As a child I lived in the Southern Tutchone regions of the Yukon harvesting the land for subsistence foods with my parents, grandparents, siblings and extended family.
Living a primarily traditional lifestyle meant store bought berries and fruits were a very rare treat.
So every now and again, I indulge.
In Southern Tutchone strawberries are called:
"kwansi zhur"
...blueberries are called:
"nandhay".
I like blueberries:
"Nandhay yanili."
As I worked on a batch of jam this weekend,
using store bought berries,
I thought of Gramma and how she would have marvelled
at the crates of
berries and fruits, inexpensive produce, pressure cookers,
and the
flats of jars and rings now available to us in the stores of Whitehorse.
Gramma and I made jams and jellies with the wild berries we picked and processed with a hot water bath and sealing wax using the old style, zealously hoarded, glass mason jars with the glass lids. We also used recycled jars with a simple
wax seal.
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