A great year for blackberries

sprucebunny · August 02, 2006, 11:29:17 PM

Around here, anyway.We're going to have more blackberries than I know what to do with if the bushes don't just fall down from the weight of them. The picture doesn't really do them justice.

Rasberries are good right now.

How is the wild berry season where you are ?

What do you have for recipes ? I've made pies and cobblers. The cobbler was better.

Norm · August 03, 2006, 07:13:59 AM

The cane berries have not done well around here this year, too hot and dry most likely.

Joan my favorite is to make jelly out of them. I don't like the jam because of the seeds. Cook them slightly with a half cup of water and strain through several layers of cheesecloth then take the juice to make jelly.

Now that tip will cost you one jar of the end product. ;D

Onthesauk · August 03, 2006, 11:18:08 AM

Yep, ours look almost like your's this year. We had a lot of rain early and the vines are just loaded.

Problem this year was the little mountain blackberries, almost none for some reason. Fellow down the road brought us a gallon bucket of them but says he has had a tough time finding them this year.

Rasberries did great and in the middle of a bumper crop of blueberries.

johnjbc · August 03, 2006, 11:42:40 AM

Got 2 quarts of Black Raspberries Kathy made pies
14 quarts of Red Raspberries in the freezer 8) and we only got to ½ the bushes
The Blackberries are loaded but not ripe yet. Because I am back to work they won't get picked. :

>:(

Ironwood · August 03, 2006, 11:44:19 AM

Black reasberries look great unitl the last week before prime then petered out >:(Reid

sawguy21 · August 03, 2006, 11:34:16 PM

I was visiting my cousin in Vancouver and her blackberries looked like yours. The vines looked ready to break from the load. We will see how many are picked after the birds get through with them.

jackpine · August 04, 2006, 07:23:23 AM

The blackberries here in central Wisconsin didn't make it through the hot dry weather. A lot of the canes died and the ones that survived have small berries that are nothing but seeds. I did manage to find about a quart yesterday morning in a low swampy area but even those were not the size they would normally be. Lots of new canes for next year so maybe there's hope.

jon12345 · August 06, 2006, 12:30:02 PM

I braved the stinging nettles and got enough raspberries for 4, 12 oz jars of raspberry jam, didn't find any good patches of black raspberries 'til they were mostly too old to do anything with. Found a couple new blackberry patches but one has a big hornet nest in it and the other has lots of signs of bear activity so I've been avoiding them :-\ guess I'll have to go find the old ones. I gotta cut some trees around the rasberry patches too or else they'll get shaded out, about 1/2 already have :'( We have about 10 high bush blueberries, but they are only about 2' tall, I have to build roofs for them this year so the snow doesn't break them off. Some of the blueberries I picked would almost cover a quarter

Don P · August 06, 2006, 03:07:36 PM

The blackberries and wineberries were a bumper crop. We ended up freezing a bunch of juice just to avoid the heat of canning more right now. Blueberries did real well. Raspberries didn't do much. One other thing that's good is berry sorbet. I like the end of run tutti frutti jellies the best, a little of whatever all mixed together.

Onthesauk · August 06, 2006, 05:31:09 PM

First color beginning to sho but going to be another two weeks at least. But going to be a bumper crop.

SwampDonkey · August 07, 2006, 05:04:31 AM

Raspberries have been done here for a couple weeks, but I picked 35 litres (over 9 US gallons) off my garden patch. They just kept coming. ;D I found the wild ones were plentiful as well, but I don't wanna climb brush and wade 7 foot canes to get them. :

Wild black berries have alot of fruit too, picked a cupful the other day, but they will peek in 2-3 weeks.