Gathering Berries: Aleesha Towns

Posted At : March 13, 2009 1:00 AM
Related Categories: Alaska,Personal Narratives

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Taken from "Gathering Berries" by Aleria Jensen, published in the September/October 2007 issue of Orion magazine.

Contributed by Laura Hoopes of Claremont, California. Read by Aleesha Towns-Bain: "In winter, I find myself dreaming of fruit. New to Alaska, I've done my picking in Colorado. Now, I wonder what summer and fall will bring me in my new home." Aleesha recently arrived in Alaska, pursuing a passion for mountains, the outdoors and exploring diverse cultures. A recovering small-town newspaper editor, she is now a program associate at the Rasmuson Foundation.

In "Gathering Berries," biologist Aleria Jensen describes picking tart, Alaskan berries.

Gathering Berries

"All we do is show up. Wake up, drink our coffee, jump in the car, head for these boggy slopes. Expect the land to provide. And it does. Despite the soggy ones, there are plenty of good berries. Plenty for us, for bears and birds and insect larvae. Plenty for muffins, pancakes, and smoothies. ...

I find myself feeling a huge gratitude, not only for what the land shares, but what it endures. ...

Within it, each fruit holds what I hold: an accumulation of place. The tangy explosion of these northern berries on the tongue is the landscape communicating itself, an expression of its essential wild character. Taste me -- here is your peat moss, your snowmelt, your glacial till. Here is your hemlock root, your jack pine, your overwintering bee. Taste me."

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