OH YES Blackberries !!

Subject: OH YES Blackberries !!
From: olddude
Date: 22 Jul 10 - 11:28 AM

LOVE EM
   I got a pile of blackberries at the back of my property. They are referred to here as Oregon blackberries about the size of your thumb ..

blackberry pie
blackberry jelly
blackberry preserves ...

even made some blackberry wine .. (well just cause I could and some friends like it ... no me in particular)

Subject: RE: OH YES Blackberries !!
From: ClaireBear
Date: 22 Jul 10 - 12:51 PM

One of my great joys is picking a cupful or so every few days in the summer and throwing them in a bag in the freezer. That way I can make a big ol' deep-dish blackberry pie for Thanksgiving!

Subject: RE: OH YES Blackberries !!
From: Rapparee
Date: 22 Jul 10 - 01:00 PM

Send them. Lots of them.

Subject: RE: OH YES Blackberries !!
From: maeve
Date: 22 Jul 10 - 01:05 PM

A little blackberry music please, maestro:


Blackberry Grove

Belle Stewart's "Berry Fields o' Blair"

Subject: RE: OH YES Blackberries !!
From: VirginiaTam
Date: 22 Jul 10 - 01:18 PM

oh I thought this was about the mobile phone/PDA thingie. TSO is looking at buying one and I thought maybe this might have some technical info or personal experience about the thing.

Subject: RE: OH YES Blackberries !!
From: olddude
Date: 22 Jul 10 - 01:19 PM

awesome Maeve thank you they are really sweet and big this year in western new york

Subject: RE: OH YES Blackberries !!
From: open mike
Date: 22 Jul 10 - 01:23 PM

I had the first blackberry from my garden today--there will be many more--if the birds don't get them first!

Blackberry smoothies (freeze 'em and toss in blender)

Everybody's Grandmother's Favorite Blackberry (or whatever) Cobbler....

1 stick butter
1 c.flour
1 c. sugar
2 tsp baking powder
3/4 c milk
1 1/2 - 2 c. fruit (blackberries, blueberries, cherries,
                   or cut-up apricots, peaches, or apples)

in a 9 X 13 pan, melt a stick of butter (while oven is pre-heating)
In a bowl, mix together flour, sugar, baking pwd, and milk.
Pour this batter into the pan over the butter...do not mix, just pour in (i use criss-cross pattern in both directions when pouring)then
sprinkle fruit on top..batter will rise and cover fruit as it bakes.
Bake at 350 o for 20 - 40 minutes

easy and yummy

Subject: RE: OH YES Blackberries !!
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 22 Jul 10 - 01:28 PM

Brambles

Subject: RE: OH YES Blackberries !!
From: maeve
Date: 22 Jul 10 - 01:33 PM

The Bramble and the Rose

Subject: RE: OH YES Blackberries !!
From: GUEST,Rev. Goose 'Goof' Gander (ret.)
Date: 22 Jul 10 - 01:47 PM

I planted a bunch of different varieties in my yard, and they all hybridized into standard blackberries. Not that there's anything wrong with that.

Subject: RE: OH YES Blackberries !!
From: Joe Offer
Date: 22 Jul 10 - 01:53 PM

So, I take it that this thread is supposed to stay in the music section? - or at least that Maeve is trying very hard to make it so???? I didn't move it, but it looks like somebody else did - and I won't contradict that.

I'm with John MacKenzie - the brambles leap out and bite me (but berry pie is my favorite flavor).


-Joe-

Subject: RE: OH YES Blackberries !!
From: ClaireBear
Date: 22 Jul 10 - 01:59 PM

One of my neighbors insists on ripping out the native berries and planting a thornless variety to supplant it. Faugh! They taste like grocery-store berries. The're not worth the trouble to gather when I could just go buy them frozen at the store.
'
Give me the wild berries for which I have to fight my way through thickets of brambles and end up bearing proud scars. They are worth the trouble.

Subject: RE: OH YES Blackberries !!
From: olddude
Date: 22 Jul 10 - 02:01 PM

These tame blackberries we have could puncture a tractor tire. They will shred you no kidding. Holy cow the brambles. There are very few of them around here so I am very fortunate most are the standard wild form .. but these big guys sure fill up a bucket quick are are incredible .. I figured they must have come from me about 20 years ago when I dumped a handfull of them out back

Subject: RE: OH YES Blackberries !!
From: olddude
Date: 22 Jul 10 - 02:06 PM

These big guys taste just like the wild and are wild. One of my farmer friends said someone in the late 1800's brought some from Oregon to try and grow to see if it was going to work as a crop since this is the hub of the grape belt. didn't work .. they grow in patches and are really hard to find. The wild native ones are all over but these guys are picky ... you will find them a small patch then nothing .. I usually have to go on a survival mission in the woods and fields to find them so it is fun to have them right out back

Subject: RE: OH YES Blackberries !!
From: Bettynh
Date: 22 Jul 10 - 02:11 PM

When I was a kid there was a chicken farm up the hill. At the bottom of the hill was a blackberry tangle. Well-fertilized, it was. The canes were 12 feet tall. Dads in the neighborhood took 2x12's and shoved them into the middle of the tangle. It was the kids' job to sidle along the boards, pail in hand, to gather the berries from underneath the canes. Gallons of them. Yum! Today, this would probably be called child abuse.

Subject: RE: OH YES Blackberries !!
From: maeve
Date: 22 Jul 10 - 02:16 PM

Joe- I'm happy with whatever olddude wants. I just like finding good songs.

Subject: RE: OH YES Blackberries !!
From: olddude
Date: 22 Jul 10 - 02:19 PM

Here is a good size standard wild berry next to an average size wild Oregon one I just picked for you

berries

Subject: RE: OH YES Blackberries !!
From: maeve
Date: 22 Jul 10 - 02:23 PM

Beautiful, Dan! I wish I could walk out to the local blackberry patch along the powerline.

Subject: RE: OH YES Blackberries !!
From: olddude
Date: 22 Jul 10 - 02:45 PM

I was maybe 11 and I went picking blackberries. I would always come home with buckets of them in Central Pennsylvania where I grew up. One time I was busting through the brambles ... and ran smack into the biggest black bear you ever saw. He was just sitting there enjoying black berries. No kidding eating them thorns, leaves, sticks .. none of this picking stuff for him .. He came me that look like back out buddie.

I carefully did a back peddle and got out of dodge ... I figured that patch belonged to him and I did not wish to be the main course LOL He kept on eating

Subject: RE: OH YES Blackberries !!
From: olddude
Date: 22 Jul 10 - 02:47 PM

gave me that look ... gosh I cannot type today ..

Subject: RE: OH YES Blackberries !!
From: gnu
Date: 22 Jul 10 - 03:13 PM

Dan... yer lucky he was on the desert course.

Subject: RE: OH YES Blackberries !!
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 22 Jul 10 - 03:16 PM

I'm jealous, olddude! I wish I had berries like that in my yard.

In the meantime, here's some music:

old guys -14?- playing

Subject: RE: OH YES Blackberries !!
From: ClaireBear
Date: 22 Jul 10 - 03:26 PM

Dan, that bear musta been a relative of mine...

I've had those luscious, long blackberries; there's one place in he canyon where I grew up where they grew. They were delicious and yes, thorny.

Now what I'm talking about that my neighbor rips out the wild berries for is not those, but some new-fangled thornless variety. High water content, not much flavor, way too sweet and bland. Maybe OK to eat fresh, but really disappointing cooked. Steer clear! Buy someone's cast-off leather biker clothes, wear them with pride, and go real berry-picking instead!

Truthfully, leather pants keep out the thorns quite effectively. And heavy work gloves. And maybe a leather jacket...

Subject: RE: OH YES Blackberries !!
From: GUEST,mg
Date: 22 Jul 10 - 03:35 PM

My computer keeps bumping me..

Anyway, the trick with the wild monsters is to take clipping shears and clip your way into the good berries..pick a spot, clip to get in further etc.

And don't worry a bit about them not growing back. every bit that touches the ground will turn into a new plant..they are wild and crazy here and will take over any property. mg

Subject: RE: OH YES Blackberries !!
From: Paul Burke
Date: 22 Jul 10 - 05:07 PM

Sue's got a fine crop of iPods on her allotment.

Subject: RE: OH YES Blackberries !!
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 22 Jul 10 - 05:24 PM

"..they are wild and crazy here and will take over any property."

Don't ya just hate that? I have that problem with Tradescantia (spiderwort.) It has lovely blue flowers, but would take over everything if allowed to. I wish I had never heard of it.

That and trumpet vine...

Subject: RE: OH YES Blackberries !!
From: olddude
Date: 22 Jul 10 - 05:31 PM

Trumpet vine Leeneia
for sure. I go on a seek and destroy mission on that stuff and I still cannot control it .. My farmer friends said "Hey I will mix ya up some stuff to stray that would kill a rock" I say no thanks .. I have cut it, chopped it, poured boiling water on it . It is like little shop of horrors ... it is going to eat one of my wiener dogs sometime I just know it ...

Clairbear
   I hear you my dear friend, I had some of the store brought stuff .. no thanks for sure. Just have no flavor to me .. kinda like eating a big mulberry ... but I would prefer a mulberry anytime because a mulberry is a mulberry and a black berry shouldn't taste like one ..

When I do battle with the brambles I am usually pretty covered up and pretty hot also ... gosh the humid weather we are having and then having to wear all the clothes

Subject: RE: OH YES Blackberries !!
From: maeve
Date: 22 Jul 10 - 06:48 PM

Olddude- Help for the monster vine (read both pages): Step by step

Subject: RE: OH YES Blackberries !!
From: olddude
Date: 22 Jul 10 - 07:27 PM

Thanks Maeve ... in this house it is the battle of the vine LOL
so far vine beat me down ... :-)

Subject: RE: OH YES Blackberries !!
From: ClaireBear
Date: 22 Jul 10 - 08:46 PM

Dan, I hear you about the heat, but I always pick before breakfast. (Just a couple of blackberries do wonders for cornmeal hotcakes, by the way). Happy eating!

Subject: RE: OH YES Blackberries !!
From: open mike
Date: 23 Jul 10 - 12:53 AM

i think the fruit is born on the second year stalks...
the new growth often covers up the older vines...and
obscures teh fruit...

i removed entire burn-pile full of new growth recently
which revealed the fruiting vines and made them easier
to access.

i had neighbors who watered and fertilized thier wild
gooseberries and got better yield. gooseberries here
are prickly...not those smooth mini-wagtermelon-looking
berries like in the mid west and other places.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/96081707@N00/175661922
they require special technique to et to the juicy part

http://www.flickr.com/photos/repetti/175662033/

not easy like these puckery little treats
http://puddingpop.wordpress.com/2006/12/26/christmas-goose-berries/

Subject: RE: OH YES Blackberries !!
From: Penny S.
Date: 23 Jul 10 - 03:38 AM

My old home has a ferocious variety of bramble that arrived by accident with some fertiliser packaged by the local sewage farm. The fruit is large and sweet enough to eat raw with sugar and cream like strawberries or raspberries, but with flavour as well. The adventitious stems are as thick as my thumbs, and grow so fast you can almost see them do it without stop motion filming. It bears on the new stems, which is good as the gardener cuts back hard. I've transplanted some to my new home, but will only have a few berries from them this year. I was the only person who ate them, apart from a short term tenant from Latvia, who used to sunbathe in a thong bikini, and then wander over and pick and eat off the bush. (It ain't thornless.)
Our wild ones vary a lot, every bush being different, and they don't hybridise much as they are self fertile. If you find a good patch, cherish it.

Subject: RE: OH YES Blackberries !!
From: Will Fly
Date: 23 Jul 10 - 04:41 AM

Dan, your blackberry season is earlier than over here, so I'm salivating at the thought of the berries but can't go into action yet! We have miles of bushes round here and can get pounds and pounds of the berries over quite some time. Another month and they'll be ready.

There's an apple tree in the garden that fruits every two years so, in a good year (like last year), there'll be blackberry and apple crumble, blackberry and apple pie, blackberry jam...

Has anyone ever made blackberry wine? Never heard of it being made. Just curious.

The other thing which grows in abundance round here is the sloe. There's always sloe gin in the cupboard - some of it several years old. Some people put sugar in the sloe & gin mixture two sweeten it up, and then drink it young. I use no sugar but keep it for years to let it mature.

Subject: RE: OH YES Blackberries !!
From: IanC
Date: 23 Jul 10 - 05:07 AM

Yup ... blackberry wine is splendid. Made it since I was a teenager.

:-)

Subject: RE: OH YES Blackberries !!
From: maeve
Date: 23 Jul 10 - 05:16 AM

Blackberry Wine
Several more recipes here.

Subject: RE: OH YES Blackberries !!
From: maeve
Date: 23 Jul 10 - 05:21 AM

Dan is Cinderfella in disguise!

Subject: RE: OH YES Blackberries !!
From: Irene M
Date: 23 Jul 10 - 05:22 AM

I went down the yard to hang out washing this morning and notice that I have to start picking the blackberries today.
They go in the freezer until I have 8 - 12lbs then they become bramble jelly. Make it with demerara suagar instead of white. It has REAL character!

Subject: RE: OH YES Blackberries !!
From: GUEST,Patsy Warren
Date: 23 Jul 10 - 07:34 AM

With the good summer (unusually) that we have been having in the UK the blackberries are coming out plentiful already so I am going to make sure that I make use of all that lovely free fruit. Blackberries added to morning cereal is a great start to the day.

Subject: RE: OH YES Blackberries !!
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 23 Jul 10 - 10:29 AM

Trumpet vine - in my experience, there is only one way to get rid of it. Cut it short and put brush killer right out of the bottle on the cut stem. (This is the method recommended on the label.)

I bought a house built in 1913. It had a trumpet vine with a central stalk 3-4 inches across. I could not get rid of the side shoots because that 'mother plant' kept sending up new ones. Forget digging, forget clipping. Apply 1/2 tsp of brush killer and save your back.

Don't give me 'the environment.' One medical procedure on an injured back or wrist probably does 1000 times the damage of a tiny amount of brush killer.

Subject: RE: OH YES Blackberries !!
From: olddude
Date: 23 Jul 10 - 10:31 AM

Leeneia
your point is very well taken, that is my next approach if Maeves doesn't work I will take the farmer up on his generous offer

Subject: RE: OH YES Blackberries !!
From: Penny S.
Date: 24 Jul 10 - 05:51 AM

I had to look up trumpet vine. Thank goodness, I don't have it. What I do have is Virginia creeper which quadrupled its size while I was away for three weeks. And a geranium which spreads across the borders. And vinca major which is doing the same. And London Pride. And a spreading campanula. And that pink thing with trefoil leaves and little bulbils which cannot be eradicated. and comfrey. In a small garden. In a large one, invasive ground cover is fine. The vinca is smothering the brambles.

Subject: RE: OH YES Blackberries !!
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 24 Jul 10 - 10:29 PM

"The vinca is smothering the brambles."

I sense the beginning of the next big horror film there.

Penny, you have my sympathy.

Subject: RE: OH YES Blackberries !!
From: ClaireBear
Date: 24 Jul 10 - 10:40 PM

You know what they say: Vinca vincit omnia.

By the way, we had blackberry buttermilk hotcakes for breakfast today, with some cornmeal added for more flavor/texture. Delicious.

Subject: RE: OH YES Blackberries !!
From: olddude
Date: 25 Jul 10 - 11:07 AM

Big big thunderstorms yesterday. Seems to have jump started some of the bushes that I have been waiting for them to fully ripen.. Soon as it dries up a bit I am getting my bucket out ... with my sneakers cause I lost my work boot LOL

Subject: RE: OH YES Blackberries !!
From: Penny S.
Date: 25 Jul 10 - 12:54 PM

And under the vinca is lurking ground elder. Apparently it started here, moved in next door, and is now coming back. There are going to be a few fruits on the roots I moved here, but I still have some from last year, which had a bumper crop, and no Latvians.

The Food Program on BBC Radio 4 was about berries today - repeated during the week, and mentioned that the older types, such as blackberries, are out of fashion.

Can't understand it myself. I expect the plants back at the old place will be removed as no-one else uses them.

Penny