Most anytime the earth gets disturbed around our house blackberry briars spring forth.
Winter before last we had some minor grading done on the bank behind our house. Basically Thomas, who was doing some work for us, scooped out several shelf like areas so that we could put raised beds along the bank.
Last summer I noticed a briar coming up here and there. This spring all those blackberry briars I noticed have increased in number and are in full bloom.
As you can see from the photo blackberry briars aren’t picky about where they grow. The plants are pushing up through the rocks and red clay to reach the sunshine.
I’m hoping this year brings a bumper crop of blackberries because I didn’t get to make any blackberry jelly last summer.
Here’s some of my favorite ways to use blackberries.
Tipper
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Blackberry jelly is my absolute favorite! We always had big clumps of blackberry vines in our pasture and some of my favorite summer memories are connected to picking them with my mom. We would rub kerosene on our ankles, wrists, waistbands and necklines to keep the chiggers off; it worked great – we almost never got bitten. One year there was a set of vines right behind the house that produced over twenty gallons of berries; my sister and picked them and made over $100 for our spending money for the beach. And the best berries are always in the middle of the patch – I think maybe that’s why I was so good at the game Twister, from all the torturous shapes I had to bend into to reach the best berries!
Do I love blackberries? Let me count the ways!!! lol My grandparents had “brarberries” in the cow pasture growing through the fence. I now know they were wild blackberries with big briars, hence the name “brarberries”. Oh but they are so wonderful, briars and all. Brarberry jelly is to die for, a spoonful of heaven right here on earth. Nothing else compares to the flavor. Not grape, raspberry, strawberry or muscadine jelly is as good (personal opinion, of course) brarberry. I make all kinds of homemade jellies and jams and preserves, but brarberry is my favorite, hands down. For years, we grew thornless blackberries and they were good, just not quite as good as wild blackberries. Grandma would tear off a strip of cotton and sprinkle kerosene on it and we would tie one around each ankle to keep off the red bugs (chiggers). It would be so hot, but boy we didn’t mind when we were thinking about hot biscuits and a slab of country ham we cut from the smoke house and brarberry jelly. Tipper, thanks for these memories, again. Love and prayers to Granny and Little Mamas and all of you too.
I am pea green jealous! My sister and I loved picking the wild berries near our grandparents’ house. Had to watch out for chiggers, thorns, snakes, and poison oak which liked to grow in the same places. But the results, assuming we made it home with any, were so tasty, especially Gramma’s blackberry cobbler. Now I have a yen for some. I also liked eating blackberries Peter Rabbit style—bread and milk and blackberries—by crumbling a biscuit into a bowl and adding berries, milk, and sugar. Yum, yum, yum! Gramma had an enormous Golden Retriever who also liked to eat blackberries. If we wanted berries, we picked first thing to beat Baron and the birds.
We always picked blackberries when I was a kid. My whole family would pick and pick and scratch ourselves up terribly. But the reward of mom’s blackberry cobbler was worth it. She makes it with a double pie crust in a 9×13 pan and very juicy. I always loved it in a bowl with milk. I loved how the milk turned all purple—yummy! It’s my son’s favorite cobbler too. I usually have to buy frozen berries to make them. It’s hard to find wild blackberry bushes around here anymore. And now that I am older, I have decided I am terrified of snakes—I never thought about them when I was young. So glad to read all the comments today and so glad Granny is getting better and better. Continued prayers
One of our favorite family activities is apple, peach, and berry picking both in local orchards and in our yard. It becomes an all day event, to include a picnic and family photographs. We savor these sweet fruits of God’s goodness. Thank you for sharing these blackberry recipes. I look forward to trying them! Prayers that Granny’s health continues to improve, and that she can help you make your famous blackberry jelly soon.
Tipper, although this is not relevant to today’s blog, I thought you’d like to know.
I watch [url=https://www.youtube.com/@doyledykesmusic]YT channel presented by Doyle Dykes[/url] called Sunday String Along. Doyle is a professional guitar player who has played with Grandpa Jones (may he RIP) and on the Grand Ole Opry. I was watching the most recent episode and he mentioned that he is a fan and watches the Pressleys, meaning you and your family. He is a religious man – a former pastor – and always present lessons from the Holy Bible along with some great guitar picking. He lives in Cleveland, TN. I bet you could arrange to meet him. I’m sure Corrie would enjoy his playing and his ministry.
Robert-thank you! I will look him up 🙂
One of my memories from my childhood is of my maternal grandparents, mother, me and two neighbor ladies getting together and making a day out of picking wild blackberries in the fields around our home. They would take something to eat (probably a cold biscuit) and drink water from the creek. The ladies would wear men’s pants, long sleeve shirts, and bonnets. We all would be as happy as pigs in slop just being together fellowshipping with one another. I would be even happier when mother would make a juicy blackberry cobbler in a deep side round enamel pan and have it full of dough balls (dumplings). I would give a pretty penny to have one of those pies now. One of those neighbor ladies dipped snuff and smoked a corncob pipe, I thought that was something. The cicadas having really been singing everyday for about a week.
PS. Again, my favourite (I changed my mind! haha) is blackberry ‘soup.’ You had a video one day about how you boil the blackberries up and then add sugar and butter and make dumplings in the juice. I showed that to my daughter and told her that I wanted blackberry soup served to every day when I got old and feeble!
I had lots of blackberry jam growing up. Between mom, grandma, and several aunts, we always had all the jam I wanted. It is still my favourite to this day. Thanks for including you recipes! I’ll give them a try. Gotta go find a patch now!
love blackberries. Blackberry jam and blackberry cobbler especially. Hope you get your bumper crop.
Last year my produce patch picked me several quarts of blackberries (after they said all the blackberries were done,) the owner used to be a city carrier of mine, wow that sure was a nice surprise when he called me. I canned 12 pints of blackberry jelly and it was just awesome!! Hoping to plant my own blackberry bush so I can have my own someday.
Roadsides here in NW Georgia are covered with the white blooms!
Can’t wait to pick some, a wonderful past time that takes me back to simpler times on my grandparents’ Appalachian farm where I spent so much of my childhood as a city kid from Atlanta. Thanks for sharing! Hope you get to make your jelly and that Granny is improving with each day.
Hello from Southern Illinois. Glad Granny is improving.When we were kids picking blackberries ,we would come home with lots of chigger bites.one thing we would find helpful besides getting a quick bath was dobbing each bite with clear fingernail polish. That would smother them. You take care.
The blackberries here hasn’t done good the past couple yrs. here. I hope they do this yr. Thanks Tipper for putting those recipes on here. Hope granny is doing better and improving. My middle brother was in a bad accident over the wk end. He’s lucky to be alive. He was the passenger. It broke his pelvic in 3 places.
Gigi-I’m so sorry about the accident. Thank goodness he is okay. I will pray for his healing.
Blackberry jelly! yummy good and good on almost anything.
The blackberry vines are in full bloom here too. I have never liked blackberries cooked, I like to eat them fresh, and they are good in a fruit salad. My mother still makes blackberry cobblers (she’s 94) and makes her biscuits and gravy for my brother whom she lives with in Ohio. Daddy liked jellies of all kinds and liked blackberries any way you fixed them. Mom, who was raised in Eastern Ky said you had to watch out for the copperheads when picking blackberries or other kinds of berries.
My husband and I are planting our tomatoes, cukes, onions, and squash today. The garden isn’t as big as in the past and we are late getting it out this year but that’s ok. We move slower than we used to and are grateful that the Lord has given us the strength to have a garden.
Hey Randy. The food you cooked sounds good. Practice makes perfect. The more you cook the better you will get at it.
Like much of life, blackberries provide a rich reward if one persevere’s through the thorns. I see blackberries as another nutritious gift from God. I was sad when our wild blackberry bushes died off a few years ago. Don’t know why they did. So I bought a new blackberry bush and I’m hoping the birds will repopulate our wild spot.
I’m not advocating that anyone take up blackberry wine making, but it ain’t bad. (Used for medicinal purposes only, of course.)
Of course! My grandparents kept home brewed muscadine wine for same!
Gene, my Daddy thought homemade blackberry wine was good for an upset stomach, but he never made or kept any on hand. I remember him getting sick and getting a small jar of it from a neighborhood family. His Daddy, my Grandaddy would make a little a small amount of grape or blackberry wine and pour it over the old fashion style fruit cakes. Mother would not let me eat any of the fruit cakes.
Blackberries built my character. When I was a boy, my aunt, with whom I spent the summers, would make me pick a couple of quarts or a gallon of blackberries depending on the infraction whenever I did something to displease her. I remember sweating in the heat of the sun surrounded by scratching briars and buzzing bugs of all sorts. Yet, among my fondest food memories are the pies and cobblers my aunt served after supper, from which I learned the satisfaction that comes through suffering and the real meaning of the fruits of our labor.
Thank you for reminding me. We are so blessed to read your words.
So, I wonder, is the seed already there, or are blackberry-eating critters attracted to the places blackberry can grow and come do the “planting” ? Same for poke sallet. One of nature’s many puzzles. Keeping you and Granny and all yours in our thoughts and time to time our prayers also.
Nothing like a blackberry cobbler! I’m glad Granny is improving.
I love blackberry anything, especially jelly. Rattlesnakes love blackberry patches too and that thought limits the amount I can pick from sitting on the four-wheeler and picking around the edges. This year will be good for fruit and berries. The danger of frost is over and my peach and pear trees are loaded so now all I have to worry about is the cicadas eating them.
I’m praying Granny will be able to make some blackberry cobblers and eat as much as she wants.
But I’m not looking forward to blackberry winter. The last frost took out most of our apples.
When seeing blackberry blooms, I think of chiggers. No blackberry picking for me!!
Randy that ham steak sure is might tasty! Betty in Knoxville..we may live close to each other. Be nice to meet some BP readers.
Continued prayers for your mother and all the family. Be thankful, and I know you are, for all the loving support you have.
Blackberries are so wonderful to eat, not so much wonderful to pick but worth every berry. I love the pies and jelly. A neighbor bought a place that had an untended blackberry patch nearly a quarter mile thick. We used to go with two five-gallon buckets and pick until we filled them, and then home to make jam and jelly. We then returned to collect another two buckets full to freeze whole berries for pies and cobblers. Talk about God’s bounty! Raspberries, too!!
I remember my Grandmother’s joy when she picked her first bunch of thornless, seedless, “Tame blackberries” from a newly plowed patch of red clay down by the garden. Blackberries were my mom’s favorite berry growing up. The harvest included an almost certain confrontation with “ticks, chiggers, thorns and black snakes.” My mother was eager to eat the cobbler but unwilling to participate in the prickly harvest. Blackberries, like black walnuts, live in a formidable fortress and require determination and sacrifice to reap the harvest. Good stuff.
We get raspberry canes growing everywhere. The sad thing is we only actually got decent raspberries the first couple years after our house was built….twenty years ago! Pray you get the blackberries but most of all praying for healing for Granny and strength and blessings on all of you.
I hope you get a bumper crop of blackberries too, so y’all can make all the wonderful jellies and desserts for your family. We have blackberry bushes growing on the side of our property. As tempting as them blackberries are, I leave them for the deer and birds to eat, so they leave my garden alone. So far it’s worked out that way. I leave their food alone and they leave mine alone. I’m hoping it still works this year because I put in a big garden, well for us it’s big, but it’s small compared to yours. I’m just hoping the deer leave my garden alone! I’ve never had a problem with them in the past gardening years, so hopefully that will continue.
you should start a mail order on line business selling your jams prexerves and pickles so your fans an enjoy some of whst you make.
prayers for gra ny
carol in NY
Does Granny have her crocheting with her?
Papaw-she doesn’t. We offered to bring the project she was working on or some other yarn but she said she didn’t feel up to it and just wanted to rest. She has been planning her next project though 🙂
I wish to purchase some of her items she is and has worked on…would love some Christmas ornaments. My tree would love them, my children and grands would love to see them as they keep asking, who is Tipper and Granny that you always talk about. Prayers and love to you guys.
Oh those blooms are gorgeous and hold promise, don’t they? I certainly wish you a bumper crop of blackberries this year for all the wonderful ideas you have to put them to good use! I noticed blooms all over a “tame” blackberry bush yesterday I purchased about 3 years ago and I took photos of the pink blossoms that are in my “professional” opinion spectacular! Btw, I’m not professional about a thing anymore and proud of it! Lol! Do have a wonderful day in Brasstown and here’s wishes and prayers for a terrific day for all of your family and gardening buddies!!!
We need to get some blackberry bushes on our property. We got blueberries and raspberries, now we need blackberries. I just love them.
Praying for Granny.
Good Morning from Greencastle, Pa I agree with you Tipper, there is nothing like Black Raspberry jelly! Love it on homemade biscuits or toast! I like to slather it on pancakes too! Glad granny is doing better! We are praying for you all! My wife and I enjoy your blogs and youtube!
I did a double take when I saw your name. My husband is Jack, too. So Tipper has 2 sets of Jack and Cindy fans.
Love blackberries any way to use them. Hope today is a great day for everyone. Raining here in Knoxville.
We are keeping all of you in prayer, Tipper. We pray Granny continues to get stronger every day.
Tipper, it has been three years since my wife’s death, she would always cook big suppers and I would cook a big breakfast. I have been trying to learn to cook some of the things she would cook for supper-microwave food gets old. Last night I used two of your recipes, they were the easy peach cobbler and glazed ham steak to go along with green beans and taters and cornbread muffins. It was not as good as my wife would have done but the dog didn’t get any of it. I have noticed the blackberries blooming around here and think of my Daddy, he would always say it was now safe to plant anything, there will not be any more frost once the blackberries bloom. I am still praying for Granny and her family.
Randy-that sounds like a real feast 🙂
Randy, kudos to you for trying the recipes and I love that saying that there will be no more frost once the blackberries bloom!
I love blackberries. There is nothing better than a cobbler or jam from these delicious berries.
I hope you do get some blackberries.
I just purchased some raspberry bushes. I hope they take . Prayers from Granny to get home soon.
Tipper, do your blackberry briers have thorns? Where I’m from, we love them but you pay a price when picking them. They grow wild . I love blackberry cobbler and am full willing the endure the pricks and scratches to pick them.
James-the wild ones do and you’re right it’s a fight to get the berries 🙂
I can handle the thorns; no problem. The chiggers, OTH, reduce my pleasure in blackberry cobbler, considerably! 🙂