Zone1 Picking Blackberries

[EvilCat Breath]

Once the state of New York brought the hammer down on my parents we actually rented a tiny house in New Jersey that had blackberry bushes. We picked them all the time. They had tiny white worms. So what. My mom made blackberry pie anyway.

 

[occupied]

Blackberries grow on trees, and there were a few trees in the alleys of the urban prairie I used to live in.

It was nice having them around.

Blackberries grow in clumps of vine like woody stalks covered with terrible hostile thorns. It's living barbed wire.

 

[candycorn]

Silly question maybe but let me ask...are all berries fruits?

With most of the berry family, for me the berry has to taste good on it's own before I can have a berry in a cobbler or salad. Blackberries are the outlier in that dictum. On their own, I find their taste to be acidic and in some cases downright yucky. However I have yet to have a blackberry cobbler I have not absolutely loved. And this isn't true of all cobblers...peach cobbler...usually pass; apple cobbler...hard pass.

Blackberries are a conundrum in that regard.

Broken field running time....

Lots of foods are like that. Pecan pie is a frigging blessing. From Goode Company BBQ...it's a gift from God.

Brazos Bottom Pecan Pie in a Wooden Box

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Peanut pie? Rare--probably for a good reason. Almond pie? Hard pass. Cashew pie. Harder Pass.

Now...Peanut butter. I'm in. Almond butter...I'm looking for the exit. Cashew butter; I'm running.

I get the same feeling about eggs. Remember a few months ago during flu season, we had that egg shortage. It always seemed to me like we could have started in with the turkey eggs; essentially they are close to hen eggs. But for some reason, we have these invisible guardrails.

 

[Flash]

Blackberries grow on trees,

WTF?

 

[evenflow1969]

This thread really is about picking blackberries, provided anyone is interested. I've been picking blackberries in summers for over 70 years, first when I was kid with my buds, then my wife, my kids, and now hopefully my grandkids.

Have you noticed in the produce sections of grocery stores, blackberries in little plastic containers. They look beautifully, perfectly shaped, and they look so delicious. However, when you bite into one of these beautiful berries, you'll find they have almost no taste, maybe a bit tart and only a bit juicy. They taste nothing like fresh picked ripe blackberries. Their lack of taste is due to the fact they are picked weeks before they are ripe which allows them to be stored, shipped, and displayed in stores for weeks with no spoilage. They remain firm and eye appealing. This is exactly what grocery stores want, beautiful fruit that will not spoil on the shelf. However, the downside for the customer is these berries will never properly ripen off the vine and develop the wonderful taste they are known for.

Unless you live in or near a farming community or you pick the berries yourself, you'll probably never experience the wonderful taste of fresh ripe blackberries. Like many berries, once ripe they are only good for a few days or maybe a week in the frig.

So if you're interested, let's talk about picking blackberries. They grow almost everywhere, in very cold places and very hot places. As long they have descent soil, enough rain and sun they will grow. In fact, they grow so well, and so fast, they are often considered nuisances. Chances are there are some close to you. However to get good blackberries, you have know what to pick, when to pick, and how to pick.

Ya , not real familiar with store bought berries. But yes I am familiar with store bought oranges. They are nothing like those picked from the tree. Black berries, black raspberries, and straw berries are some of my favorite things in life. Fortunately there are many places to pick them in my area. Black raspberries are nit easy to find off the bush these days but I have my secret spots. Started picking berries with my grandmother. She grew blackberries and strawberries on her farm. Picked Black raspberries along the railroad tracks when I was a kid. They are harder to find these days. I

 

[OhPleaseJustQuit]

.

I miss blackberries something awful! I decided that they needed to be off my diet a few years ago, but we had a thicket right over our fence, and my late hubby liked little more than a scoop of vanilla ice cream with a handful of really ripe berries.

They're ripe when they fall off the bush into your hand when you touch them.

.

 

[yidnar]

This thread really is about picking blackberries, provided anyone is interested. I've been picking blackberries in summers for over 70 years, first when I was kid with my buds, then my wife, my kids, and now hopefully my grandkids.

Have you noticed in the produce sections of grocery stores, blackberries in little plastic containers. They look beautifully, perfectly shaped, and they look so delicious. However, when you bite into one of these beautiful berries, you'll find they have almost no taste, maybe a bit tart and only a bit juicy. They taste nothing like fresh picked ripe blackberries. Their lack of taste is due to the fact they are picked weeks before they are ripe which allows them to be stored, shipped, and displayed in stores for weeks with no spoilage. They remain firm and eye appealing. This is exactly what grocery stores want, beautiful fruit that will not spoil on the shelf. However, the downside for the customer is these berries will never properly ripen off the vine and develop the wonderful taste they are known for.

Unless you live in or near a farming community or you pick the berries yourself, you'll probably never experience the wonderful taste of fresh ripe blackberries. Like many berries, once ripe they are only good for a few days or maybe a week in the frig.

So if you're interested, let's talk about picking blackberries. They grow almost everywhere, in very cold places and very hot places. As long they have descent soil, enough rain and sun they will grow. In fact, they grow so well, and so fast, they are often considered nuisances. Chances are there are some close to you. However to get good blackberries, you have know what to pick, when to pick, and how to pick.

got stuck by many a thorn picking black berries in my youth .

 

[Polishprince]

Blackberries grow in clumps of vine like woody stalks covered with terrible hostile thorns. It's living barbed wire.

I'll take your word for this, but there are other berries that look like blackberries and grow on trees.

 

[occupied]

WTF?

Mulberries maybe?

 

[Polishprince]

Mulberries maybe?

I looked it up, mulberries were the ones in my old alley. They certainly look similar enough to blackberries

 

[Flopper]

You have to get them at the right time.

The best time is right after a cold spell the morning they are picked and available at one of the several roadside stands. Coolness enhances the sugar content.

Mid season strawberries are better than the early or late season ones. By the time of the Strawberry Festival it is mostly late season berries.

Some fields produce better berries than others.

However, I think you are right about the varieties. Growers want berries that will stand up to packing and shipment, not necessarily the best tasting ones. It happens with all fruit.

There is street market near me that is open only on Saturday that sells only local produce. Most of the produce was on the tree or vine last week. In fact, the berries were usually picked only a few days before the market. For me, this a highlight of my summer.

In order to get fruit to grocery store shelves undamaged that will not spoil, most fruit is picked well before it is ripe. Some fruits will ripen well with a good taste but others such as blackberries do not.

When I was kid, many, many years ago, I would go with my grandmother shopping. When it came to buying fresh fruit, we only bought fruit we sampled. I was in a large Safeway store some months ago and ask the guy in the produce department for a sample of the peaches since I planned on buying 5 pounds. He looked at me funny and said, "I don't think we can do that sir but you can buy one peach and check it out." I have never been back to that produce dept. If I could count of the stores selling good quality fruit, there would be no need for samples but today about half the fruit they sell is not very good.

 

[Flopper]

I looked it up, mulberries were the ones in my old alley. They certainly look similar enough to blackberries

When I was kid we had a large mulberry tree. Only birds ate them. I found out why one day when I tried one.

 

[Foxfyre]

This thread really is about picking blackberries, provided anyone is interested. I've been picking blackberries in summers for over 70 years, first when I was kid with my buds, then my wife, my kids, and now hopefully my grandkids.

Have you noticed in the produce sections of grocery stores, blackberries in little plastic containers. They look beautifully, perfectly shaped, and they look so delicious. However, when you bite into one of these beautiful berries, you'll find they have almost no taste, maybe a bit tart and only a bit juicy. They taste nothing like fresh picked ripe blackberries. Their lack of taste is due to the fact they are picked weeks before they are ripe which allows them to be stored, shipped, and displayed in stores for weeks with no spoilage. They remain firm and eye appealing. This is exactly what grocery stores want, beautiful fruit that will not spoil on the shelf. However, the downside for the customer is these berries will never properly ripen off the vine and develop the wonderful taste they are known for.

Unless you live in or near a farming community or you pick the berries yourself, you'll probably never experience the wonderful taste of fresh ripe blackberries. Like many berries, once ripe they are only good for a few days or maybe a week in the frig.

So if you're interested, let's talk about picking blackberries. They grow almost everywhere, in very cold places and very hot places. As long they have descent soil, enough rain and sun they will grow. In fact, they grow so well, and so fast, they are often considered nuisances. Chances are there are some close to you. However to get good blackberries, you have know what to pick, when to pick, and how to pick.

We lived a number of years in the southeast corner of Kansas. The land around there is not really suitable for farming or ranching much which is why it was great when the coal companies strip mined huge deep football field or larger sized trenches that immediately filled up with ground water. The state went in there and stocked about 1000 of those strip pits with game fish, declared it a state park, and it became a wonderful fishing center as well as a wildlife sanctuary of sorts. And if you got tired of fishing there were gazillions of wild blackberry bushes. The wild ones are smaller and maybe not quite as sweet as commercial but they're packed with flavor.

Hombre's (my hubby) mom didn't want to fish one time when they came to visit so she went blackberry picking while the rest of us fished. She filled up an empty ice cooler with them--probably at least a couple of gallons. She unfortunately also got into the poison oak or sumac and acquired a number of chigger bites so was pretty miserable for a couple of days. But she made the world's best blackberry cobbler, pie, turnovers.

My mouth still waters just thinking about it.

In case you wonder what those strip pits look like these days. (And a lot of the brush around the strip pits are wild blackberry bushes.)

 

[Rambunctious]

I never realized it but there are many differ kinds of blackberries, some without thorns although I have never seen them.

Oh these have thorns and they do damage... no thorns on my razzberries though....

 

[Flopper]

If am picking blackberries for pies or cobbler, I pick everything that is black on the bush. However, if I am picking berries to eat I'm more carefully. I want berries that are really ripe. Just being black does not mean all blackberries on the bush are ripe. Ripe berries should come off the bush easily. It you have to pull hard, then it's probably not ripe and you're probably causing ripe berries to fall off. I always taste berries as I am picking them. If I find sour or very tart berries that are ripe, I move on.

 

[Flopper]

I looked it up, mulberries were the ones in my old alley. They certainly look similar enough to blackberries

The mulberries I am familiar with grown on trees that can become quite large. Blackberries are found on bushes that are 1 to 10 feet high.

 

[NewsVine_Mariyam]

This thread really is about picking blackberries, provided anyone is interested. I've been picking blackberries in summers for over 70 years, first when I was kid with my buds, then my wife, my kids, and now hopefully my grandkids.

Have you noticed in the produce sections of grocery stores, blackberries in little plastic containers. They look beautifully, perfectly shaped, and they look so delicious. However, when you bite into one of these beautiful berries, you'll find they have almost no taste, maybe a bit tart and only a bit juicy. They taste nothing like fresh picked ripe blackberries. Their lack of taste is due to the fact they are picked weeks before they are ripe which allows them to be stored, shipped, and displayed in stores for weeks with no spoilage. They remain firm and eye appealing. This is exactly what grocery stores want, beautiful fruit that will not spoil on the shelf. However, the downside for the customer is these berries will never properly ripen off the vine and develop the wonderful taste they are known for.

Unless you live in or near a farming community or you pick the berries yourself, you'll probably never experience the wonderful taste of fresh ripe blackberries. Like many berries, once ripe they are only good for a few days or maybe a week in the frig.

So if you're interested, let's talk about picking blackberries. They grow almost everywhere, in very cold places and very hot places. As long they have descent soil, enough rain and sun they will grow. In fact, they grow so well, and so fast, they are often considered nuisances. Chances are there are some close to you. However to get good blackberries, you have know what to pick, when to pick, and how to pick.

One of the things that my brother loves about the Puget Sound area of Washington is all the blackberries that grow almost everywhere in the summertime.

I'll admit there is nothing that compares to freshly picked fruit still warm from the sun. I agree, freshly picked blackberries are a real treat of nature.

 

[JoeB131]

I've picked blackberries and raspberries but never blueberries. Do the blueberry plants have thrones?

No, they don't.

The other thing about blueberries is that they are great to cook into pancakes.

 

[Flopper]

One of the things that my brother loves about the Puget Sound area of Washington is all the blackberries that grow almost everywhere in the summertime.

I'll admit there is nothing that compares to freshly picked fruit still warm from the sun. I agree, freshly picked blackberries are a real treat of nature.

I love picking Blackberries or any other berries, in the Puget Sound area for two reason. We don't have poisonous snakes like most of the country plus summer days are generally mild. Most summer days have highs in the 70's or low 80's. very few 90's or above so we can pick as long as we want. We often pick blueberries in the U pick'em fields on Whidbey Island. The strawberries are small but delicious, however the season is short.

When I lived in the Southeast, I could only pick in the early morning as I can't take the high temps. Although I was never bitten by a snake, I saw them fairly often.

When I was little kid, in Louisiana we use to get Mayhaw berries from the swamp and my mother would make great jelly out of them. I haven't tasted that in over 50 years.

 

[Flopper]

No, they don't.

The other thing about blueberries is that they are great to cook into pancakes.

I love blueberry pancakes. I also like to put them on waffles.