I love summer, when the blackberries are finally ready. Growing up I can remember picking off the sides of roads or in fields. In the spring, their flowers would let us know where to come back later in the summer to find the fresh, sweet goodness!
My mom was not a jelly maker or pie maker, so we never had to pick buckets of them like a lot of people I know will tell tales about. What we picked we ate usually right on the spot or would pick enough to take home with us for later.
When we got our first house, Keith and I planted them along a fence so that we could have our own berries. I really enjoyed them at that house. They really liked where they were planted and before we moved, our small patch produced enough for me to make a couple batches of jelly and several pies.
Our new house has so much shade, we never really thought about planting them, because we knew we would have a hard time finding a place for them. They sometimes would pop up in the ditch behind our house, and one year, they popped up along the path between our neighbors house and ours. Unfortunately, they were under some huge pine trees and never produced any fruit to speak of.
Then one year Betty got worried that the pines might fall one day on their house or our house, so she had Bill get them cut down. Lo and behold, the next year the vines took off. Now we have a nice little patch started. And, every morning when they are ready, Keith will pick all the ripe ones and bring them in with the paper for me to eat. Of course, the birds also enjoy our patch, which is why Keith picks daily, as they will clean us out in a heartbeat.
And, evidently, the deer must like them,too. This morning when Keith went picking he said you could smell that the deer had been there. We know they walk by them, we see their hoof marks on the mulch, but maybe they like to eat them, too. Anyway, this year there have been plenty for me to eat on a daily basis, not enough yet for jelly or pies, but I will share what I have with the birds and the deer for now.
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