Monday, August 25, 2014

Blackberry Deluge



I spent a good deal of Saturday morning walking up and down the driveway, picking wild blackberries. I thought there were a lot of ripe berries last week. Little did I know even more were to follow this week! The berry size continues to be good which really surprises me. I am not sure where the plants are finding all of the moisture to grow berries of that size. After I finished picking, I weighed and washed them - 10 lbs. 4.5 oz. total!


Twenty-four hours later the black berries were turned into two cobblers ( one delivered to an Aunt & Uncle, the other staying right here), 14 more pints of blackberry jam, and the rest frozen and bagged.


I was also able to harvest a few things that I was growing on purpose around here this past week - Mother Nature doesn't get all of the kudos. The first three "Moonglow" tomatoes turned a striking yellow and were happily consumed by two co-workers. They are a nice "larger" size tomato for growing in this part of the world. It is difficult to ripen big beefsteaks here but this variety, at 4-5 oz. is a good bigger sized option. I was also excited to pick my first eight "Bumble Bee" Sunrise cherry tomatoes. I now understand how they attained their name. They are a bright yellow, with red stripes running vertically. These should be the first of many that I harvest over the next 4-6 weeks.

9 comments:

Margaret said...

10 lbs of blackberries? That is a deluge!! Those bumble bee cherry tomatoes are gorgeous. I'm such a sucker for stripped tomatoes.

Dave @ HappyAcres said...

If you're going to be deluged with anything, blackberries are a great thing! The wild ones here never seem to get very big, and the thorns make them not usually worth picking.

Susie said...

I love blackberries!! Unfortunately I am struggling to even grow the few raspberry bushes I have here so no point in trying to add anything else. They look fabulous!

David Velten said...

Nothing wrong with buckets of free blackberries. I had a friend who found a huge blackberry bush in the woods across the railroad tracks. We would fill up buckets with them, but you had to be darn careful with the huge thorns.

Stoney Acres said...

Oh Black berries!!! I love black berries, I lived in Northern CA for a few years where they grew wild and it was always awesome to just stop by the road and pick our fill!!

POIROT said...

Bucketful of black berries... How wonderful!!
We planted black berry this year, and we hope some harvest next year.

Daphne Gould said...

Oh wow look at all the blackberries. I wish I had them, but sadly not. Cobblers seems like the perfect way to eat them.

Eight Gate Farm NH said...

Congratulations on the blackberries--they all look so perfect too!

Mindy said...

We picked an entire flat of blackberries in Hood River a couple weekends ago. I left them on the counter overnight, since we got home so late, and the next morning, they were crawling with little white worms. Infested. I tried rinsing and soaking dozens of times, but finally came to terms with the fact that there was no way I could eat them. Such a waste. And to think of how many I ate while picking. BLECK!!!!!