the mountain man has seen Deliverance. Yura hold up the blade handle and laughs, he shattered the blade on a tree stump. I munch some juniper berries and hope the wolves find us before the locals do.