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TUKTOYAKTUK
Ask anyone who knows her, and they'll tell you Winnie Gruben is the best berry picker around. Ask her, and she'll say there's nothing she likes better.

"I'm sitting here at my desk at work and dying to be out on the land because it's just peace. When you're out on the land it's so peaceful," said the 57-year-old probation officer from her office in Tuktoyaktuk.

"I'll never stop. I guess when I'm bed-ridden. When I'm old and feeble."

Gruben began berry picking as a child in Fort McPherson, where she was raised by her grandparents William and Mary Vittrekwa.

During the winter she had to stay in the residential school hostel, but on June 30 of every year she was allowed to leave. She would stay in town for sports day on July 1 and then by July 2 be out at Eight Mile, where her family's fish camp sat on the edge of the Peel River.

Their visit would start with chores, like checking the fish nets and hauling wood, but by mid-July they were out every day picking cloudberries and blueberries.

"Then the cranberry season started," Gruben said of her family's summer routine.

"We'd be picking cranberries until we'd actually see cranberries in our sleep, you know? That happened until September."

In 1973 she moved to Tuktoyaktuk, married and began raising her family. She now has four grandchildren, and goes out on the land every chance she gets.

"I could travel to Old Crow and pick cranberries. I could go back to McPherson and pick berries on the highway, and then I could go to Aklavik to camp and pick berries there. Then I could go 40 miles down the coast and pick berries there. I just go where I have to," she said.

When she does go, she doesn't leave home unprepared.

In addition to her berry pail, outfitted with a bell to ward off bears, she brings a whistle to wear around her neck, mosquito repellent, a bright orange jacket, comfortable pants, lunch for when she wants to take a break and a friend or two, one of whom will usually have a gun in case a bear gets too close.

Gruben's most cherished memory of berry picking is when her husband, Roger, arranged for their friends to take her to Kukjuktuk Bay, about 50 km northeast of Tuktoyaktuk.

They planned to stay for the day but were stuck there for eight because of rough waters.

"It was eight days of heavenly bliss, you know, walking to go pick berries, hunting caribou, just walking, picking rocks, having a marshmallow roast, you know? Now, these people, we're best friends," she said.

Like most berry pickers in the North, Gruben knows the best spots around but won't divulge their location.

"Everybody has their secret spot, and they're not going to tell you. I mean, you could die and never tell," she said.

"If somebody does happen to take you out, you can't say where you went, you just have to say, 'Up there, around that bend,' you know?"

By the end of last summer, Gruben said she collected 40 Ziploc bags full of berries.

Throughout the winter she'll make trifles and other desserts for special occasions like weddings, birthdays, Christmas and family gatherings.

Usually, she can make them last until the next berry season, although it's probably a little harder for her to keep her favourite, yellowberries, around.

"Oh, yellowberries. They're just so delicious, and they only grow here, and in Alaska, Newfoundland and in Ikea stores," she said.

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