July is blackberry time in the Ozarks. The plants are widespread at Roundrock, getting started just about anywhere enuf sunlight reaches the ground. Long-time readers will recall that the area where we are now growing a stand of pines we once called Blackberry Corner because, well, it was full of blackberries. (It was also the northwest corner of our property -- and still is.)
I don't normally eat the blackberries we have in our woods. I'm not sure why. I think I'm afraid of picking up some intestinal pestilence or such. Yet as a boy, in those idyllic summers spent in rural Kentucky, we used to wade into the tall grass and thorny canes and pick buckets of them at high season. My sainted grandmother would then make cobblers out of our loot. I seemed to have survived those days more or less intact.
And it happens that on our last trip to Roundrock, Libby and I
did sample the blackberries. You can see that they are not the robust, finely shaped variety you find in the store. But they looked ripe enuf to try, so we did.
Sadly, they were mostly disappointing. They weren't very flavorful, and they had large seeds within (larger than normal it seemed), which is Libby's big objection to this fruit.
So I don't think the deer and raccoons and quail and bears (?) have anything to fear about those two humans eating up their blackberry stores.
Missouri calendar:
Bird song has subsided; birds are busy raising young.
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July 9th, 2007 at 5:09 am
Let’s hear a cheer for seedy blackberries picked on the trail and enjoyed. One could do worse. Like buying perfect looking berries from the store that were raised in some far off poison controlled land and shipped at great carbon expense across the country in a truck.
July 9th, 2007 at 5:38 am
I’ve never been a big blackberry lover either, store bought or wild. Regarding the wild blackberries I’ve tried, I agree with libby, it’s the big seeds that I don’t care for.
July 9th, 2007 at 8:44 am
maybe they’re not quite ripe yet.
July 9th, 2007 at 9:01 am
Maybe all that rain diluted their essence.
July 9th, 2007 at 9:55 am
The blackberries around here are pitiful this year. The plants look like midwinter and the poor, stunted berries are mostly reddish bb’s. We did find some tiny ripe berries and, surprisingly, they were quite good. But we left all but the two we ate for the wildlife.
July 10th, 2007 at 1:49 pm
Blackberry cobbler or pie or jam or other cooked delicacies would be sterilized from any random germs. You’re lucky to have a nice stand of blackberries, but the wildlife will enjoy them if you don’t pick them.. Blackberry cobbler and ice cream sounds heavenly, though.
July 11th, 2007 at 4:51 pm
The blackberries are so waterlogged around here that they’re much less flavorful than usual. As for the seeds…well, there’s a trick to rolling the berry across the tongue and gently squeezing the juice out. Savor the flavor a moment before swallowing, and keep those seeds sequestered on the tongue until the juice is gone. The seeds make interesting ammo for distance spitting tournaments. (says the mother of 3)