Basket Of Berries, A

By Val Archer

Book Overview

On the morning of June 18, 1990, high up in the Canadian Rockies. Robin Cody pushed his Sixteen-foot, forty-seven-pound Kevlar canoe through tall grass and mud to launch it on peaceful Columbia Lake, the nominal source of the river that heaves more water into the Pacific Ocean than any other in North or South America: the Columbia. For the next eighty-two days, Cody would steer his canoe around massive dams, through killer rapids, and across reservoirs the size of small states, plunging 2,750 feet in 1,200 miles and passing right through his hometown of Portland, Oregon, before reaching the open sea. Undertaken with no particular goal in mind, with no great point to prove, the solo voyage would churn up myth, memory, and unexpected truths about the magnificent natural phenomenon that dominates the landscape, economy, and spirit of the Pacific Northwest. To the tent-dwelling canoeist, animals play an often funny, sometimes scary, role -- bear, moose, coyote, beaver, deer, osprey, heron, loon. But, as Cody soon realizes, "nature, in real time, is not a dependable entertainment." Untethered thought takes over, and human contact, human language, is craved. Cody's cravings are met by a host of colorful riverfolk: Virginia Wyena, the grandmother of seventeen who pronounces for him the unspellable Wanapum name for the Columbia; Wayne Houlbrook, a would-be adventure guide and actual companion through daunting Redgrave Canyon; Mary Yadernuk, a seventy-three-year-old trapper of the old school; Ben Seibold, a "wood butcher" on hand for the raising of Grand Coulee Dam during the Great Depression; Lucille Worsham, who counts the fish swimming by her station down in the bowels of Bonneville Dam; even a couple of anonymous gossiping teenagers in a hardware store. A consummate listener, Cody learns that few are satisfied with the contortions the modern Columbia has been made to undergo for the sake of hydraulic and nuclear power, and that the environment is indeed in grave crisis -- and yet, he can't help but marvel at the orchestration of the river's power system as if its fourteen dams were "the stops on a massive pipe organ." He hears about eco-terrorists who slaughter hatchery salmon that they suspect are diluting the gene pool; about "hummers." radioactive coyote feces in the vicinity of Hanford's notorious B Reactor; about trees shooting like javelins out of man-made reservoirs that weren't logged before they were filled. As he takes all this in, merely by putting his ear to the river for a good long time, Cody gains as rich an understanding of it as anyone has since 1811, when David Thompson made the first white man's trip along the Columbia, mapping it as he went. With a generous and infectious spirit, Cody draws us into the mysteries of a much altered river -- tamed, regulated, but still at heart a wilderness.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0517592746
• ISBN13: 9780517592748
• Release Date: May 1993
• Publisher: Harmony
• Length: 89 Pages
• Weight: 0.90 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 7.4" x 7.4"

Customer Reviews

If you love art and enjoy cooking Basket of Berries is a must!

If you love watercolor paintings and enjoy cooking with fruit then this beautifully illustarted little cookbook is a must. The autor/illustrator Val Archer was born in England and studied art at the Royal College of Art, her watercolor paintings grace each and every page of this lovely cookbook. Not only is she a master of watercolor, but an accomplished cook as well. The recipes she has included in this volume are unique and include such ingredients as Elderberries, Tayberries, and the more common blueberries and strawberries. The illustrations (paintings) are exceptional and look beautiful enough to frame. I have many times been tempted to cut out some of my favirite pages and have them matted and framed. The recipes range from exotic to every day affair. The measurements are in both metric and standard. There are some exotic sounding ingredients. One such ingredient is caster sugar, it is mainly sold in Britain, but can be purchased in the U.S. under the name "superfine" sugar. If you do an on-line search you can generally locate how to obtain the particular ingredient, or find a suitable substitute. The fact that some ingredients may be hard to obtain is the only reason that I could see that one would not find this cookbook simply wonderful! In my opinion I am very fortunate indeed to own "A Basket of Berries" by Val Archer. My cookbook collection would certainly be lacking if I did not have my own copy. I also have a copy of another cookbook that she authored and illustrated titled "A Basket of Apples" it also is an equally beautiful artistic treasure and a must-have for any serious cookbook collector! Happy Cooking, Cathy S.