Blackberry blooms near the big garden
Some of my fondest memories of family are at blackberry picking time. I thought my family were the only ones that had their blackberry picking clothes. Long sleeves, long pants, a hat, and sturdy shoes were a must. Mommy, Grandma, my Aunt Hazel and Aunt Pauline would all call each other on the party line phone to check to see if the berries were getting ripe. Aunt Orie, Mamie, and Mertus would always listen in and join in the conversation about their berries too.
Mommy always had a milk bucket she would try to get full. My brother and I would have little lard buckets with bales that Grandpa would fix us to use. We ate more than we brought back to the house to eat.
Daddy was always mowing and fertilizing his cow pasture fields. There was one field, the holler field that Mommy never let him mow or fertilize. It was our blackberry field. Daddy got a small flock of sheep and they ate all our blackberry briars. It didn’t seem to bother Mommy to bad she just moved to another patch with us in tow. This time to the old saw mill field.
Many years before the blackberries grew Grandpa had his sawmill there and cut out the oak and hickory trees. The slabs and saw dust were still there and a perfect place for blackberries. The dog would go with us and protect us we thought from snakes and bears. Really I think he just liked being with us and getting a pat every once in a while.
It was always so hot when we went and all those clothes we wore—long sleeves, long pants, shoes with socks, and a hat.
After we picked berries and got back to the house we would always go for a swim in the river. The water was always cold but it was fun. It made the day into a really fun time. The dog would go swimming with us. He would go and stand in the water up to his belly and watch us. Mommy would sit on her favorite rock and watch us too. All of us enjoyed it. The best thing was the chiggers got washed off before they had a chance to bite too bad.
My blackberries are still red and about the size of my first finger and they grow along the driveway. No one dares to cut my blackberry briars! Aunt Hazel has already been out on her farm looking for berries. She told me that hers were big and the briars were very full. Both of us have our cans, sugar, and “Sure Gel” ready for blackberry jam and jelly. It just makes me hungry to think about it.
—Kathy Patterson June 2022
Like Kathy I’m dreaming of blackberries, but it remains to be seen whether or not there’ll be a good crop this year. The blooms were spectacular in Wilson Holler so I’m hoping that means I’ll get to make lots of jelly and cobblers.
A couple of years ago we had the bank of our driveway that surrounds the big garden cut back. When you cut trees in Appalachia blackberry briars often spring up in the newly sunlit places. Since this is the second year of their growth the briars are loaded with berries.
Sometimes blackberries shrivel on the vine before becoming ripe and sometimes with a lot of rain they get ripe so fast they fall from the briars after they turn to mush. I hope this year everything works out just right and I get to harvest the bounty that’s growing right now.
Last night’s video: Using Old Butternut Squash: Delicious Pie & Yummy Stuffed Squash.
Tipper
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This was such a wonderful post. There are so many trials to get a good crop in any one year–not enough rain or too much rain, and then there’s blackberry winter sometimes. We had a redbud winter in east TN this year and it was so disappointing to have those glorious buds, not quite full, get snapped back and made brown. We were spared a blackberry winter this year and sounds like you were, too. Then there’s the hazards of picking–the briars, the heat, sunburn and chiggers but they make the bounty all the more sweet in the end. I grew up in New England around only enough blackberry or raspberry canes for a few handfuls at either my grandmother’s or my mother’s house. But I’m glad to be reminded of those times.
Glad to know I’m in good company looking forward to the first mess of blackberries! The first thing we’d do after getting blackberries was put a few in a bowl, mash them with a fork, and then sprinkle with a little white sugar before pouring some “cream” (evaporated milk) over them. Oh my. Little else tastes as good for such minimal effort. The next order of business was for my Mommaw to make blackberry dumplings. They’re different from cobbler and absolutely delicious.
Dee- I was also warned about copperheads smelling like cucumbers. Not sure if it’s true or not, but I’m always on alert!
So good !!! Praying for all !!!
Enjoyed reading Kathy’s post today.
Get your jars ready because this is the year for blackberries!
Have a great weekend! Sending
prayers up for Matt’s dad.
Praying for Papaw Tony.
I remember my aunts warning me that if I smelled cucumbers to watch out and get moved,that was a sign of a Copperhead, I never smelled one,not sure if it was true. Oh how I would love to be in my Mamaw’s kitchen with a bucket of blackberries. She would freeze some and always make a cobbler,we would eat a lot of them too right out of hand. It’s always hard to resist the big ones. Can’t wait to get some this year. Thanks for bringing back the memory Tipper, I can still smell her kitchen.
I used to love to pick blackberries growing up. They were plentiful on the hill side of a friend of my grandparents land.
The berries are long gone now and have been for years. Grandma and mom used to make the best blackberry coblers ever. Grandpa made blackberry ice cream. I have looked for years for blackberry ice cream in stores all I ever see is black raspberry. It is good but not the same as blackberry. Blackberries and watermelon and peaches are my favorite fruits
Tipper, moms heart shocking went well. She was short of breath last night and first thing this morning. But last couple hours her breathing has gotten much better and is better than it was before they shocked her heart. They started her on a new medication that is supposed to help keep her heart in rhythm
in a couple months or so they are supposed to do something called a ablazeon it is supposed to be a more permanent fix. Thank you for the prayers. They mean more to us than you will ever know. I am doing a little better each day with my teeth. Today is the 16th day. Still can’t chew solid foods. My friend told me it took him about a month before he could and he can eat almost anything now. My whole family is praying for Matt’s daddy.
Brian, I’m so glad she is feeling better! I will keep praying for you both! Thank you for praying for Papaw!!
God bless this man’s mother in Jesus name
My mama and I used to pick blackberries from the surrounding fields and sell them to our neighbors. I think we sold them for $4 a gallon. We have new neighbors who moved here from New York City and they think our wild blackberries have a weird aftertaste. That’s fine. Leaves more for me to pick!
Blackberries were one of the things that Mommy had to have 100 quarts of before she was satisfied. In good years she canned way more than that.
There used to be blackberry bushes the whole way down the road in front of our house when we first bought this land and hubby was clearing it off. That was back in the early 80’s. He cleared off the blackberries too. There is one bush at the end of our property but we haven’t gotten any berries from it in years. I think the birds beat us to it. My mom makes the most delicious blackberry cobblers ever. She would always use a 9 x 13” glass baking dish, line it with homemade pie crust and fill it with blackberries, sugar and probably flour or cornstarch and a little butter too. Then top it with another homemade pie crust. I love eating it in a bowl with canned (evaporated) milk poured over it. I am the only strange one in our family that likes it this way. I am so craving a big piece right now!!
Kathie’s memory of planning their berry-picking on the party line made me think of today’s face-to-face doings on computers–which I know nothing about. When I was young our family stopped picking blackberries in one particular patch because we encountered a copperhead there. A few years ago, as I might have posted before, I saw a neighbor picking berries with both hands and filling a bucket hanging from a strap around his neck. I went straight home and made one. The roadside patches were loaded with berries that summer.
I found this post just delightful to read. Thank you, Kathy, for sharing your memories with us and thank you, Tipper for posting them here. I hope you have a bountiful blackberry harvest this year, Tipper! Praying for Papaw Tony others here who need prayer. Have a wonderful weekend, everyone!
Blackberries are wonderful to forage for here in the hills. I’d say it’s a good place to get snake bit because who doesn’t like berries (or the birds that get them?) I remember being in the family way and found me a raspberry patch a good 30 by 60 area up to my waist and shoulders with a million bees buzzing all around me and I ate and picked those raspberries til it got dark. It was the best berry patch I ever saw on a German farm in New York State. I can still recall that day just like yesterday. It was a beautiful day and a beautiful memory. In all my life I’m not in my element unless I’m outside barefoot getting into stuff…I wish you blackberries up to at least your waist and shoulders covering that hill of yours. I wish you all blackberry pies, preserves, snacks, cobblers and maybe even a dab of blackberry wine. Lol. I’m hoping to start some huckleberries just to see how it goes. Be blessed yall and have a great day-especially those infirmed or shut in at the house…May you be blessed and rally! Btw, I got a dandy true tale about 3 friends-2 of which got copperhead bit on the BLUESTONE river in Pipestem, WV coming out of the river with a canoe by a load of brush washed ashore and were stuck all night with no help til morning. They survived because they were bit in the leg and soaked the bites in cold water of the river through the night…it took a team of 12 or so including Forest Rangers to extract them to safety. Now that was a big disaster for sure…
The blackberries along my lane are loaded this year. I’m anxiously waiting for them to get ripe, something I wait for every year that seldom ever happens. The deer strip the vines the minute the berries start to change colors, then they move on to the raspberry patch. Mom worried about snakes when we went picking years ago, while I fear ticks more than snakes nowadays since my sister and a few grandkids have been treated for Lyme disease.
Some of my fondest memories are of picking blackberries with my mom in the summers. We wore long pants but not necessarily long sleeves, and our secret for keeping the chiggers off was kerosene: we rubbed it on our necks and lightly on our faces, around the neckline of our shirts, on our arms, around our waists and ankles, and never got a chigger. We also each carried a hoe to deal with any snakes we came across but since the dog usually went with us we never had to use them. We traipsed all over our pasture (15 acres) to find berries; hot and sweaty, yes, but I wouldn’t trade those times for anything. One year we had some blackberry vines at the back of the house that put out berries almost the size of my thumb. My sister and I picked them for $5 a gallon for people that summer and I think we picked over 20 gallons just off that set of vines; we split the profits and that was our spending money for the beach that year. I always said that’s how I got so good at the game Twister; I was used to contortioning myself into weird shapes because the best berries always grew where the briars were thickest. Mom and Dad have had tame blackberry vines for the last several years, but picking tame blackberries just isn’t the same adventure.
Those arebeautifully written memories! We are blessed with a kind neighbor who shares her blackberries if she gets a bunch that year. Last year she didn’t get much, but maybe this year there will be lots. I ought to let her know that we will help her pick them if she wants. It is hard work, picking blackberries in the sun! Hope you get bucketfulls, Tipper!
Yep, I have those memories to, all kinds of gathering; wild greens, blackberries, huckleberries, muscadines, grapes, walnuts each in there. Together they were the cycle of the seasons and were the land feeding us, even without counting the garden or animals. I have transplanted my thornless blackberries into a garden corner now having become shaded by a black cherry. I think I will lose some production but the berries will be juicier. There won’t be enough to can though.
When we first moved to our home in 1990, there were blackberry brambles at the edge of our backyard next to a field. Every summer we waited for them to ripen so we could make blackberry cobbler for July 4th. My daughter and grandson have fond memories of that. Nowadays the berries usually dry up before they ever ripen. Sometimes we would pick them from the roadside while growing up. I hope you get a bumper crop this year, Tipper!
What delightful, itchy memories that read brungs forth. A blackberry cobbler sounds so good right now. Thanks for sharing. ❤️❤️
There was a very large blackberry patch down the road from us growing up. We kids would ride our bikes down and fill our bellies on them until the land sold and a house was built on it. Broke my heart at the time and still makes me a bit sad to think of. There are a few blackberry patches scattered around now that my kids and I stalk every year but never got enough to can come. I’d love to find a treasure trove sometime.
it is working now, I finally got to talk to somebody at Medicaid, they sent me to a website that is not functional it doesn’t include dentist, and now they’re calling me and leaving me telephone numbers, praise God for that, but I’ve got to go to the doctor and get a referral to take, to the dentist that’s a lot of trouble, God bless Matt’s father Tony deliverance from sickness and disease, Lord bless him with healing and health in Jesus name, give this man a miracle, Amen
I hope you have a great harvest. Blackberries are so good and good for you. prayers for Matt’s dad.
Such a wonderful story. It conjures up so many memories for me. Ever blackberry season was a big deal for us with Momma. Thank you!
I’m looking for Mulberries right now where I’m at. Blackberries won’t be for a little bit yet.
I have another praise report. Our Uncle Tony that had the tumor deep in his inner ear is getting ready to go back to work. Praise God! The doctors thought he would have to retire at 64. The surgery took 10 hours and they thought he would not recover his balance. God is good!! We continue to pray for all y’all and for Papaw Tony. God bless!
Wonderful! Thank you for the prayers!
I remember when I was not more than 6-7 years old my grandparents, mother, me and two lady neighbors would get together and spend half of a day or so picking wild blackberries on our or our neighbors property. Everyone would take a snack (most likely leftover breakfast biscuit) to eat for dinner/lunch. We would drink water from a nearby creek. Doing simple things like this was a highlight in the life of us poor country folks. The blackberries would be used for pies, jam and jelly. Even though I still live in a rural area, I can’t remember the last time I saw anyone picking wild blackberries.