Monday, September 28, 2009

Mushrooms and Berries


All over Latvia in late summer and early fall, the above is a common sight: An ordinary Latvian who has gathered enough mushrooms (usually chanterelles) and berries (I think "bilberries" are the most common on the street, one of several Latvian berries that can nominally be translated into English, but your correspondent doesn't believe he's ever seen them before. Bilberries are like blueberries, but smaller and less tasty. However, Latvian strawberries are sweet and more tasty than the ones one often finds in the U.S.). The urban set-up, seen here, is somewhat less common than the folding table set up along a rural highway, which is so common one has to wonder how any of them makes any money with all the bilberry-selling competition out there.

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