YUMMMmmm....





100% natural, organically grown, picked from my own back yard.
occasionally you'll get one that's more sweet than sour, and it's a big ole blast of O.M.Goodness.

O.M. Goodness, indeed! Just look at how the light reflects off those juicy looking things!

Are you sure that picture wasn't taken in my backyard? The first berries are just beginning to ripen. Nothing like stepping out to the patch in the morning to get some berries with which to garnish the cheerios.....

Those do look yum!

Okay, I'm officially disgusted. My raspberries haven't even started blooming yet.

Are those "black raspberries" or some strain of blackberry? I have fond memories of picking wild blackberries in those murderous, spiny thickets on Vancouver Island; wonderful flavour and lots of mileage out of my first aid kit.

i don't really know the exact genus of succulent. blackberries of some variety i think. they start out red if that helps.
whatever they are; they're delicious. :p

Looks like you have enough brambles for an Apple and Bramble Crumble.


Apple and Bramble Crumble

Recipe Ingredients:
1 lb cooking apples (peeled and cored)
8-10 oz blackberries (brambles)
4-6oz granulated sugar(according to taste)
For the Crumble:

4 oz flour
2 oz porridge oats
pinch of salt
4oz butter or margarine
4oz demerara sugar


Method:
heat oven to 375F. Mix the apples(slice first) and blackberries and put in a pie dish. Add the sugar according to taste and a little water.

For the crumble, place all the ingredients (EXCEPT SUGAR) in a mixing bowl and work together until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Then add the demerara sugar and sprinkle this new mixture over the fruit. Bake for approx. 15 minutes and then reduce the temp of the oven to 350F and bake for a further 35 to 40 minutes. the top should be slightly brown (some fruit/juice may carmelise on the top of the mixture-this isn't a major problem)

Add 2 tablespoons (you may require slightly more dependent on the width of your pan-do NOT over water) of cold water and simmer gently over a low heat until cooked through.

It looks like Himalayan Blackberry.
They are an introduced species and some places count them as an invasive weed. They were introduced to North America in 1885 by Luther Burbank.

I love the flavour, but like Doug says the thorns on the stems are murder.
I remember places where they were so thick it would have been almost impossible to go through them and had to go 1/4 mile to get around them.

If you want to grow them it helps to cut out the older stems and thin them into rows.
You get more berries because you can reach them without getting clawed to shreds by the thorns and they only produce berries on the second year growth anyhow.
Because they only produce flowers and fruit on the second year growth the canes can be cut out on a 2 or 3 year rotation and still supply the same number of berries but on much shorter canes. Shorter canes mean fewer thorns and less tangle.

I found the best way to thin the canes was to just mow roads through them with a whipper snipper and/or a lawn mower. I used to cut my rows on a 3 year cycle.
Cut one line for a walkway, one line growing this year and one row producing berries. The row that produced berries got cut in the fall and walked on the next year.
For smaller patches I used either a pole pruner like they sell for tree trimming or a hooked knife on about a 6 foot handle. The blade on the hook knife is not very big or thick and the hook can be a simple V notch filed or ground into it. Cheap steel is fine.
You work it by hooking it behind the cane and pulling it to cut the cane off. The long handle on the knife or the pole pruner lets you stay away from the thorns.

If you need to get rid of these blackberries permanently it can be a real chore. You need to get rid of any living roots too or the canes just sprout up again thicker than ever.

One of the few places where herbicides are justified in in trying to kill out a blackberry thicket.

nooooooo! i lurves my blackberry weeds! we lost a thicket when our new neighbor cleared the lot next to us(taking with it what security and privacy we had on that side), and imma keep these ones.

You must live a bit southish, because my wife & I recently bought some property in northern Wisconsin - a number of acres between a larger lake and a smaller lake, and as I type I am in our camper trailer at a campground near the property (WI-FI!!), and I spent the afternoon walking and riding around the property (ATV). It is just teaming with wild raspberry and blackberry bushes, and though I got a handful of ripe berries, for the most part they are weeks or more away from being ripe.

BTW, as I was standing there on the property a doe and her young fawn came trotting (?) across the property from one edge of trees to the other. Wonderful sight ... I wished my camera wasn't in the car. Sigh.

I can't wait until the berries ARE ripe. Yum! Unfortunately, I think when that time comes we need to be a bit wary about suprising bears that might be enjoying them too.

We also have wild blueberries near a lower-lying lake. We'll have to watch for them - we don't know much about them - they seem to ripen later in the fall?? I'm guessing the bears like them too.

The property also has a handful of really unique apple trees (essentially very large berries!!). The apples we picked from them last fall were tiny - but bigger than crab apples, and very sweet & delicious, and completely free of any insect damage or nasty marks. We wonder if this is what apples were like before they started hybridizing them. Some are very pale - almost white, and some are pinkish. None are bright red like the apples you see in the store.

We're going to enjoy the north country!!

Ken