More Berries and a Medicine Man

I will never complain about the price of fresh raspberries again.

Really.

After berry picking with both grade-school kids and some of my own students, I now see the value of simply forking over $5 for slightly more than a handful of raspberries. I have three solid reasons.  First, the time spent picking compared to the amount we took home was pretty lopsided, and the kids found most of the berries you see in that bucket below. We spent about 2 hours picking, and I went home with maybe 3/4 cup of raspberries. You see, I never thought I'd say this, but I am actually too tall for successful raspberry picking, which is reason number two behind my inclination never to complain about the price of berries again.  

Yes, you read that correctly.  I am too tall.  How is that possible, you might ask? 

Turns out that the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th graders are at perfect eye level for spotting the berries, and can tell in a glance whether they are ready to be picked; if they are "juicy" and pull off the stalk easily, they are ready - sort of a no-brainer, yet, of course, dependent upon seeing them.  "I found a JUICY ONE, Miss Susan!!" often rang in my ear prior to some little hand slam-dunking the hidden treasures into my bucket. The raspberries sit just below leaves, which grow about to the height of my waist. The stalks grow about to my own eye level, but the berries do not. I found it adorable that these little kids were so willing to help me even though I'm not their current classroom teacher. Thank goodness for them, though.

As you can see, I am the perfect height to hide, but
not to see what I am doing that well.

This shot is to show you the position
of the berries.  They are much closer to the size
of a raisin, not like the apparently
behemoth-sized berries at the store.

Thirdly, berry picking comes with risks. Not dangerous ones, but uncomfortable ones. While out picking, I brushed up against some stinging nettle, and my hand immediately started itching, eventually swelling a bit too much for comfort.  I showed one of my rowdy 7th grade students, and he said, "You need chaithluck." He grabbed some nearby, took my hand, and rubbed the leaves on the irritated area.  Within about 10 seconds, the stinging was gone. He grabbed a few fresh leaves and continued. Within another 10 seconds, the redness and swelling were nearly gone.  By the time we were done berry picking, the spots where the nettle had poked me were the size of pinpricks.

A bit of clarification: chaithluck is pronounced jai-[throat-clearing sound]-luk. Don't try to say the 'th' in the middle.  Practice it. It took me about a week to get it right. The common name for it is stinkweed. No, it doesn't stink at all.

"Michael the Medicine Man...thank you!" I told him, and he smiled shyly. He's a nice student, but definitely much more in his element outside than inside, where he gets restless.  It was nice to see this other side to him. The next day, another teacher and I met him and his brothers to fish, and he had fashioned us some fishing poles. The kindness of these people is shown to me daily!

Chaithluck.  The lighter
green is the softer side used
to rub onto the skin.

On a related note, later in the week I woke up with a pretty bad sore throat, and my voice was in jeopardy while teaching.  I resorted to using the microphone from the sound system in my room, which the students actually found to be pretty cool. Also, I could simply turn up my own volume if theirs was getting to be too high. :) Anyway, several students told me to boil the chaithluck and drink the juice to soothe my throat. I never got around to doing so, but it is apparently an all-purpose healing remedy up here. It can be used fresh, boiled and made into a poultice or astringent, or smoked over a fire and breathed in as a decongestant. I'm really glad I found this out now! It can even be frozen for future use.




So, that wraps up my second week of teaching up here. We had an excellent week in school, and now have a lovely 3-day weekend to relax. I will be camping next week with the middle schoolers, so stay tuned for the details from that adventure!