Saskatoons

Daria is one of my blogging buddies from Western Canada. She recently wrote about a neighbor (neighbour to her)bringing over a Saskatoon pie. Huh? She did provide a wiki link (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amelanchier_alnifolia) and it turns out that the name for them around these parts are service berries. Oddly enough, I had some for the first time a few months ago. A friend and I came across a mom and her two kids picking berries from a city bush adjacent to a parking lot popping them into their mouths. They sort of looked like blueberries. The mom assured us that they were 'safe' and she's been eating them for years. Now my friend just loves free berries found in the wild-especially mulberries and the various sorts of wild black berries found around here started to eat them too. I was not impressed as it had a huge tannic seed in the center but perhaps the Canadian cultivar isn't so seedy. But according to the wiki, they are very nutrious, full of antioxidants and various vitamins. Native Americans used them quite a bit.
This same friend was thrilled to find beautiful oranges lining the streets of Sevilla, Spain. Ooh, more free food! But pretty as they were, they are intensely bitter. The English use these oranges for marmelade.