Living on the coast means sharing space with a lot of local wildlife—including Roosevelt elk, which are essentially giant, majestic goats that will eat absolutely everything in sight. To keep my plants safe, I took a small plot in our fenced community garden this year.
It’s just a tiny raised bed with a few strawberry plants, so the harvest will be small, but it has been a fantastic project. While I’ve shared most of the first few ripe berries, I saved this particular one for myself. It was gorgeous, red all the way through, and tasted like pure sunshine.
Looking ahead to late summer, I’m hoping to make my annual trek out to the old cranberry bogs to pick wild blueberries. The property was a commercial blueberry farm a century ago; today, the historic bushes still stand beautiful and produce a massive bumper crop every single year. The owner just leaves a little shed out there with a donation box. I’ve missed the peak harvest window the last two years, but this season I’m determined to get a few pints to freeze or dehydrate.
There is something incredibly peaceful—and slightly thrilling—about creeping around the bogs early in the morning as the coastal fog lifts, always wondering if I’m about to run into a black bear.
Between these strawberries and a few summer blueberries, that is about the extent of the plant foods I consume all year. Hopefully, keeping it to a few hyper-local, hand-foraged berries won’t get me officially kicked out of the carnivore club! 
I live in Oregon, love our coast, not living there at this time. It’s weird for me living inland now, so may move back eventually.
