Easterine Kire
[dropcap]M[/dropcap]OTHER Earth is amazing. Autumn is well underway now, and as soon as September dawned, all the leaves began to change hue. Yellow, bright amber and ochre are the new colours on the birch trees. Yesterday I saw a neighbour’s green lawn had changed colour almost overnight and his whole courtyard had become a big gold splash.
It’s been raining steadily for days. When the rain stops, a ferocious wind blows. The wind is just as hard on people as it is on trees. The autumn wind is no ordinary wind. It’s a hard-working wind. At the end of the month, it will have blown off most of the leaves from the trees. That’s a lot of wind-power to muster up. In addition, it creates frequent storms at sea.
But before it takes down the leaves, it also creates a lot of beauty. There is a forest called the golden forest, because the trees turn completely yellow, and when viewed from afar, it looks like the valley has been painted with gold. It’s hard to decide which is more beautiful, the golden forest or its multicoloured neighbour.
This is the season of mushrooms, the rains having created enough dampness for them to sprout in the woods. There is a treasure stack of mushrooms to be harvested in the forests in this season. One species that is sought after is the Cantarell mushrooms, yellow coloured and locally called the gold of the forest. Cantarell grows in the shade and needs trained eyes to spot it, because it doesn’t grow above the ground. Mushroom pickers walk around slowly with heads downward, peering at the forest floor until they see a golden patch glinting. The Cantarell mushrooms grow best under a cover of dead leaves as the fibrous leaves help conserve moisture for them during the growing period.
The forest yields so much food in the autumn months. Berries that have been blooming during the warm summer months are now crying to be picked. Many old women still climb up the mountains carrying buckets for picking blueberries and crowberries. Blueberries can be made into jam, and crowberries make good fruit juice. Blueberries with their antioxidant properties have repeatedly topped the US list of healthy fruits. Apparently, blueberries are very good for the brain and the nervous system. Nutritionists usually recommend eating them raw.
The crowberry is better described as a dwarf evergreen shrub. It was a vital addition to the diet of the Inuit and the Sami. The berry makes good pie and jelly, and the leaves and stems have been used in Denai’na medicine. (Denai’na or Tanaina are a group of Alaska native Athabaskan people living in South Central Alaska). Boiled or soaked in hot water, it is good for diarrhoea and stomach problems.
I think we could grow crowberries in altitudes like Dzükou as it seems to favour a cold climate which also gives sufficient sunshine. It would make good food for trekkers.
Another autumnal berry is the cloudberry. It is bright orange in colour and favours swampy areas. The cloudberry is eaten with fresh cream and considered a delicacy. Frozen cloudberries are found on sale in the supermarkets.
Blackcurrants and redcurrants are commonly grown in gardens and yards. They yield fruit abundantly. Blackcurrant is a sour berry but it has many culinary uses. It is popular in desserts, and is also made into jams and jellies. Blackcurrant juice is said to be very healthy, being high in vitamin C and with good levels of potassium, phosphorus, iron and Vitamin B.
Of the two, redcurrants are quite pretty owing to the transparent red colour. It looks picture perfect when hanging on bushes, and also when used to decorate a plate of dessert. However, biting into a redcurrant can be an unpleasant surprise as it is quite sour. It has a strong tart flavour and is used culinarily as a jam to go with wild game such as reindeer. Redcurrant is also used in summer puddings and fruit soups.
Apart from the food value of the season, the landscape of Autumn is infused with its own glorious beauty. The colours revive and bring together forest and high mountain, and evening skies which look like they have been lowered down for the sole purpose of reflecting back autumnal colours.
The poet was so accurate when he called Autumn the ‘season of mists and mellow fruitfulness.’ It’s like a pause before the year winds down for good. A pause so we can delight in God’s finger moving across his palette, Earth.
