Wild blackberries

[Mary Catherine Williamson]

Does anyone have them and do you eat them? I have four flowering bushes and five young ones growing all around my chicken pen (not to mention the dozens all over my ten acres of woods

MC

 

[baymule]

Absolutely pick and eat them!! Pick all you can!! Wash them by rinsing in a sink of water, scoop them gently into another sink of water. Drain first sink, fill and transfer berries to it. It usually takes 3-4 sinks of water to get them clean. I use a dark colored old towel, spread on the counter. Scoop berries, let them drain and pour them on the towel. The towel will absorb water. When fairly dry, spread on cookie sheets and freeze overnight. Next day bag them up. This keeps them from freezing in a big clump. Then you can take out what you want. Put some on cereal, oatmeal, make cobbler, or pour cream and sugar over them.

 

[Wishin']

PICK AND EAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! DO NOT RIP THEM OUT!!!!!!!!! With as many as you say, you could even make jellies, jams, smoothies, pies, tarts, OR DANISH

Some of the best memories I have are from when I was 8 and younger, living on a property that had wild blackberries growing all over the far fence. Me and my sibling eagerly awaiting, watching as they flower and ripen. Checking every day in anticipation till one day. Some one would sneak over and report back that they were RIPE! Then going and finding "mommy" and dragging her out there so we can stuff as many as we could in our bowls so that we could quickly go wash them. Of course many of them ended up in our little mouths before they got to the washing stage. No matter where I have been since, I always sigh when I find the next, or new place doesn't have wild blackberries somewhere.
You are so lucky! They taste WAY better than store bought. I am so jealous!

Edited because apperantly I can't spell "smoothies"

 

[Nyboy]

Wishin I have the exact same memories, but of mulberries.

 

[Mary Catherine Williamson]

Thank you everyone! I hope I get to them before the chickens
MC

 

[journey11]

I've about given up on growing the tame, thornless blackberries. They just haven't produced well for me. I hear they are more prone to disease when wild blackberries are nearby, which is the case here. Now the wild blackberries, they are EVERYWHERE and produce like crazy, gallons and gallons of free berries for the taking, if one is willing to put up with a few scratches and picking them on a hot, sweaty summer day. I think they have a deeper flavor too. So wild blackberries it is.

 

[teamneu]

I haven't found that they produce much fruit around here - may-be it is too dry in most years. This year, I dug and potted some and intend to plant them (after they get a bit bigger) in the yard where they will get more regular water. I hope this does the trick!

 

[MoonShadows]

Yum...yum...yum. We love our wild blackberries and raspberries. We have to get them before the birds do, though. This year we are going to terrace the hill between the backyard and the field and transplant a bunch there so we can start netting them and stop sharing so many with the birds.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Growing up on the farm we'd pick gallons of wild blackberries every year out of our pasture. There were five of us kids. We'd all go out in the morning and come back with six to eight gallons of berries and covered in chiggers. We'd each probably have 4 to 5 dozen chigger bites, mostly in private regions but spread all over. We tried tying rags soaked in kerosene around our ankles and waste and put rags soaked in kerosene in out pockets to keep them away but I don't recall that helping much. We did not have Off or anything like that. As soon as we got back we'd rub ourselves down with rubbing alcohol to try to kill any that had not already dug in and we'd treat the bites by putting petroleum jelly over them to try to smother the chigger. We suffered. For some reason ticks were not that much of a problem though we'd occasionally get one. Tick spread disease just wasn't much of a problem back then anyway, not like now.

We'd normally do that two or three times a year. Mom would make all those blackberries into jelly. We ate a lot of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Of course we picked a lot just to eat fresh and Mom made a really good blackberry cobbler.

One summer one of the canning companies ran a truck on the back roads once a week during the season buying blackberries. We picked about 170 gallons out of our pasture which made enough for Dad to pay for health insurance that year. Due to things going on with Mom and my baby brother we needed health insurance then.

I don't know much of anything that tastes better than a really ripe wild blackberry but if you get one that is not fully ripe they can be pretty sour.

Good luck on getting them before the chickens though you might have a chance to get on America's Funniest Videos. After they strip the ones they can reach you might catch one jumping up to grab a blackberry at the top of its jump. I've seen them do that with grapes too. I don't know of anything on cable or satellite TV that is better than Chick TV.

 

[canesisters]

... I have TONS of blackberries. I've tried picking them several times. They are always so bitter that there is not enough sugar to make them edible.