NCPaul Picks Wild Blackberries

[NCPaul]

I went to visit my sister and niece and pick some wild blackberries.



It's hard to see just how many thorns these have. A quick movement will draw blood and the best ones are just out of reach.



Blackberry picking hand. This patch also had kudzu growing so there were stinkbugs. We didn't find any snakes and will find out tomorrow if there were chiggers. Sunny and mid 80s of course.



I did find some fire ants which are very aggressive and biting. Some would panic, some would curse like a sailor, I went with "scream like a girl".



The blackberries are sweet and have a much more concentrated flavor than the large waterlogged ones in the store. I'll put some of these up in heavy syrup with framboise and make sorbet with the rest. When I eat these, I'll remember that I earned it. Thanks to my helpers.

[yotmon]

Hi Paul, they look good enough to eat ! Nothing better than picking 'wild' food and coming up with ideas on how to use them. Yours are well in front of ours, they are only just flowering over here, probably be ready at the end of August/early September. I like to mix a few with apples and make a pie.
About 30 years ago, we had a hot summer (yes they do exist) and I picked a bumper crop of large berries from a field where horses were kept. I decided to make a wine from them so used approx 5lb to the gallon, plus some grape juice and sugar. Well, everyone who drank that wine just fell asleep - weird. It was the only wine I ever got to flambe. Don't know what the alcohol content was but must have been getting towards 'Port' levels.

By the way, there are masses of Elder flower this year so looks like there will be a good harvest in the Autumn if anyone fancies their hand at Elderberry wine, or even try the flowers to make a 'Champagne' style fizzy wine.

Ste.

[saucisson]

I noticed elder flowers all over the place, might try some champers

[TJ Buffalo]

Wow, this brought up memories, I haven't picked wild blackberries in years. Of course, looking at the thorn-inflicted marks, I also remember why.

[Dogfish]

Around here they grow on all the wasteland margins. We get tons -- almost enough it should be celebrated in some sort of festival. There get to be sorts of tunnels in the patches where people push in to pick. Eventually everyone tires and the remainders rot. Did five gallons of full-bodied wine, still maturing, and about two dozen pints of jam and jelly, all gone. This year it'll be light-bodied quaffing wine I'll likely dilute with apple. Only second to the grape in sheer glory, right above the apple. Pretty neat stuff for such a malignant pest of a plant.

[BriCan]

Around here they grow on all the wasteland margins. We get tons -- almost enough it should be celebrated in some sort of festival.

And their in lays a taught ............. Blackberry Sausage .......

[ComradeQ]

I get so many blackberries in my garden I never know what to do with them. Jams, crumbles, sorbets, fruit blender drinks, I use so many and yet there is still a dozen large freezer bags full from previous years. I need to find something new for this years beauties!

[Dogfish]

Booze.

[NCPaul]

They should make a nice lambic beer. I know of a patch that is closer to me so I might have to give that some thought myself.

[Dogfish]

One thing the u-brew guy warned me about (he's got awards everywhere) was to not let the berries sit on their skins for anything more than absolutely necessary or a lot of acid leaches out and the batch requires long aging -- hence my stuff sitting since last November.