Baskets of Berries

It is officially summer in Ukraine - well maybe it was officially summer 3 weeks ago when the strawberries began appearing in mass. Hundreds of people walking around Kiev with baskets of Strawberries - even though they were often delicately covered with embroidered cloths - you could still tell they were caring berries because of the gorgeous strawberry smell that wafted out of the basket - it was particularly pleasant on the metro - the smell of berries filling the car rather than - well the various other odours that are sometimes present.

Currently in the market you can still find strawberries - though it is the very last of them and prices have started to go back up (at its peak they dropped to 8 uah per kilo - the highest price - right before they really started was 30 uah per kilo) Although the berries don't look too hot right now - being paler in color - the flavor is amazing - incredible sweet and better than the ones we bought earlier that were beautiful reds. You just can't tell by appearances alone.

Added to the strawberries - red currents, black currents, cherries (a huge assortment - but more on cherries later), some raspberries, mulberries (what do you do with mulberries?) and most excitingly - черники or huckleberries. I've decided they are huckleberries (The word can also mean blueberries and a few other random forest blueberry-like berries) because they are 1) collected wild in the forest, are small and a deep purpley/black color, and are sweet, but also slightly tart. However, I'm not an expert so who knows what they really are. They can currently be found for 8 uah per pint.

Anyway, the last few days I have been buying up the last of the strawberries and several черники and freezing them. I love our freezer - it even has a special quick freeze function just for mass freezing like this. I also celebrated by making a Blueberry Buckle - or rather a Черникa Buckle. We were never much for birthday cakes in my family - I normally fluctuated between pumpkin rolls and Brazilian chocolate mousse while Margaret tended towards Cherry Cream cheese pie (not to be confused with a cherry cheese cake - the pie has more cherry while the cheese cake has more cheese) So this year I opted for the blueberry buckle - Unfortunately - My mother's super duper recipe didn't make it through cyberspace in a readable format -
so I used this recipe and it turned out great - just not quite like mom's :-) Here is my mom's recipe that finally arrived in a readable format.

Blueberry Buckle Recipe
Ingredients

1/2 cup shortening
3/4 cup sugar
1 egg
2 cups sifted all‑purpose flour
21/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup milk
2 cups fresh blueberries
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup sifted all‑purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 cup butter or margarine

OVEN 350
Thoroughly cream shortening and 3/4 cup sugar add egg and beat till light and fluffy Sift together 2 cups flour, baking powder, and salt; add to creamed mixture alternately with milk. Spread in greased 11 x7xl 1/2‑inch pan. Top with berries. Mix 1/2 cup sugar, 1/2 cup flour, and cinnamon; cut in butter till crumbly; sprinkle over berries. Bake at 350' for 45 minutes. Cut in squares. Serve warm