A little known fact about blackberries

[Dolomite_supafly]

I have been picking at the bushes that are lining our driveway. And the deeper I ventured into the painful, thorn filled, patches the better they seem to taste. I fight my way past the spiders and other insects at least once a day to gather a handful of that sweet, black goodness. And as I was picking out the thorns and tending to the bleeding scratches it occurred to me.

How well a blackberriy tastes is directly proportional to how deep it is in its thorny lair.

Yeah I could easily pick the small bitter or sour ones that are easy to get. But I want the big, succulent and sweet ones that can only be found in the deepest reaches of their unforgiving lair.

Just thought I would pass this on to other blackberry lovers out there.

Dolomite

[maroonandwhite]

Just go by you a pair of decoy gloves and spare your skin!! Thanks for the info though. I have always thought the ones my grandpa picked taste better than the ones I pick. He must have already known this.

[Caster]

Another little known fact. Eating them by the handfuls while picking them can give you a case of the screaming trots.

Ask me how I know.

Edited June 22, 2012 by Caster

[Timestepper]

Another little known fact is that as soon as you invite someone over to pick a favorite ''private'' patch where the berries have always been huge and plentiful, the TVA will come along and drop trees, spray defoliant and just generally do their best to ruin that patch for everyone for the foreseeable future.

[dralarms]

Something else you should know,

If you take blackberries and place them in a 5 gal bucket mash them down add water and sugar and wait for about 14 days you can have some blackberry wine

[Oh Shoot]

The very biggest and best blackberry areas also always have chiggers.

- OS

[BJB]

Another little known fact. Eating them by the handfuls while picking them can give you a case of the screaming trots.

Ask me how I know.

LOL. I remember those days as a kid. Grandma would get so mad....i could eat them fast ter then she could pick em. A cobbler is for desser tomorrow.

[Guest rebeldrummer]

I WILL HAVE TO REMEMBER THIS AS I GO OUT TONIGHT AND PICK SOME...IM THINKING ABOUT PUTTING A HOCKEY MASK AND WINTER JACKET ON MY 5 YR OLD AND USING HER LIKE A FIRE POKER TO GET THEM GOOD 'ENS!!! HA HA HA (JK JK)

[DaveS]

Scratches and gouges are all part of the "wild balckberry" experience! Wild Pigs (which TWRA says are gone in our area) have devistated the berry bushes.....sheeez....

Not much left for us'n folks!

Dave

Edited June 24, 2012 by wd-40

[peejman]

I agree. And that's why I pick blueberries instead...

[Guest Lester Weevils]

In central AL blackberry bushes were good places to find rattlers. Not under every bush or whatever, but if you look under enough of them had good odds of finding a rattler.

[VERO1]

All this talk makes me glad I don't like them!

[DaveS]

In central AL blackberry bushes were good places to find rattlers. Not under every bush or whatever, but if you look under enough of them had good odds of finding a rattler.

Where in central Alabama?

I'm from Alabama, and I can relate to what you are saying!

Dave

[Dolomite`s Breezy]

Seems we have a bumpercrop this year..

Ever since we have been married he has been talking about those mayapples..but right after they bloom and just get a little apple..the deer, turtles and whatnot eats em...so..I still have to try them...

[Guest Lester Weevils]

Where in central Alabama?

I'm from Alabama, and I can relate to what you are saying!

Dave

Hi Dave, that vicinity about 50 miles southeast of Birmingham around the Talladega natl forest. Family moved away afore I grew up but I still like the area as best I know about it.

It didn't seem dificult at all to find rattlers in those parts. There are urban legends but I remember what might be a legend or maybe not, I heard back in the 1950's down there. People seemed to believe it but you couldn't call it an urban legend in a county that maybe had a population of a few thousand tops. Supposedly the police noticed a car parked on the side of the road with a couple of little crying kids inside, and they went looking around-- The kids mom had spied a bunch of blackberry bushes by the woods and stopped to pick them, stooped down to pick berries, got bit in the face by a rattler and died afore she made it back to the car. Maybe true, maybe not.

Edited June 23, 2012 by Lester Weevils

[enfield]

I planted thornless blackberries in my yard last year. Right now I'm getting berries nearly the size of my thumb and no scratches!

[Dolomite_supafly]

I planted thornless blackberries in my yard last year. Right now I'm getting berries nearly the size of my thumb and no scratches!

Where did you buy them?

Dolomite

[gregintenn]

Where did you buy them?

Dolomite

They aren't the same.

I can tell you that my wife makes the best blackberry cobbler ever made.

We also have wild raspberries here. They mature a few weeks earlier than the blackberries, and are much better.

[Garufa]

I could eat my weight in blackberries.

Like Caster said...they'll clean you out after a belly full. I now know what the origin of half the bird crap on my car is during the season.

Edited June 23, 2012 by Garufa

[Oh Shoot]

....

Ever since we have been married he has been talking about those mayapples..but right after they bloom and just get a little apple..the deer, turtles and whatnot eats em...so..I still have to try them...

My God. Don't. Nobody eats may apples.

They used to be used as medicine in small doses, but they're poisonous in large ones.

- OS

[Murgatroy]

My God. Don't. Nobody eats may apples.

They used to be used as medicine in small doses, but they're poisonous in large ones.

- OS

Hell, next you will tell her there is no such thing as a snipe...

[Oh Shoot]

Hell, next you will tell her there is no such thing as a snipe...

Well, there's a helluva diff in hunting for snipe or taking someone on a snipe hunt, that's for sure.

- OS

[Guest 6.8 AR]

Yeh, she needs to go on a snipe hunt, doesn't she?

[jon29253]

Braving the thorns are worth it. The big ones getting sweet around here.

[vontar]

I planted thornless blackberries in my yard last year. Right now I'm getting berries nearly the size of my thumb and no scratches!

When I was buying my pomegranate trees a guy was buying some of those thornless blackberry bushes. At the time I just joked and ask, isn't that cheating. But ever since I have wondered if they are as good or not. I don't know how they lost their thorns, probably don't want to know, but with out them are they really the blackberries we know and love? I guess you can answer that.