It's late August and time to harvest blackberries, or at least a fraction that are dripping from the thorny hedge that forms a fence between our little farm and the gravel road. We take them for granted. We didn't plan them, and do nothing at all to encourage them, yet they thrive as the invasive weed that they are. As opportunists, we enjoy them all winter with yogurt and granola, in smoothies, and even an occasional cobbler. Before I gave up sugar, I made blackberry jam and jelly.
Blackberries are considered a scourge in Oregon, at least in the southern part of the state. They'll gladly take over your property, if you let them. But they are pretty good to eat, and they're free for the picking. So we arm ourselves with sturdy clothing and harvest buckets for the freezer. (PK mostly does this prickly chore.)
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| Berries ready to be frozen. Later they'll go into freezer bags. |
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| The blackberry fence from inside our property. |
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| Blackberry poop, probably raccoons, litters the fence line. Apparently they eat and poop within about four feet of the food source, then go back for more! |
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| The edible fence on the outside. |
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| Nasty conditions out there for berries: dust, direct sun in the late afternoon. But still people pick them from the road. |
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| A small bucket of berries worth about 2.5 frozen quarts. |
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