I’ve found more raspberries!
When we built our house, a lot of ground was disrupted. I looked and looked, hoping for wild blackberries and raspberries, but didn’t find any. Now I’ve found both–and lots of them! There’s a huge patch of wild blackberries back behind the house, on the hillside between the house and BP-land. And I’m finding more small patches of wild raspberries all the time, up and down the driveway and even up by the house.
Over the past few years, desperate for my own berries, we’ve planted a number of bushes–blackberry (the thornless kind), blueberries, elderberries, and raspberries. I’ll get a few berries this year off those plants.
My blueberries:
I’m excited about the berries we’ve planted, and I was very excited about finding the wild blackberry patch (which is huge!), but I’m even more excited about the raspberries because I just wasn’t expecting that at all. Wild blackberries are more common around here than wild raspberries, so it feels like magic.
One of the patches of wild raspberries along the driveway:
Every day, I check on my newly-discovered magic berries.
I collect them as they ripen for fear the birds will get them if I wait till they are all ripe. I expect eventually I might get a whole cup OR SO! But that is not the point!
See, I’m not raspberry picking. I’m collecting. Raspberry picking sounds like it might involve a bucket. This just involves a little baggie. I collect raspberries, savoring each one, holding onto them like prized possessions, tucking them away at some times, at other times showing them off. Picking is about quantity.
Collecting is all about the journey……
Miss Judy says:
We used to have wild raspberries(they were very special) when I was a kid in Ohio, also blackberries, and dewberries. Here in Missouri all I ever see are wild blackberries.
On June 17, 2011 at 4:19 am
lavenderblue says:
How does one tell the difference between raspberries and blackberries. All blackberries go from green to red to black, don’t they? How do you tell which bushes are going to continue ripening and are blackberry bushes and which ones you don’t have to wait to turn black ’cause they are raspberries? Different leaves?
Also, can you reclaim blackberries that aren’t that flavorful? We have a little patch of volunteer blackberries but they are small and not sweet. I made jam one year with them and there was no blackberry flavor to it. (Yes, I can tell the difference between blackberries and raspberries in my yard; the blackberries are on the side of the house, raspberries are the plants by the fence that my sister gave to me. I meant in the wild.)
On June 17, 2011 at 4:51 am
Granny Trace says:
happy collecting.
Granny Trace
http://www.grannytracescrapsandsquares.com
On June 17, 2011 at 7:27 am
Glenda says:
We have too many cows to ever get the wild berries here. I know I have seen the berry vines here and there but we just let the animals have them.
I did get my first picking of tame black raspberries this year and I was so excited when I saw them, I stopped the mower and got a bowl and picked. I got 5 cups…..perfect for a batch of jam.
I used the li
On June 17, 2011 at 8:12 am
Glenda says:
Whoops, don’t know what happened but it posted a bit too soon!
I was going to say that I used the liquid pectin for the first time…..I won’t do that again! It made a very soft jam….not the way I like it. I followed the directions perfectly since I was new to the product. It tastes delicious but too soft.
We have the dreaded Japanese Beetle here and I saw a couple on the raspberries. I have lost the last two year’s crop of ripe blackberries to them! I probably will this year too.
On June 17, 2011 at 8:15 am
GrammieEarth says:
lavenderblue- the difference between blackberries and rasberries is easily decided by the amout of bleed happening on your body!!! Blackberry thorns are unrelenting, whilst rasberries merely give you a little scratch! That being said, 40+ years later I still pick both :sun:
On June 17, 2011 at 8:22 am
GrammieEarth says:
p.s. The best berries are always found when you lift the cane!
On June 17, 2011 at 8:25 am
tinamanley says:
I went blackberry picking yesterday and ended up with more chiggers than blackberries! Be careful out there!
Tina
On June 17, 2011 at 8:34 am
langela says:
Suzanne, could you post a photo of your elderberries? I think we have some wild ones here but don’t want to poison my family if I’m wrong. I also just discovered we have wild black raspberries out back. We were mowing under a huge mulberry tree so we could harvest it and found lots of raspberries just forming on their canes. I hope we can get to them before the birds do.
On June 17, 2011 at 8:35 am
shannan says:
Ohhh Berries! I have quite a few black raspberry patches I check every day, but so far none ripe. We have gotten a lot of rain and little sun. I think they need sun to plump up and get ripe. I have my husband checking the black berry patch behind the pallet mill every day. His motivation is he loves black berry cobbler. They are still green. Soon I will be wearing my new perfume “Deep Woods Off” and collecting too. Happy Berry Hunting!
On June 17, 2011 at 8:56 am
TinaBell says:
How very Zen of you, Suzanne! It IS all about the journey…You are so fortunate to have all those berries!
On June 17, 2011 at 9:19 am
Imperious Fig says:
@lavenderblue – raspberries have three leaflets wheras blackberries have five. Also, raspberries are hollow when you pick them (almost cup shaped) and blackberries keep their stems. I agree that blackberry thorns are relentless – the thorns are angled every-which-way (and raspberries all face the same direction – making it easier to pick them). Raspberries leave also tend to look “white” when turned over and blackberries do not.
On June 17, 2011 at 9:37 am
joykenn says:
I planted a couple of canes of raspberries which then proceeded to multiply like crazy so I have a very large patch now. I nothing to them so I consider them semi-wild. Unlike the blackberries I’m used to, raspberries are lovely beautiful glowing red when ripe and never get darker. There is nothing more magical than strolling through the berries–eating one here, putting one in a cup there, til you’re so full of berries with maybe a few in your cup. Grammieearth is right about the thorns. I’ve come out of a blackberry patch with wounds everywhere while raspberries seem much more forgiving. I’ve even gathered them in shorts which I wouldn’t dare do with a well developed blackberry patch.
On June 17, 2011 at 9:41 am
jan n tn says:
Has anyone ever tried to transplant wild berry bush/patches to a more accessible location (like away from the snake arbor, or up the hill by 100 more feet)? Or get them under control (somehow) with fencing? Does that work? I know WILD means WILD, but are we unable to tame them in some way?
On June 17, 2011 at 10:00 am
sarainva says:
I think they may actually be wineberries. I loved them but my arborist husband pulled them up and planted thornless raspberries, he says they are invasive, brought by birds. Sure were sweet. But I like the new ones too! And no scratchies.
On June 17, 2011 at 11:23 am
Suzanne McMinn says:
I don’t believe these are wineberries.
https://www.dcnr.state.pa.us/forestry/invasivetutorial/wineberry.htm
(Though I wouldn’t mind if they were!)
Wineberries have reddish hairs covering the canes, and these don’t have that. Also, these turn black when they’re fully ripe. We do have wild black raspberries in WV.
On June 17, 2011 at 12:23 pm
oct4luv says:
I was so happy to discover the wild blackberry bushes near our house. I live in the suburbs so it is a real treat. They taste so much better than the ones from the store!
On June 17, 2011 at 1:17 pm
mrsdmahogany says:
Just last night I went out to our vegetable/fruit gardens and sadly discovered that the birds ate all my blueberries off my plants. This is year 2 of them and they were just growing some nice little berries. I was so disheartened!! We are unable to grow blackberries here due to our Zone, but those are my absolute favorite berry. Enjoy your treasures!!!
Dianna
On June 17, 2011 at 2:28 pm
BeverlyC says:
Mmmmmmm…..Blackberries are my fave! :hungry:
On June 21, 2011 at 11:14 pm
Diane in Upstate NY says:
When I bought my farm two years ago, it came with lots of surprises, some of them not too happy. But one of the happy ones was that almost the entire property is ringed with wild blackberry and raspberry bushes. Last year, I planted strawberries and harvested six whole berries! The chipmunk got two or three. There are also teensy wild strawberries in the grass behind the house, providing me with an excuse not to mow the lawn. This spring, I planted six blueberry bushes. I’m hoping for a nice crop next summer.
On June 22, 2011 at 2:15 pm
Runningtrails says:
You know, you can dig up those berry bushes from wherever they may be and put them in a wine garden. 🙂
On June 22, 2011 at 8:24 pm