better hurry before the birds get them! I'm always too late for my trip down by the lake to get any of ours! One year I made a wonderful Raspberry Jam and mailed it all to my Mom in Florida :)
I am hoping that next year my berries will have enough fruit to make it work picking. If they do, then you must post your recipe for jam. I haven't had homemade jam since my grandmother passed away in 1995. What a treat that will be!
We are too. We have had several different patches around out house, one came in early and didn't really make that much, one is producing now and it is doing very well, and there is one more that probably wont' come in for another two weeks or so and if it makes like it appears we will be covered up with them. Thank goodness for a freezer. They won't go to waste I promise you that.
Beautiful! Sadly, I had to cut mine back 30 feet....the entire length of the property...they had become so invasive strangling the other plants in the yard. Next I have encroaching sumac...thats just a PITA to get up the root system. But I am currently preparing to build a barn where they now stand. The property I came upon was so bad used as a junkyard by the looks of it. It has taken me over 3 years to get it to a pallet I can work with. Just now designing the yard. Enjoy your berries! I
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enjoy them on pancakes with whipped cream. Our growing season here is short so I freeze them for winter muffin baking.
Umm Jacqueline, that sounds good! We are eating them in fruit bowls or by the hand full. We have tons of them here, but not much pretty stuff has grown back in the spots that we disturbed. I am on a diet Tim, so no pies for me!!!
Blackberries are flowers at first, then a small green bud that swells to a large green bud. Then they will gradually turn red and shortly after that they become black. If they are firm and black they will usually still be very tart. When they soften a bit they are at their sweetest and you rarely ever get them in the market like that because when they are fully ripe they can't be shipped or they will rot. Picking them fresh and judging which are the ripest as you pick them will give you something you can't get in the store.
@Paul - thank you for clearing that up!! Flower, green bud, BIGGER green bud, turns red, turns black but still firm so will make you pucker cuz it's tart, wait a little longer until soft - then it's PERFECT!! Got it ;~) LOL
LeeAnne I understand about the soil issues. I have a small plot here that borders 25 acres of lanlocked forest which I have so far put 3/4 mile trail through. I keep livestock and rotate the pens each year. When I clean up the pig pen after moving them....I use that soil in problem spots. It works wonderfully. This year I will put the pigs right where the problem overgrowth was. They will root it all up for me and turn it over nicely.
Brilliant! I took my "seasoned" horse manure & thought it would fertilize some terraces....I have thick wheat grass!!! I need some pigs to get rid of it.LOL
http://www.wikihow.com/Tell-Raspberries-and-...
Hope the birds don't get them first!