In
our travels across North America it has become a
challenge to find something that is elusive. Such was the case of
the elusive Saskatoons. While we were staying at the CG in
Brandon Manitoba, the owners, Fay and David Paskewitz, first
talked about Saskatoons. Well, never having heard of Saskatoons
we asked, "What are they?" They looked at us as though
we had lost our minds. "You mean you've never heard of
Saskatoons?" Our response came instantly and together,
"Nope." Well, they had some fun with us for awhile and
finally described in detail the large succulent berries that
resembled blueberries but were far larger and with a distinct
taste all their own. They said we probably wouldn't find any in
the wild as there had been a late freeze in May and most of the
local berries were killed off. As we drove around the area,
seeing the sights we kept a constant vigil, looking for Saskatoon
trees. Now, you have to remember, we had no idea what the berries
looked like, let alone the trees. I looked in the Spruce Woods
Provincial Park. Out on the
sand dunes. Nope not there. Then as we returned
into town we saw a sign, "U-Pick Saskatoons." YES! We
would get our berries. Then we found out they would not be ripe
until several days after we were scheduled to leave. Darn! Off we
went to Regina to continue our search. We asked at the campground
and they said they were new to the area but thought it was far
too developed to have Saskatoon trees growing wild. Oh well,
Moose Jaw is next, eh? We pulled into Moose Jaw only to have
everyone we asked tell us they didn't know where we could find
any Saskatoons. Finally on the morning we were leaving someone
said, "Oh, there's some in a town about 20 miles north of
here." Oh well, off to Medicine Hat and the Cypress Hills
Interprovincial Park. After we settled in, we went to the local
restaurant called the Cypress Landing. The food 
was fantastic
and the hostess/manager was a delightful lady by the name of
Jean. She seemed to be very knowledgeable about the locale so we
asked our usual question. "Do you know where we can find
some Saskatoons?" Oh yes, she said, at my place. We kind of
chuckled and said, "Sure". She told us she was sincere.
She would give us a map to her house (which was some 40 miles SW
of the restaurant) and we could pick some there. We thanked her,
but told her it would help if we knew what they looked like.
Well, she got someone to cover the front door and disappeared for
awhile. Soon she came back out with a bit of frost on her hair,
and told us she had to climb into the freezer to get some. And
then handed us a napkin with some frozen Sasktoons on it. They
did indeed look like large plump blueberries. It was all we could
do to wait for them to thaw. And then........chomp. Good! They
did indeed have a taste all their own. Sweet but a strange
aftertaste. Jean told us she would ask the cook to bake a
Saskatoon pie if we would be in the next night. She then
proceeded to draw us a picture of what the leaves looked like.
She asked an employee of the Provincial Park if he knew where we
could find some Saskatoons. He said he didn't think there were
any in the Alberta side of the park but there were some near Fort
Walsh. Armed with this knowledge we started the long drive to Ft.
Walsh. I was driving and told Bob to keep an eye out for
Saskatoons. However, as he was looking at the map, I looked to my
right as we approached Lake Resor, and stopped the truck.
"Bob, it's them!" I cried. I then maneuvered the truck
into a nearby turnoff and took off on foot. As we approached the
trees we saw the berries weren't quite as large as the ones Jean
had showed us, but I picked one and tasted it. Yep! that was
them. YAHOO! They were delicious. Bob brought the berry basket
out of the truck (we carry a basket in the truck for just such
momentous occasions) and we both started picking berries to fill
the basket. However, I noticed that I seemed to be picking more
than Bob. So, I peeked around the corner of the bush and watched
as Bob picked. One for the basket, one for Bob. Two for the
basket, one, two for Bob. Ah-hah the mystery was solved. Oh well,
what the heck, that's where they were going anyway, eh? We
finally did get the basket filled and we went on our way,
satisfied that we had added a new "hand-picked" fruit
to our repertoire.