Summer Fruit: Ode to the blackberries (the fruit!)

On the West Coast, summer time is fruit time. This week - and the next few weeks - roadsides are ripe with black gorgeous and juicy fruit (Rubus armeniacus), commonly known as Himalayan blackberry. On Saturna, blackberries are literally dripping from tall and vigorous vines.

Above: Blackberry blossom and buds... the promise of things to come.

The picking is easy, if you choose areas where the vine is lower to the ground, and fairly open. It gets tricky in large patches where the vines interlace and use other vegetation to climb, putting all those luscious berries 10 to 15 feet above the ground. Oh, and did I mention it has nasty thorns? The scratches on my legs and arms are the price I pay for all that goodness!!!

Above: Blackberry and nectarine fruit cake, in the making.

I have already picked several containers of the berries, and plan to get much more, which I'll flash freeze, then keep in baggies in the deep freeze... for deepest winter.

And what does one do with all that juicy, tasty, black richness? Fruit pies and cakes, of course! Also, I have to check out my supply of jam jars... because there will be jam and jelly in my cupboards.

At least, this invasive species has a good side. But just in case, I am linking to the GOERT website, which has a worksheet on Blackberry control, and the Canadian Environmental Network, which also discusses the plant. After tangling with blackberries, just picking or trimming them, I can vouch that trimming or containing this plant can seem like a hopeless task. And a bloody one, too...