Remembering the Don

Remembering the Don by Charles Sauriol (1981)

In support of my interest in the Don Valley, it can be said that I have lived the life; as a boy tramping its wooded reaches, as a youth pitting his energy against five acres of rundown land and a dilapidated farm dwelling; as a man fighting a long fight for its preservation.

I first set foot on my acres at the Forks of the Don in January 1927.  From that date on, I thought only to turn them into a place of beauty.  Forest trees were planted by the thousands, and an orchard too, which grew to fruitfulness.  Rich soil was wrested from sod and twitch grass, and became a garden land in which fine fruits and vegetables grew.

I did just about everything on my place.  I gathered the notes which made up my manuscripts of the Don Valley.  I made maple syrup from trees of my own planting.  I canned fruit and vegetables, buit a root house, kept a goat, a few pigs, chickens.  I made a wild flower garden, established a bird sanctuary, built bridges which floods invariably washed out, dug wells, kept bees, made a log cabin retreat where most of The Cardinal was written.  (p. 136)

Berries of the Don Valley remembered

Excerpted from Remembering the Don, Charles Sauriol (pp 38-9)

In the Don Valley are found all of the bush and ground fruits of the Ontario countryside.  There are red, purple and black raspberries; the blackberry or thimbleberry; the small wild strawberry; the elderberry; red and black currants; the blueberry; the gooseberry and wild grapes.  There are several varieties of wild cherry including pin and choke cherries.  In the fields grow the ground cherry and in the woods the mandrake or maple apple.  These are the wild fruits we are likely to find on a summer or fall ramble.

The season of the wild fruits begins with the ripening of the succulent strawberry.  It grows in abundance, dotting the meadows with tiny patches of red fruit, usually towards the end of June.  About mid-July the first red raspberries ripen, large and juicy in the lowlands, firm and round on the slopes.  The fruit is firm, easy to pick, obviously seedy.  The canes remain in bearing for at least three weeks, a few berries ripening each day.

The blueberry, although generally associated with the late summer of the highlands of Ontario, is ready for picking in the Don Valley about the first of July.  There are a few colonies of this bush fruit growing along the crests of the valley.  They do not bear profusely; each patch yields several quarts of good-tasting fruit. 

The gooseberry, a native plant, grows almost to the artic circle.  It is common and abundant in the Don Valley.

The blackberry or thimbleberry, as it is commonly called, is queen of the late bush fruits.  If you can brave its thorns, the blackberry is well worth the effort.  The fruit is large and juicy, somewhat seedy; excellent for jam.

September has its special fruit, the elderberry.  We are all familiar with its large clumps of fruit to which adhere hundreds of small, round, purple berries; good equally for wine, jelly or jam.  ... Flickers and robins delight in its fruit.

During the first week of October a late variety of wild red raspberries yields profusely in the valley and ends the harvest of the bush fruits for the year. 

The Don Valley

The Don Valley was virtually uninhabited when I first knew it.  There were a few old houses, some sheds, a few mills, mill dams and the tracings of onetime mill races, abandoned orchards and straggling lilac bushes.  These were the most visible signs of a vanished pioneer life. (Tales of the Don, p. 15)

The Forks of the Don in the '20s and '30s was sylvan, serene and naturally beautiful.  Huges graceful elms stood along the river banks and on the flood plain, over which cattle roamed. (Tales of the Don, p. 17)

The Don's Wide Valley

Tales of the Don

Excerpts from Tales of the Don by Charles Sauriol, Vivian Webb (1984)

"There were wild flowers in all growing seasons (I identified 125 species of them)." (p. 18)

"...slopes once white with trillium petals...." (p. 21)

Charles Sauriol, Mr. Conservation

Charles Sauriol Conservation Reserve Historical Plaque

Read about Charles Sauriol  (1904-1995) on Wikipedia

Charles Sauriol Environmental Dinner for the Living City

Member of the Order of Canada (1989)

Published works of Charles Sauriol at the Toronto Public Library

Publications:

Remembering the Don: A Rare Record of Earlier Times Within the Don River Valley. Consolidated Amethyst Communications. 1981

A Beeman's Journey, Toronto: Natural Heritage/Natural History Publishers. 1984.

Tales of the Don. Natural Heritage/Natural History. 1984.

Green Footsteps: Trail of a Conservationist-naturalist. 1985.

Green Footsteps: Recollections of a Grassroots Conservationist. Hemlock Press. 1991.

Trails of the Don. Hemlock Press. 1992.

Pioneers of the Don. Self-published. 1995

Cardinal. With Vivian Ching-Ako. 1996

Edible plants

"Edible Wild Plants" from Wildwood Survival

"Wild edible plants of Ontario" from Northern Bushcraft
List of 89 edible plants with links to pictures and descriptions.

"Trees and Shrubs--Edible Species" from Ontario Trees and Shrubs
Lists trees and shrubs with links to pictures and descriptions.

"Wild Edible Workshop--Southern Ontario" from Treks in the Wild

Wild Edibles pages from Tactical Intelligence

"42 flowers you can eat" from Mercola.com

"The Hidden Food in Your Yard - You May Walk by It Every Day..." from Mercola.com

Edible Wild Food

Northern Virginia Ecology

Northern Virginia Ecology

Canadian Wild Flowers, by Catharine Parr Traill and Agnes FitzGibbon

Canadian Wild Flowers, by Catharine Parr Traill and Agnes FitzGibbon

Garlic Mustard

Garlic Mustard from Wikipedia

Ontario Weeds

Control Methods for the Invasive Plant Garlic Mustard (Alliaria petiolata) within Ontario Natural Areas, Nature Conservancy Canada

Dog-strangling Vine

Although just the tip of the iceberg, this vine is very obvious and prevelant in the southern end of the Conservation Reserve.

Cynanchum louiseae from Wikipedia

Ontario Government, Weeds

Ontario Government, Agriculture

Tree Canada

CBC News, Health