Eating off the land

Eating off the Land

As a kid living up on the ranch we all had lots of work to do and that helped us feel like we were needed and everyone counted. No one was useless, as all of us had work that had to be done in order for the family to survive.

We had plenty of interesting things to do and see. I really loved my life living up there. It was a peaceful place with so many things to explore.
I remember sometimes, while my little brother Delos and I were going to get the cows, or just exploring, we would stop at a hazelnut tree and eat some of the nuts.
Those things were really good eating, but they were a lot of trouble to get to.
They have a green soft covering with little tiny stickers, and when you pick them, the little stickers, sort of stayed in your finger tips.
My little brother Delos would get me to pick him some and peal off the outer covering.
He would put the nut into his mouth and bite on it to open it so he could eat the nut meat inside.

All of us kids cracked nuts with our teeth, and I don’t remember any of us had any broken teeth from opening nuts this way.

Many times on our trips to do something, like getting the cows, or getting the firewood for the house, we would go find a bush with some kind of berries to eat. We had a lot of Himalayas, which are kind of like black berries, only they have seeds and are bigger and rounder.
We would find huckleberries, which were red and small, but really good.
We also found raspberries growing along the roadside on our way home from school, I especially liked those.