Wild Blackberries

[I_UndergroundPanther]

I wrote here before about the abundant blackberry bushes around my apartment complex.

This is my first haul.
There were still a lot of unripe ones. I just went to the berries that I could access without stepping off the lawn and getting in the weeds.

I was safe had feet spray my knee high doc martens,a pair of leather gauntlets that go up to my elbows.

I think there will be berries for maybe 3 weeks to pick.
They are all washed and clean and chilled in ice water in the salad spinner. Now I'm gonna eat some,yummmm..

[kentuck]

1. We used to pick those by the gallons...

...down in Tennessee on the Clinch River bank.

[I_UndergroundPanther]

2. As they ripen

I'll probably get like 2 or 3 gallons over time.

What amazes me is my apartment complex is sandwiched between busy roads and the grounds are landscaped these grow around the periphery of my complex don't even have to step into the brambles to get alot of berries.

[TheBlackAdder]

30. Soak them in a bowl for a couple of hours and you'll get rid of a lot of very tiny insects in them.

.

My kids do that with blackberries and raspberries. Super tiny bugs that you can barely see will float to the top.

Regular sink washing doesn't remove them.

.

[I_UndergroundPanther]

34. Welp didn't soak them for a couple of

Hours before I ate some. Didn't know to do that.

I guess I got a little extra protein with my berries.

I will go soak the rest of them now. 😸

Thanks for the tip.

[TheBlackAdder]

35. I joked at my kids after rinsing them off, then they did it and there were small white bugs floating

.

This happens with blackberries, raspberries and even strawberries.

.

[MineralMan]

3. Yum!

I love them on good vanilla ice cream!

[TreasonousBastard]

4. Yum, indeed.

[EYESORE 9001]

5. They taste so much better than the commercial varieties

Lucky you!

[Nevilledog]

6. Want!

[I_UndergroundPanther]

7. Of you were here I'd get you a big bowl of

Vanilla and strawberry ice cream like 3 scoops and dump two big handfuls of berries on top,then pop in a spoon and I bet both of us will be done in half a minute😸

[Nevilledog]

9. Want more now

[I_UndergroundPanther]

8. Of you were here I'd get you a big bowl of

Vanilla and strawberry ice cream like 3 scoops and dump two big handfuls of berries on top, for both of us then pop in a spoons and I bet both of us will be done in half a minute😸

[abqtommy]

10. I was introduced to berries that size as a youngster. My Gramma called them Himalyan

Blackberries and she made the yummiest pies with them. Of course she made the yummiest pies
using any kind of fruit.

[KS Toronado]

12. Never in the course of human history

has anyone's Grandma ever made a bad pie.

[I_UndergroundPanther]

13. Never heard of himalayan

Blackberries. Are they different from the standard wild blackberry?

[abqtommy]

16. I think the name "Himalyan" refers to larger size. To me that meant I had to pick fewer berries

for Gramma to make a pie since she always sent me back for more if I didn't deliver the amount she
wanted.

[SeattleVet]

23. The Himalayan blackberries are an introduced invasive species.

Introduced by Luther Burbank. They will completely take over an ecosystem if allowed to propagate. We've been fighting these in our yard for a while.

Fairly easy to identify in comparison to other, native species. If it has a lobed rather than a round cane, and the mature leaves are in sets of 5 rather than 3, it's almost certainly this species.

https://kingcountyweeds.com/2018/06/18/himalayan-blackberry-june-2018-weed-of-the-month/

Classified as a noxious weed in this area.

https://kingcounty.gov/services/environment/animals-and-plants/noxious-weeds/weed-identification/blackberry.aspx

[lillypaddle]

11. Yum! Fresh whipped cream? Oh my.

But those little seeds play hell with my teeth. There's always something, right?

[I_UndergroundPanther]

14. Oh yes!

[Warpy]

15. Worst case of chiggers I ever had was from picking wild blackberries

That being said, they're my favorite of all the berries

New England was too far north for chiggers. I did get poison ivy on my ankles when I picked wild blueberries. That was a lot easier to cope with than those damned chigger bites.

[Ilsa]

18. I hate hate hate red bugs. The itch

drives me bonkers, and cortisone cream helps, but not enough. And I don't like taking Benadryl.

[H2O Man]

17. Recommended.

Very nice! I've loved them since I was a little kid, and we moved out of a town to a rural area that provided us with all types of berries. I have quite a few on my property now, though not the supply we got as kids.

[Pepsidog]

19. My grandma's old blackberry dumpling were to die for.

[Grasswire2]

36. I make blackberry dumplings

And I just found a new loaded patch near the post office a few blocks away.

Developers "developed" my closer patch out of existence.

[MLAA]

20. When I was a kid visiting grandparents we picked wild blackberries and made a cobbler! Yum.

[mbusby]

21. We would pick dew berries (blackberries)....

...down in Texas back in the day. Always move them around with a stick before picking as copperhead snakes like to sit waiting to strike.

[BumRushDaShow]

22. Those actually survived a salad spinner?????

Blackberries seem so fragile. All I can imagine is pulp once the spinner stops.

I may have to try that one of these days.

[I_UndergroundPanther]

27. I have an oxo

Salad spinner that you pump, instead of crank so you can gradually ramp up the speed. Than stop it fast..
You fill the bowl with water and gently swirl around the berries in a deep bowl of water, with your hand. You don't have faucet water running into the spinner pounding into the salad spinner like most salad spinners out there.

You have to empty the outer bowl of water out to spin the berries dry . So it's less hard on the berries.

Even mulberries survive an oxo salad spinner that's why I bought it. It does bruise anything you wash with it.

Here's what it looks like

https://www.amazon.com/OXO-1155901-Grips-Green-Spinner/dp/B001QTVT4A/ref=asc_df_B001QTVT4A/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=167123558869&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=12637101563454563128&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=m&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9007816&hvtargid=pla-79148786486&psc=1

[BumRushDaShow]

37. Late responding

but I actually have what I would call a "pump" type. It's old one and hasn't been used that much, but looks similar to this -



Not a turn crank or a big push button. But the lever thing effectively acts like a push button and will let you get the inner basket spinning - fast or slow (depending on how fast you pump the lever). IIRC, pulling the lever up as far as it can go, stops the spin (has a little "brake" in there).

[Wounded Bear]

24. The berries are tasty, the plants are invasive weeds...

and will take over an area if not controlled.

[calimary]

25. Lots of those vines where we are. NASTY thorns, though!

If you’re ever gonna pick any berries, armor up! Seriously!

[marble falls]

26. Thankyou for reminding me of picking blackberries in Kentucky on my great-grandmother's ...

... tobacco farm in the early fifties. She put muslin around my arms. It was in the woods and I remember the cows were very interested in what we were doing.

Thank-you!

[twodogsbarking]

28. They seem to like the worst soil.

Enjoy.

[we can do it]

29. I've been grabbing a few along one of my nearby hiking paths, yum!

[Mr.Bill]

31. They grow wild all over the place here.

Many years ago, orchard growers planted them as nature's barbed wire fence. We usually pick them around late August. They won't be very big this year because of the low rainfall.

[lark]

32. We had a blackberry bush that marked the back boundry of our yard when I was a kid.

Oh my the blackberry cobblers that mom made with a dollop of home made vanilla ice cream - finest kind!

[AllaN01Bear]

33. time for pies .:) by them selves too also.