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Pacific Northwest
August 2017
Berries grow beautifully in this corner of the country. You can buy them, or pick them for free in season, either what grows in your garden or the wild ones out and about. That's what I’ve been doing lately now we’re into blackberry season. While there’s a native trailing vine blackberry, the Dewberry (
Rubus ursinus), it doesn’t produce much fruit. I pick from Himalayan bushes. Himalayan blackberry (
Rubus armeniacus) was brought to California in the late 19th c by Luther Burbank (of Russett Burbank potato fame,
www.npr.org/...) for commercial fruit production and has gone feral in a big way in Western states. It is an aggressively invasive thorny shrub that can get 15’ high forming dangerously impenetrable thickets, the bane of our yards, driveways, fields and wetlands. Along with the Evergreen blackberry (
Rubus laciniatus), another alien, it smothers and displaces native vegetation, causes erosion along streams, and is almost impossible to eradicate. Himalayan blackberry is a real menace. (
www.kingcounty.gov/...)
However for the month of August and into September it produces vast quantities of luscious delicious fruit for wildlife and any humans willing to get stabbed, scratched and stained picking them.
And in July and on into August, the gazillions of flowers are also a boon to pollinators, supporting many native bees and butterflies who gorge on the nectar.
So there’s that.
One of my usual picking spots is along the back road near my house. Our county doesn’t spray herbicides — they drive a trimmer down the roads periodically to keep the verge clear. The road is paved so there’s little dust. There isn’t much traffic so vehicle pollution isn’t an issue. One pollutant — dog pee — I avoid by picking only above 3 feet.
On one recent picking occasion I shared the spot with a family of turkeys. Mom was working the berries below 3 feet and the poults were snapping up bugs in the grass.
Blackberry bushes keep producing for weeks. You can see how the whole range of development is visible at once: flower, green berries, red berries and ripe black ones. I’ll be picking at these bushes for a while.
Most of the blackberries I can’t reach — either they are too high, too far in or the thorny canes in the way would rip my arm bloody. No worries, the fruit doesn’t go to waste. All kinds of birds and other critters strip the branches while the berries are juicy. Wild animals then disperse the seeds far and wide, helpfully spreading the blackberry into new areas. Proof is in the purple bird poop that is everywhere right now.
Wait — blackberries are purple? Yep, on the inside. And get this: blackberries aren’t even berries, in the botanical sense (www.botany.wisc.edu/...). Blackberries, raspberries and all their kin, like marionberries, loganberries, tayberries, are actually aggregate fruits (in this case a clump of drupelets) since one flower has many ovaries, each making one fruit with a seed inside. True berries are single fruits containing many seeds, such as blueberries and cranberries, along with grapes, tomatoes, peppers and bananas! even pumpkins, cucumbers, watermelon and citrus fruits are categorized as types of berries. Who knew?
Well, however misleading their name, blackberries are delicious — sweet and tart and flavorful. They make great pies, cobblers and crisps. Yummy addition to yogurt and ice cream. And they make my favorite jam!
Making freezer jam —
I make freezer jam out of the berries rather than the cooked and canned type. We eat it all year on our daily toast, along with raspberry and other kinds. If I have rhubarb, I’ll stew that up and mix it with the mashed berries — it creates a nice creamy base, and the flavor is still intensely berry.
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Freezer jam is quick and easy, taking literally minutes to make. Tastes better than cooked jam too, because the berries have their raw flavor and the jam is not too sweet.
After mashing and measuring the berries (plus stewed rhubarb if using that), calculate how much sugar and pectin is needed as per the basic recipe. Far less sugar is required in freezer jam, less than half the volume of fruit.
Mix the sugar and instant pectin (special kind for freezer jam), add to the berries, and stir for 3 minutes. Pour into jars, screw on lids, let the jars sit for an hour to set, then store them in your freezer for fall, winter and spring.
Clean up is a quick rinse. No sticky spattered gluey stuff on the stove and counter. And no burned fingers.
Wild blackberries say SUMMER to me. Takes me back with every bite. Yum.
What’s up in nature in your part of the world? Still summer?
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