Picking Berries

Last Friday I spent the day with my dad, mom, and baby sisters for some much needed get-away time in country. Daddy took me to lunch at the local café and it was so nice running into old friends and church members that I had not seen in a while. It was nice to be able to just relax and spend several hours visiting with my Daddy—we are all so busy it is rare for me to have him all to myself.

We had a busy day that involved some of the grandparents dropping by, and aunt and some cousins stopped in for a little while.

We ended our fun day by picking blackberries on our farm. Ever since I was young, we have always picked berries for jelly and cobblers. Often times my aunts and grandmothers would come pick with us and it was like a party.

There are three different varieties of blackberry that grow wild in that area. Dewberries—which is what we picked Friday—are ripe at the beginning of April. The berries are huge and there are not as many thorns on the vines.  Dewberries are our favorite. They grow close to the ground in most cases and they are great for little kids to pick.

Mayberries ripen in early May. The berries are a little smaller than dewberries. Then there are blackberries that ripen around the end of June-beginning of July. The berries are small and have lots of thorns on the vines. We usually don’t pick blackberries because they are not as people-friendly as the first two and the snake factor goes up considerably in the summer months. I can remember being young and picking blackberries and seeing rattlesnakes. In addition to the snake factor, it is so hot during the summer months that it just isn’t worth the  effort for the berries. Usually during April and May we pick berries every other day.

Below are some peeks into our evening.

When sat down and began to eat berries it made up think of the story about Little Sal, so of course I had to take a picture ;)

Lydia was ever vigilant to go ahead of us and find berry “jackpots”.

We were blessed in our efforts and after a short while had picked well over a gallon of berries. Mom sent a gallon Ziploc bag home with me for my jelly making plans. But that is for another post.