Collecting roots

"The bulbs of wild-growing lilies (sarana, kimchiga) were once an important source of food for us. Back then, potatoes were not yet cultivated on Kamchatka, and there was no grain porridge. Kimchiga and sarana were added to fish, or baked together with it. Kimchiga was also used in the traditional dish tolkusha. During the summer, mice would collect the bulbs in their caches as winter stores. Finding such a cache wasn't difficult – one only had to pierce the top layer of tundra soil with a special pointed stick. If the stick hit empty space, it meant you'd found a burrow. People in those days wouldn’t take the mice’s entire supply of kimchiga. The mice, too, shouldn’t go hungry in winter. And after taking what one needed, it was customary to ask the mice for forgiveness. When digging up a bulb, some seeds would always be left behind – so that sarana could grow again. At that time, people lived in harmony with nature. Today, perhaps only my aunt Marina, the mother of Boris Zhirkov, still knows the entire process – from gathering to preparation. This figure I carved represents a young girl. Searching for kimchiga was considered light work – more suitable for girls –while the adult women took on more demanding tasks."