Well, it’s that time of year again. I’ve been sitting in the woods waiting for the sun to come up the last two mornings. My hands and arms are marred with scratches and pin holes. My fingertips are a nice shade of light purple. Yep….The blackberries are ready for pickin’ in Eastern Kentucky.
Picking blackberries is one of those things I get to do all by my lonesome…which is perfect for me. I enjoy being in the woods and a voice other than the ones in my head would really ruin the time spent in the company of the flora and fauna. I spent a great deal of time today thinking of the things I’ve been taught or learned along the way from my time in a wild berry patch. Life’s lessons are everywhere if the world is quiet enough for you to hear them.
I can’t take credit for all of these…some were taught to me as a youngster by men older than I am now and wiser than I could ever hope to be. Others are observations I’ve made along the way. Regardless, for some odd reason I feel that they’re worth sharing.
1. Never pick berries that are below your knees. That just seems silly, doesn’t it? They’re just as good as the berries that are higher up on the canes. But…that blackberry patch isn’t exactly yours. You may own the property that it’s on, but those are wild blackberries and a lot of other creatures are counting on them as part of their summer diet. I know you want cobbler and jam, but there’s a whole host of woodland creatures that need what those berries offer in the way of nutrients and minerals. There are plenty of berries out there, so share and be courteous…it will help you out in the long run. If the deer can’t get the nutrients they need from the berries in the patch, they’ll come to your garden or your landscaping to get them. If there aren’t enough berries at browsing height, a bear will break off all the canes to bring the berries down where they can reach them. This is just a mutually beneficial guideline to follow….and anyway, being bent over all day to pick berries is hard on your back. Life’s lesson: Everybody wins when we respect each other’s needs.
2. All those green canes without a single berry on them…yeah, the ones that are always in the way, stabbing and slicing you as you try to get to the good stuff…avoid breaking or cutting those at all cost. They’re frustrating, they’re painful and when the wind blows there’s seemingly no escape from them. I’ve seen a lot of people brush-hog them out of the way or cut them out with pruners just to make the picking easier. Well, guess what…those canes are what produces next years berries and if you tear them up this year it will impact your harvest next year. Yeah, you’ve got to work a little harder to get around them and yeah you’re going to get stabbed, scratched and pricked no matter how careful you are. But anything worth having is worth working for…especially a harvest that’s still a year away. Life’s lesson: No matter how big or small, the things you do today will always impact your future.
3. I’ve come to find that the best blackberries are usually found in the shade…a north facing slope that doesn’t get much direct sunlight or hugged up against a tree. The canes seem to grow bigger and stronger where they get full sun, but the berries flourish in the shade. I haven’t done the research on this…I don’t know if anyone has ever done research on that..it’s just an observation. I do know however, that if I’m looking for the big, plump and juicy blackberries I’m going to find them where they get less light. Life’s Lesson: Just because someone’s in a dark place doesn’t mean they can’t be beautiful.
4. You never pick up a berry you drop. A man much older and wiser than I taught me that when I was young. If you fumble that blackberry and it hits the ground it wasn’t meant for you. That’s exactly how the lesson was worded, “It wasn’t meant for you”. And before you ask…that applies even if it’s a Guinness Book of Records sized berry that you fought a half mile of thicket to get your paws on. That was told to me probably four decades ago and the tone it was delivered in led me to believe it was a superstition of some sort having to do with bad luck. I’m not the superstitious type, but I’m also not the type to disregard the wisdom of my elders. So I’ve justified it to myself over the years by saying the worms and ants have to eat too. BUT…to this day…I’ve never had a run of bad luck in a blackberry patch. (knock on wood) Life’s Lesson: Never disregard the teachings of an old man eating apple slices straight off the blade of his pocket knife.
5. You don’t pick blackberries. You really don’t. You sort of “tickle” blackberries off the stem. If you have to pluck it off the stem then it isn’t ripe enough to harvest. Blackberries should almost fall off into your hand when you touch them. That’s how so many end up on the ground instead of in the bucket and why lesson #4 is so frustrating at times. If you have to apply pressure to get that berry in your possession then it wasn’t ready to go and you forced it. That’s how you end up with sour blackberries in the mix. Life’s Lesson: Everything in life is so much sweeter if you allow the necessary time and don’t force the issues.
6. Funny thing about a blackberry thicket…you can pick a cane clean, move three feet away from it, turn around to look back and sure enough you’ll see berries you missed. Then there’s the times you see a bunch of really big berries a few feet away and spend ten minutes struggling through the thicket to get to those berries because they’re gorgeous…only to get there and realize that they can’t be “tickled” off the stem because they’re just not ripe enough. Then you turn to see the five pounds of berries you walked right past (or maybe crushed under foot) just to get to something you thought was better. Life’s Lesson: Take the time to make the most of the moment you’re in.
7. It’s quick and easy to fill a bucket up with blackberries. But, it’s a long arduous job to fill a bucket with perfectly ripened, sweet and succulent blackberries. When you look at a blackberry cane you’ll find berries in every stage of development. You’ll see everything from brand new white berries to ripening red berries and fully ripened “ready to go in the bucket” black berries….and every stage in between. If you’re going to go into a thicket and pick every berry that’s “close enough” to ripe you can fill a five gallon bucket in about an hour…but your berries will be a little tough and your cobblers, pies, cakes and jam will be a little sour. If you take your time and “tickle” the ripe berries from the canes, you’ll spend half a day in the patch for just a couple gallons of berries…but that hard work will be rewarded when you’re spreading blackberry jam that’s better than anything you can buy in a supermarket. Life’s Lesson: If it’s worth doing…it’s worth taking the time to do it right.
So that’s the end of my musings from the day in the blackberry patch. Just know that for the next week or so if I wave at you and you notice my fingertips are kind of purple, it’s not some dreaded disease and my circulation is just fine….It’s simply that time of year….the Blackberries are on!