“There's a different time…what I would say–like a lifely, real time, and to be able to have, at least moments, periodically, in our lives, where we're attuned to that. And the attunement sometimes is also really pleasurable. It's like a deeply pleasurable attunement to ourselves--as not apart from, but in fact, in fact, life…as life.”

In the fourth installment of our Eats Wild series, we pick serviceberries with Ross Gay and contemplate abundance, time and connection with loved ones through foraging. 

Tracy Branam shares his love for wild strawberries and talks about growing up feeling connected to the seasons and to the natural world around him. 

In her book, Braiding Sweetgrass, Potawatomi botanist Robin Wall Kimmerer tells the story of a wild strawberry field from her childhood, and how she came to understand gift economies through wild berry picking. 

In her most recent book, The Serviceberry, she takes it further. She positions a specific fruit, native to North America as a model for grasping concepts of reciprocity.

The serviceberry, also known as saskatoon, shadbush, sarvisberry, and juneberry has never really taken off commercially, but I don’t understand why. It is delicious, and abundant..

In today’s show, we pick serviceberries with Ross Gay. He’s a poet, essayist and English professor at Indiana University. He’s the author of The Book of Delights, The Book of More Delights and Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude, among other books. And he’s a wild fruit enthusiast. 

We also talk with Tracy Branam. He’s a research geologist at Indiana University. Tracy talks about his expansive wild strawberry patch on the banks of a pond outside his back door, in Eastern Green County, Indiana. We talk about following a calendar of wild foods, and looking forward to the delights each season brings. 

We shared this summer Eats Wild episode earlier than we originally planned because we wanted to make sure you had a chance to find berries before they were gone for the season. 

If you gather berries of your own this summer, try making a summer berry galette!

Besure to check out our social media pages for fun extras from our Eats Wild series. 

Our next two Eats Wild episodes drop June 28 and July 5, 2025.

Music on this Episode:

The Earth Eats theme music is composed by Erin Tobey and performed by Erin and Matt Tobey.

Additional music on this episode from Universal Production Music.and a snippet from Joni Mitchell's, "Big Yellow Taxi" from the album 'Ladies Of The Canyon' (1970)

Credits:

The Earth Eats’ team includes: Eoban Binder, Alexis Carvajal, Alex Chambers, Toby Foster, Luann Johnson, Leo Paes, Daniella Richardson, Samantha Shemenaur, Payton Whaley and Harvest Public Media.

Earth Eats is produced, engineered and edited by Kayte Young. Our executive producer is Eric Bolstridge.