Blackberry pick'n

                 Pick'n blackberries begins in early June.  Eat'n blackberry cobblers begins in the winter.


I pick the wild blackberries in the lower pastures where the horses are. The horses see me coming
with a bucket in hand and here they come a running, looking for grain. "No grain this time, I'm pick'n
blackberries, so leave me and get back", I tell them. Well, that doesn't work, they hang around with
their noses in the bucket.
Well, I thought, if grain is what they want, its what they'll get. I went back to the barn and got a bucket of ear corn and sure enough they spent the whole hour eating the corn while I picked the blackberries in peace.


I try to pick the berries just after a rain. I then spread them one layer thick on cookie sheets to freeze.
They turn into marbles and are then easily froze in quart freezer bags.

Another cold winter day, so on goes the oven for more heat and in goes the cobbler.

Add a cup of tea for an afternoon treat.

More Blackberry canes where planted near the deer pens last year. The deer will enjoy the canes as they grow through the pen wire and I'll be able to pick blackberries closer to the gardens. These blackberry canes are from a nursery and should yield more berries per cane and larger berries on an almost thornless cane compared to the wild  berries which grow in a thicket full of thorns and the berries are small and more seedy.  (Yes, the nursery berries are larger, but it turns out the berries have larger seeds)

More berries = cobblers + blackberry wine.