Jillian Dickens
Northern News Services

Iqaluit (Sep 12/05) - It's not tough to tell berry picking season is alive and well in the North.

If you missed the blue-stained lips of people passing by, you could look towards the children in the streets carrying buckets in their hands or on their heads, on the way to the berry patch. Or you can simply follow berry lover Becky Ogruk's advice.

"You just have to look down and you can see them," says Ogruk from Taloyoak.

She's right. The tundra is thick this time of year with tiny forests of tough grass, moss, lichens and rare berries in all directions.

Every year between the end of August and the beginning of September - optimal picking time - Ogruk heads to the land to harvest blueberries and bearberries.

"I just pick them to eat them!"

Well, she admits, that's not the only reason. She also goes because her four-year old daughter, Jenell, loves it.

"It's fun for me and my four-year-old likes it very much."

Traditionally, the winter diet of meat and fish is supplemented by seaweed and cranberries, crowberries, bearberries and blueberries. But blueberries - or naqutit - are the most popular.

In Iqaluit and Apex the sunny skies of Sept. 3 lured all sorts to the land to harvest berries for pies, muffins, or to pop straight from the plant to the picker's mouth.

"I like eating them with sugar," said Lisa Arsenault, on her way home from an hour berry picking stint.

At the berry patch Manuel Kootoo and his father Manuel Decouto were on their second hour of picking.

"It's the most beautiful day of summer," Decouto said.

He added that he couldn't think of a better way to spend it than being on the land picking fresh fruit with his son.