Yay! The dewberries started getting ripe right after the first of the
rains last week. We've been able to pick some for several days and
most of them were plump little guys. If the rain keeps up, maybe this
will be a good berry year.

The wild blackberries, for the most part, aren't ready yet but I
picked about a half dozen while we were looking for dewberries. They
still look smallish and I don't know if they're going to plump up. On
the other hand, DH picked one berry off the Kiowi we planted last
year. It's HUGE! It's about 2 inches long and 1 inch across. It was
billed as a whopper blackberry, with berries getting up to 3 inches in
length, but I didn't believe the hype until now. Has anyone else
grown Kiowi? It has some wicked thorns on it. We also planted some
thornless varieties (Arapaho and Ouachita) at the same time but they
seem to be less vigorous. Anyone with experience with thornless
blackberries?

We bought another set of blackberry gloves today, the kind that go all
the way up to the elbow. We fought over the single pair we had last
year. Maybe another pair will keep down the squabbling.

Personally, I think berry picking should be done in an air conditioned
suit of armor.

bluechick