This was the day after our visit to Cattail Bob's Seebeck's wild plant identification class in Drake, Colorado, where he introduced us to red currants, golden currants, and black currants among myriad other wild edible plants. We had to deal with some inclement weather driving home from the class in Drake, but the next day we awoke and looked out the window to find a clear blue sky and Mount Silverheels covered with snow all the way down to treeline. So, after a little work and a few coffees we headed up to our usual hiking spot--which starts at treeline and then comes out above it--in the hopes of happening upon some snow.
We were about five minutes into the hike when the thunder started. Seeking some protection from the trees, we diverged from our usual line and dropped down lower on a northeast-facing slope.
Based on Cattail Bob's book, Best-Tasting Wild Plants of Colorado and the Rockies, it was either a "hi-bush currant" or a "red currant." I kept catching myself calling it a "gooseberry," which Bob indicates is a term often used interchangeably with "currant." One of the telltale signs of a currant is that the dried flower remains sticking out of the berry, although, as Cattail Bob explains, some hi-bush currants do not retain this characteristic. Ours did, however. The branches were also spiny, which is not the case with the lower elevation variety. The ones we found were between 11,500 and 12,000 feet. One way or another, there are many varieties of currants to be found at different elevations.
Gregg was super excited about those first five or so berries, which he declared to be absolutely delicious. Frankly, I wouldn't have minded them to be a bit sweeter. After eating the berries, he made me spit the seeds into a small bag so that we could plant them at the house.
Later, traversing the mountainside towards the north, we did find some small patches of accumulated snow in the shady patches below the evergreens, and we ate some of that as well. The weather alternated between graupel, snain (snow + rain), and dappled sunlight until eventually the sun came out altogether and we shed some layers and took our lunch atop a steep embankment in the bright sunshine just outside the trees.
That evening I consulted with dad before cooking some red currants and sugar down into a sweet, rich, red berry sauce, which I ate on top of ice cream, savoring it to the last delicious bite. The taste was amazing and this is definitely going to become a tradition in my house. Unfortunately I managed to drop the treasured leftovers onto the floor, watching in slow motion as my syrupy concoction exploded all over the kitchen. Gregg was quick to make light of the situation and help me out, thankfully, lest my emotions get the best of me.
We served the rest of the currants the next day as an hors de oeuvres before our fondue party with friends Olena and Brendan. Olena, who is from Uraine, was excited as she used to pick red currants back home. Likewise, dad also used to pick and eat the red currants that his grandfather Gagi cultivated here in the United States but undoubtedly brought with him from Poland as a traditional food he did not want to live without.
Leave a comment