Another gallon of blackberries in the freezer , and I only lost a couple
ounces of blood and gained a handful of chigger bites ... What I expected to
be an hour and 3 pints or so turned into 3.5 hours well , I actually stood
in the road talking to the new neighbors for about 3/4 hour and over a
gallon of berries . I waited 3 days this time to pick , which it turns out
is a mistake . Too many over-ripe berries , pluck one and another falls too
.. And I sure ain't diggin' around in the weeds for a few berries , there's
bugs and snakes and stuff down there ! So from now until they're gone it'll
be every other day . And of course I'm not picking it all , the birds and
other small critters get their share . After all , they're the ones
responsible for us having the plants all over .
Speaking of all over , I noticed today that we have new canes growing in
areas that were bush hogged year-before-last by the utility company in their
easement for power poles , they keep the trees 30 feet away from the lines
so next year there'll be more places to pick . This year has been a banner
year for wild fruit , we've had just about the right mix of rainy and sunny
days . The blackberry patches are still covered up with unripened fruit . I
expect to harvest at a minimum another 4-6 gallons over the next few weeks .
And if all the muscadines on the vines make it to maturity , we'll be havin'
all kinds of fun makin' wine , jelly , and my wife has a great juice recipe
.. I may have to buy another freezer for what we won't have time to
process/room to store !
--
Snag
I guess tending wild fruit patches
counts as gardening ...