Berry picking kerfuffle

Berry picking is a big deal in Newfoundland. It seems like everyone does it, and there are LOTS of berries available for the picking. Blueberries, strawberries, raspberries, red currants, black currants, blackberries, bakeapples, serviceberries, partridgeberries, snowberries, crackerberries, marsh berries, cranberries, crowberries – these are the ones I have heard of, but there are bound to be more. They grow wild, and people head out to their “secret” berry picking spots during the summer and fall to stock up for the winter ahead.

One berry picking spot that is not so secret is Signal Hill, a national historic site in St. John’s that is managed by Parks Canada. It’s located at the entrance to the harbour, and is popular with both residents and tourists. Apparently, it’s also covered in blueberry bushes, which St. John’s residents have been picking for ages.

Parks Canada doesn’t seem to understand that berry picking is considered a god-given right in Newfoundland. A few days ago, they issued a statement, saying that berry picking is not permitted at Signal Hill, citing safety concerns for berry pickers and the food needs of local wildlife as the primary reasons.

To say that this was not well received is putting it mildly. It was front page news across the province, spurring a social media firestorm. Comedian Mark Critch tweeted “This is beyond stupid.” Newfoundland writer Edward Riche tweeted that “Banning berry picking on Signal Hill is the height of foolishness.” But I think that Florence Sweetapple, life-long St. John’s resident, put it best in her comments in an article in The Telegram:

“If someone comes down and says to me, ‘You can’t pick berries here,’ I’ll say, ‘Since when?’ I mean this is all we ever done. We couldn’t wait to get home from school to go pick berries,” she said in a phone interview Friday. “I can remember as a child, my mother giving us a container, and we’d go to Signal Hill to pick berries,” she said. “There was seven of us in the family and we had the small family out here. Most of them were all big families. And mom packed us a lunch and a little syrup in the bottle and we’d go for the whole day picking berries. Why shouldn’t we be allowed? That was our tradition. Partridgeberries and blueberries — that’s the only place we can go to get them is up on the hill,” she said.

Politicians were quick to come to Florence’s defence, and soon Parks Canada clarified that, although berry picking is technically not allowed at Signal Hill, they would not be enforcing the rule. I look forward to a follow up article, sharing Florence’s berry recipes; I’m sure they’re very good.