Simple pleasures........ Blackberries | SouthernPaddler.com

Simple pleasures........ Blackberries

jdupre'

Well-Known Member
Sep 9, 2007
2,327
40
South Louisiana
It's blackberry time in South Louisiana. I've been eyeing this patch to and from work for the last few weeks. Today was the day.

This is what's left after taking out enough for two pies. These will be eaten fresh with a little sugar and maybe a little sugar and evaporated milk.





The "recipe" is .... 1. "some" blackberries 2. "some" sugar ( to taste....depends on the berries) and 3. corn starch slurry to thicken. Cook the berries over low/medium heat for about 10-15 minutes. Pour into pie shells and bake in a 400 degree oven for about 15 minutes.

I had a piece after a supper of grilled ribeyes, oven fries and a couple of glasses of wine. Life is good!



I just noticed that one edge where the slice was removed is a little crooked. Bearridge would never stand for such untidyness. On his behalf, I'll go and straighten that out right away. :mrgreen:

Joey
 

oldsparkey

Well-Known Member
Aug 25, 2003
10,479
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Central , Florida
www.southernpaddler.com
We use to have a large blackberry patch ( a good 80yards by 100 yards ) around here and they decided to put in a shopping center , there went the blackberry patch , so much for progress. :twisted:

One other thing that was here and now is gone are a couple of really large Mulberry trees that would produce a lot of Mulberry's. It was fun climbing the trees and getting those berry's for eating and pies. Again , progress and bulldozers stuck in the name of a subdivision. :twisted:
 

catfish

Well-Known Member
Feb 7, 2007
996
3
jesup, ga.
they look good raw or in a pie. sho is good hot in a pie with milk or ice cream. as kj would say Jarvis. :D chuck around here when I was a boy I remember going in the woods and any where you wanted to you could stop and pick all you wanted. then the land companies started spraying everything. like you said there went the blackberries. :( :evil: also wild huckle berries
 

jdupre'

Well-Known Member
Sep 9, 2007
2,327
40
South Louisiana
I'm planting my own blackberry patch. I transplanted about a dozen wild plants to an unused corner of the yard. They took off and are now about 4 feet tall and pushing up sprouts from the roots. My sister gave me a young hybrid blackberry shoot and I planted that and it's just starting to recover.

J
 

jdupre'

Well-Known Member
Sep 9, 2007
2,327
40
South Louisiana
This is an update on the blackberry patch. I started picking about 2 weeks ago and they are just about played out.



I picked close to 2 gallons of berries off of about a dozen vines. The new canes are coming up through the old canes and will bear next year. There are 25 + new canes . The bearing canes of this year will be cleared out to make room. Note to self: Long sleeves and thick leather gloves are in order.

After nursing the patch the first year, I think it is pretty much firmly established. Just a little fertilizing and clearing the old canes should keep me in berries for years to come.
 

Kayak Jack

Well-Known Member
Aug 26, 2003
13,976
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Okemos / East Lansing Michigan
Good job, Joey! Aye god - nothing tastes like a real blackberry; they are the black walnut of the berry world. Will we be hearing of blackberry wine?

I used to camp near a blackberry patch in the Sierra Nevadas. Of course, so did the bears. Bill Shook and I packed our gear and deer rifles onto our motorcycles, and rode into the hills. A fig tree was there too. Tree ripened,sun warmed figs taste NOTHING like fig newtons, which are a disgusting cookie.
 

beekeeper

Well-Known Member
Mar 4, 2009
1,917
59
Dewberries or tame blackberries? The wild blackberries on my place are just now putting on very small red berries.
Joey, you have been cultivating briers and bushes and I have spent the past week cutting them down.
My Dad always had cows and goats and he worked hard keeping the fences clear of brush. One day he wanted to pick some blackberries for a cobbler but couldn't find any briers on our property. He asked my father in law if he had any berries at his house. He said he did, because it was a poor farmer that couldn't raise blackberries :lol: . Daddy caught the good natured jibe but he went and picked the berries anyhow.

beekeeper
 

jdupre'

Well-Known Member
Sep 9, 2007
2,327
40
South Louisiana
Blackberry descriptions are hard to nail down. The descriptions vary by the locality. Dewberries normally trail along the ground or grow up on some kind of support. Blackberries grow straight up and are somewhat self-supporting. In my area, many people call dewberries -blackberries and the upright type are high bush berries. Mine are local wild dewberries. When I say local, I mean they were dug up 75 yards from where they were planted.

The first batch I picked had LOADS of flavor. Pretty danged tart. The next couple of batches were sweeter and mellower. I find the high bush type to be almost too sweet for my taste........almost perfumey sweet.

By the way , Jack, I think Fig Newtons are scrumptious. Different strokes, I guess.

Joey
 

Kayak Jack

Well-Known Member
Aug 26, 2003
13,976
171
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Okemos / East Lansing Michigan
Another way to differentiate blackberries (high bush type) from dew berries (vine on the ground type) is thorns. You can handle dewberry vines safely. Thorns on blackberries will run across the road - just to puncture 1/4" steel boilerplate.
 

beekeeper

Well-Known Member
Mar 4, 2009
1,917
59
Joey
The wild blackberries at my house have came and gone. At first it looked to be a good crop. For some reason they never got very big and were very bitter. Bushes that produced last year(those near water) were almost void of berries this time.
The figs are not doing much either. Tonight mama coon and two little ones are feasting in my daughter's tree on the few ripe ones she has.

beekeeper
 

jdupre'

Well-Known Member
Sep 9, 2007
2,327
40
South Louisiana
Yeah, Bee, my berries are long gone too. I picked about a gallon and a half out of the dozen shoots I planted last year. About 30 of the wild berry shoots came out this year, and the hybrid blackberry has finally started to come alive. It has a half dozen shoots about 4 foot long already.
I also have a young fig tree that started as an air layer from my mom's tree last year. It was almost pinky sized and 2 feet long with a dozen leaves last spring. Today it's about an inch+ in diameter and the tree stands 4 ft high and 3 feet in diameter. It's got about 15 -20 figs. Years back, I HAD ( thanks to Gustav) a large fig tree and caught a mama coon and three young ones in there scarfing down figs. They bolted when they saw me and one young one went to the end of a branch and bailed out...........PLOP.....belly flop from 5 feet up. :mrgreen:

Jack, I stood watch over that old fig tree a couple times with my blowgun. I shot one robbing bird with a dart and got a complete pass through.... the dart just kept going. Amazing bit of "primitive " weaponry.

Joey
 

oldsparkey

Well-Known Member
Aug 25, 2003
10,479
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Central , Florida
www.southernpaddler.com
We have a large Fig tree by the corner of the back porch and the side of the house. As soon as the figs start to ripen the Tree Rats try to clean the tree of the figs. The coons might be helping them since I have noticed that in the morning any remaining ripe figs are gone. :roll:
 

Kayak Jack

Well-Known Member
Aug 26, 2003
13,976
171
86
Okemos / East Lansing Michigan
As I've said before, the best thing about tree ripened figs is that - they taste nothing at all like fig newton cookies. Same thing goes for fresh tuna - it tastes nothing at all like canned tuna. And raw tuna is better than cooked tuna!

Chuck, could you put stove pipe around the trunk of the tree?
 

beekeeper

Well-Known Member
Mar 4, 2009
1,917
59
Kayak Jack said:
As I've said before, the best thing about tree ripened figs is that...........

Chuck, could you put stove pipe around the trunk of the tree?

What size pipe should I get for my tree? :roll:


Or should I say how many? :lol: It's canopy is over 180' around. It is a cluster of many sprouts all sprouted from the original tree planted by my grandfather beside his smokehouse. Some of the tree is still there and producing. I miss him and the bacon, but at least I still get to enjoy the figs.

beekeeper
 

jdupre'

Well-Known Member
Sep 9, 2007
2,327
40
South Louisiana
A guy at work brought some fresh tuna and grilled it for us-- bragging on how good it was. Nope. Tasted like grilled canned tuna. And raw fish is not a part of my diet. That's what fire is for. I'd gladly trade 100lbs of tuna for 10lbs of catfish and think myself on the better end of that deal. Well, that's why they make chocolate and vanilla .........and strawberry and rocky road , and..........................

Bob, the bad thing about a tree that big is it's hard to get to a lot of the figs. Now if you could train the squirrels and the coons to eat the figs you can't reach, then you would have something.

Anyway. Blackberries.................... I still have enough in the freezer for a pie or two. Oh, while bonsai scouting , I discovered a half-acre patch of blackberries and dewberries. Good back-up.

Joey