Blackberry Pickin'!

We have a friend with tons of blackberries growing wild on their property. We were invited to come pick some of their abundance and we gladly obliged.

The blackberries are coming in early here and this is our first picking with many more to come.

This time of year we get two main types, the Himalayans and the Evergreens. The Himalayans are the most difficult to pick, with bigger, tougher thorns but they have the best flavor. We gladly deal with the bit of blood letting that ensues in the process of foraging as we are happy to have this delicious, free fruit.

It is pretty easy to tell the two berries apart by their leaves as they are very different. First photo is the leaf of the Evergreen:

This is the leaf of the Himalayan:

This shows the thorns of the Himalayan:

Here is Patrick dumping his first full bucket into our 5-gallon bucket which we got nearly full in a short time.

And this is just a random shot I took of some water lilies on the pond near where we were picking:

Now to get to preserving what we have so far so we can go out and get another 5 gallons in a few days, and then, if all goes well, another 5 gallons a few days after that!

Hope you are all having a lovely Sunday! ~Heidi