Bye-bye, beef bucket: Meet a woman who designed a better berry-picking container

Elona Severs uses the Crackerberry Bag, a berry-picking container she and her husband created for picking and foraging. The container can attach to the waist, allowing for two-handed picking. (Heather Barrett/CBC)

Beef buckets, food containers, butter tins: everyone has their berry-picking container of choice.

But Elona Severs believes she's come up with the best berry-carrying method.

Severs and her husband Allan are the two-person team behind the Crackerberry bag, a container system for berry-picking or foraging that can attach to your waist or be worn over the shoulder.

She had always used yogurt containers, but wanted to find a better solution after feeling like carrying them became a hassle during her picks.

"I live in Deer Park, and there are so many wildberries in walking distance from our house. So we just started picking, we became berry picking addicts," Severs said.

"We were just talking saying 'Wouldn't it be good to have something like the apple orchard bags, that attach to to your body, but on a smaller scale?"

The Severs built an initial prototype use PVC materials for their own use but decided to sell them after encouragement from friends. They've since been selling them for around two years, including at the St. John's Farmer's Market.

She said they've been popular, allowing people to not have to carry their containers and use two hands for picking. It comes in two sizes, able to carry two litres and one gallon of berries respectively.

The concept has become so popular that the Severs have since designed other products to grant similar carrying to other things like mushrooms and trout.

"I never thought that Newfoundlanders would give up their beef bucket for a bag, but I think I've converted a lot of people."

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