Childhood Memories: Wild Berries and Mushrooms of Sergoit

By William Kiptoo

First shared in The Wonders of Sergoit Hills Facebook group on 19 October 2023.

When we were growing up, there were so many kinds of wild berries in our neighbourhood: Tamuriakinik, Momonik, Siryek and Chepkaram. They were everywhere. Sometimes we did not even need to go home from school for lunch, because we could eat berries instead.

Some of the berries grew wild in swampy places or among thorns, so we had to compete with worms and birds for them. Sometimes we ended up with rotten ones, or ones full of worms.

There was also a delicious tuber that looked like a carrot and grew in rough, overgrown places. It was called chopchop, and it was my favourite.

Then there were gooseberries that grew wild at a place we called Kap Mboni, on Kruger's Kaprison farm. They grew in abundance, and we would gather sacks full of them. But if Kruger found us there, it was "mguu niponye."

Even as we enjoyed the wild berries, we had to be careful, because some plants were dangerous. Rerendet had a sticky sap that irritated the skin and made wounds swell as if they had been burned. If it got into your eyes, it could even blind you. We always stayed away from it.

One time we went looking for mushrooms in a large swamp near our home. The swamp had small mounds, and somehow mushrooms grew on them. To reach the mounds we had to wade through stagnant water, always afraid of snakes hiding in the grass and holes. But we were brave and went anyway, because we really wanted those mushrooms. Sometimes, just as we were about to pick one, we would find a toad or a chameleon hiding underneath it. Still, we gathered enough mushrooms for our families to eat for a whole week.