Hard Witching and saskatoons

Almost 15 years in Canada and I did not know that Saskatoon is not just a city in Saskatchewan but it is also a shrub yielding berries called saskatoons.

The Saskatoon, Saskatoon berry, serviceberry or Juneberry is a shrub native to North America from Alaska across most of western Canada and in the western and north central United States. It grows from sea level in the north of the range, up to 2,600 metres (8,530 ft) altitude in California and 3,400 metres (11,000 ft) in the Rocky Mountains.

Today has been a "fruitful" day as I learnt something new and it came about because I have decided to read mainly Canadian authors for the next few months and the following paragraph from the book I am reading is how I came across "saskatoons" :

Though we hated those long, hot, agonizingly boring walks, whether thourgh the Sand Hills or the river hills, we always chose the Sand Hills if consulted. For one reason, there were no rattlers, curled like fat grey muscles behind rocks and beneath ground cedar, and no bull snakes either, which though harmless (as Grandpa continually pointed out), could startle us both into tears by appearing suddenly in the sagebrush at our feet, long and black and thick as a man's arm. For another, the Sand Hills were full of chokecherries and saskatoons, and we could sit on the great flesh-coloured dunes, writing our names with sticks and letting the hot, soft sand squish up between our toes, pretending to be marooned on a desert island , pretending the dry, rolling scrubland for miles around us was all water.

It's from "A Hard Witching & Other Stories" by Jacqueline Baker who grew up in Saskatchewan.  I am only a few pages into the book but I can see that it is going to be a good read.