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HARDWOOD FOREST From Plump Berries to Fruit Paste In many places, counties, islands and countries, along rivers and in the forests, there are large quantities of blueberries, which the Huron call "ohentaqué", and other small fruits, which they refer to by the general name of "hahique". They dry them for the winter, in the same way as we dry plums in the sun, make jellies for sick people and to flavour their "sagamité", and also put them in the bread rolls they cook in the ashes of their fires. Gabriel Sagard, 1624   The plump flesh of strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, gooseberries and blueberries has always been a part of the Aboriginal diet. Their native names are also interesting. Mskikoimins, "small grass berry", and gôwakwimen, "porcupine berry", in the Abenaki language refer respectively to the environments in which the strawberry bush grows and to the thorns of the gooseberry bush. Kmu:jemin, "wood berry", and maqtewiman, "black berry", in the Micmac language describe the woody stems of the raspberry plant and the dark-coloured fruit of the blackberry bush. Pkuman, "sticky berry", the Micmac blueberry, may refer to the paste obtained by drying and cooking berries, which can be kept for several years in this form.

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