Follow along with the video below to see how to install our site as a web app on your home screen.
Note: This feature currently requires accessing the site using the built-in Safari browser.
Walking up the dirt road to school past the blackberry bushes and having our fill on the way. Sweet and juicy and true; the plastic wrapped ones taste like eating candle wax...imo.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.
Not at all; they grow on thorny shrubbery like lantana. I admit that they taste fab...or used to!! NOT a fan of the store bought ones.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.
And those stains are almost impossible to remove once they dryWalking up the dirt road to school past the blackberry bushes and having our fill on the way. Sweet and juicy and true; the plastic wrapped ones taste like eating candle wax...imo.
Moved to sub-tropical zone when I was SIX yo so it is now a far distant memory....as is the stains in our school shirts.
Greg
True, but most wild blackberries have thrones.Not at all; they grow on thorny shrubbery like lantana. I admit that they taste fab...or used to!! NOT a fan of the store bought ones.
Evidently you can now get thornless ones....for cowards!!!Greg
Your youthful summers in Wisconsin sound like paradise, and your mother must've been a fantastic homemaker.When my family used to spend the summers in Northern Wisconsin, my Mom would have us out picking berries to make homemade jelly.
Blueberries in June
Raspberries in July
Blackberries in August
When we lived in Oregon, we had a place with 11 acres, 10 were wild, and the Willamette blackberries in North Albany had this little zing that made them the best blackberries I ever had. They were so sweet, you didn't need to put any sugar on them at all. Raw, they were better than pie, but not jelly. The jelly was the food of heaven, so I had to make two dozen jars of them to last a year. No other blackberries I've ever had were as good as those ones. My two children and our nephew we kept while my brother was in the US Navy did most of the picking. They loved it, and oh, what happy days we had back and I don't have to even try to remember when when life was slow, and oh, so mellow, because it will be forever in my heart.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.
They have no thrones.I've picked blackberries and raspberries but never blueberries. Do the blueberry plants have thrones?
When we lived in Oregon, we had a place with 11 acres, 10 were wild, and the Willamette blackberries in North Albany had this little zing that made them the best blackberries I ever had. They were so sweet, you didn't need to put any sugar on them at all. Raw, they were better than pie, but not jelly. The jelly was the food of heaven, so I had to make two dozen jars of them to last a year. No other blackberries I've ever had were as good as those ones. My two children and our nephew we kept while my brother was in the US Navy did most of the picking. They loved it, and oh, what happy days we had back and I don't have to even try to remember when when life was slow, and oh, so mellow, because it will be forever in my heart.
same hereI love going blackberry picking.
