My daughter and I (OK mostly me!) spent the morning picking luscious "black berries" this morning - Two buckets worth of the gems! Actually my benefactor Steve (who is allowing me to forage on his property) says they are blackberries. The berries I harvested a few weeks back were apparently black raspberries...
The trouble is, one of the local Ann Arbor foragers in the area mentioned the end of last week that blackberry season is over. The berries I harvested today seem to just be beginning to ripen and will likely produce the majority of their load within the next two weeks - Provided they don't dry up!These berries are a luscious deep black color that shine in the sun like the prettiest black pearls plucked from the sea. They are about the size of my thumb nail, although not every one of them gets that large. They have the
typical thorns on the plants and the leaves look much like other types of raspberries - the berries themselves are plucked WITH their stems attached (unlike when a raspberry slides off of the plant leaving a small hole in the berry.). Generally they are clustered on stalks in large bunches, that often cause the laden heavy plant to droop to the ground...
So what are they exactly? Anyone want to chime in??? Gabriella sure has been enjoying them regardless...
Photos: by Tammy Mayrend. Photo 1 taken early July.
I heard from an expert that YES these ARE blackberries! So far we've made blackberry jam, eaten fresh berries with milk/sugar, and made pies, chocolate blackberry muffins, cakes and MUCH more... So far we've filled a three gallon bucket twice, and I'm sure the field will yield at least one more three gallon bucket.
ReplyDeleteI'll likely make MORE jam for holiday gifts or I saw an awesome non-alcoholic blackberry Cordial recipe I may try!