Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Who's picking blackberries this Spring/Summer?

Man! Youse guys are a downer.


Schit....a plant that grows every year and makes us nice berries to eat.......gawd! Terrible!

Interestingly, I've never encountered a snake in over 15 years. My nemesis is the yellow jacket nest lurking next to the Biggest Blackberry in the patch

Jim if you can get them to grow up there plant a variety called “Triple Crown”. Thornless and berries bigger than the end of your thumb. I got 6 starts from my grandpa and in 2 years I was picking a gallon a night for several weeks.

Blackberries grow the cane in year one. Produce the berries in year 2 and that cane is then dead. While it’s producing berries in year 2, new canes are being grown that will have berries the next year.

Pies, cobblers, or mushed up with a splash of sugar to use as an ice cream topper. Love blackberries. Also wild black raspberries. The best jelly in the world. Almost a toss up between the two.

My berries are just coming out of their bloom. Can’t wait.

Katy was my berry picking helper. She’d eat the ripe ones off the vine. Once in a while a “yip” indicated a thorn got her tongue. RIP.

Pictured are wild thorny ones. The tame ones I keep I drive t posts down a row and string wire between for them to climb on.

My boy inspecting one.

That's great, passing on the tradition of picking blackberries

If it is wet the mosquitoes will carry you away or drain all your blood.

Ha! Thanks Cheesy!

We have blackberries that grow on the edges of the yard and in every other random spot. Cant get rid of the damn things. Pull them up and they come up twice as much. But we will pick at least a couple bowl fulls to have with ice cream.

Must admit that while trout fishing a bush full of blackcaps by a hole in a trout stream makes for a great morning.

Blackberry cobbler is excellent.

When i was a kid, they grew right next to our house. Everyone in the neighborhood picked off that tangle, and we all got as many as we needed or wanted. Man, the rabbits used to love to hunker in those patches. Dad would send the beagles in there, and we'd often have at least two rabbits come blasting out of there. We learned not to shoot them until they cleared the patch. The dogs would go in there to chase 'em, but had no interest in going back in there for a retrieve. Beagles are about as stubborn as they are dumb!

They are a noxious weed here in southeastern Oz. They can become massive impassable thickets if let go.

They do make good cover for birds, and for rabbits, and tend to be good places to scout around when hunting. Foxes can be found around them too - they are there for the bunnies and birds, but they'll also happily scoff down the berries, as will pigs, who'll also root them up and take cover and shelter in them. Deer here will use them for cover and eat the leaves too - particularly browsing species like Sambar.

I don't mind a hatful of them in season either.

We hunted cotton tails the blackberry patches. It was a great place for the rabbits to hide.

We dont fool with blackberries that much, we usually pick the dew berries. This year, the dew berries didn't make very well. We had a late freeze and that might have been what caused it.

On a high note, a friend has some kind of dew berry that makes berries almost as big as your thumb. I dug up 4 plants Sat. and put them out on my place.

Banner year here for dewberries

I grown tame blackberries, and we sell them. The grandkids help pick them, and we either sell to neighbors, or at the local produce auction. Last year, they sold about $500 worth. It was my intentions to plant another row this year, and I started the plants to do so, but have since just about changed my mind, as I don't know that I want to fool with them. Mine are about 2 weeks away from being ripe.

Blackberry mead....

I use 1 pound of berrys and 1 pound of honey per gallon.

Heat honey water to near boil use a boat motor mixer.

Let cool to under 145 degrees....so pectin in Berry doesn't set. Put previously frozen berries in the hot " over" 130 degree liquid.
I put the berries in a Muslim bag, by freezing them thejuice will leach out with out mixing.

Let cool to under 80 degrees....pitch yeast. My favorite is a Belgium ale/ lambic type yeast. Lot less floculent than English ale or champagne yeast.

Rack twice. I like to pastureize it I've it in a water bath of 140 degrees.

The longer it sits the better it gets if she don't mold or kamboocha out

It will be hucks for us, as usual. Last year was stellar.

Too early for blackberries here. Just starting to bloom. My bees are liking them though.

Wife, mom, sis, and wifes sis' are, and muscadines too, there will be plenty more blackberry and muscadine wine to drink this fall and winter, and maybe a little homemade jam from both too.

Be a while for blackberries here. The mulberry trees in the yard are ramping up, though...…….week or two.