Black Raspberries

The wild black raspberries are on.    They're a couple of weeks late this year, but the harvest looks like a good one.

Black raspberries ripen one a time per cluster.  It's rare to find more than that, so the daily pickings are slim and to get them all, you have to keep going back.   We pick twice a week or so until they're gone or until we have enough for jam. 

We pick first thing in the morning, when it's cool and the dew is all over everything.   It's wet work, fraught with thorns and spiderwebs, but the cat and the dog keep us company and we're often serenaded by one of our Yellow Breasted Chats.   We see the occasional green snake twined around a cane.   The daddy long legs love the berries as much as we do, but they often hide when we disturb the canes.  

When the berries are fully ripe, they pull off easily.   If one resists, then you know it's not ripe enough yet.  

We make just plain black raspberry jam with them and guard each jar jealously so we can make these Raspberry White Chocolate Bars during the holidays.    Worth every spiderweb and thorn!

Here's the link to Black Raspberry Jam - full sugar version with regular pectin.
Here's the link to the low sugar version of Black Raspberry Jam.  [My favorite!]

For more jam recipes as easy as these, check out my ebook on the sidebar.  A Simple Jar of Jam: 180+ recipes & variations for jam using low sugar pectin.  Every purchase goes a long way toward supporting the blog.   Thank you!

Euonymus Berries

It's so nice to see color this time of year.   We have a lot of these little trees. I'm pretty sure it's Euonymus atropurpureus.   They stay in the understory and in years with good rainy springs, they fruit.   Gotta love that winter red.

Cedar Berries - Juniper Berries

These are the berries of the eastern red cedar tree - Juniperus virginiana.   They're so pretty - especially this time of year when all the leaves are down.

I did a search for information on the uses of the berries and discovered that many places sell cedar berries - but it's a different cedar, Juniperus monosperma.  

So, I did another search and found that some people do indeed eat/use berries from both the eastern red cedar [Juniperus virginiana] and the southern red cedar [Juniperus silicicola]. 

Note:  According to this site from the University of Florida, some botanists don't make a distinction between  J. virginiana and J. silicicola.   

People seem to think they're OK when used as a flavoring [for gin, meat, sauerbraten], but not eaten in bunches. 

Spicebush Berries

If you look hard at this pic, or better yet, click it to blow it up, you'll see a whole lot of red berries.   Those are the berries of the spicebush - Lindera benzoin.    We have loads of these.

They loved the early monsoons we had around here and flowered like crazy and now are fruiting like crazy.

The berries - more properly called 'drupes' - are small and brilliant.   The birds, possums and racoons love them.

Which is why we have them all over the place here.  

At any rate, they are very very pretty even on the dusty bushes by the road. 

I just found out that these are edible.   They taste very strongly of allspice.  Check out this site and this site for more information.

Elderberries Ripening

This is an elderberry bush down the way from us.   It's in a waste area near the road and I'll be able to harvest those berries when they're ripe and make Elderberry Jelly, which is my all time favorite jelly EVER.   

Watching berries ripen is like watching paint dry.   Only slower.  Or water boil.   Only a LOT slower.

It's nearer to watching grass grow.   Except our berries ripen even slower than the grass grows out here.  

Elderberry Progress

All six of my elderberry starts are alive.  This is the happiest one.  We planted it just up from the chicken coop at a place that gets a lot of run-off from the hills in the spring and then the veg garden all summer.

I think it likes it there.

Buckbrush [Coralberrry]

This is a great time of year to find plants and identify things that get lost in all of the green of Greene County.    Over the next few days, I'll be showing you some of the wild autumn berries that we find out here.   Some will be familiar; some won't.  

It's tricky doing a search for weed fruit.   The vast majority of search sites want to know the leaves and flowers.   That's a problem in November when there are no more flowers and most of the leaves were down.   I was lucky that the leaves were still on this plant.   That helped a lot.

Here is a great site for identifying wild berries, etc.:  www.wildflower.org.  It's the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center out of Texas.   Fabulous database with pics. 

[Note:  Avoid any eHow  or Ask.com site.  They're worthless.]

This plant was a brand new one for me.    I'd never noticed anything like it before and the irregularity of the berries really surprised me.    [We see that type of thing with blackberries that have been infected by a rust [fungus], but never a fall berry like this.]   Plus, it was decidedly pink - not the cranberry, fire engine red that we normally see out here.

This is Symphoricarpos orbiculatus.  It's common names are coralberry, Indian currant and buckbrush.    It is mildly poisonous, so don't try eating one.   It's in the honeysuckle family and the LBJ Wildflower Center recommends it as a great plant for naturalizing.

Cool!  I can see why they love it.

Here's a follow-up search hint:  Once you think you've identified your plant, go back and do another Google [or whatever] photo search using the name you just found for the plant.  That'll help pull up more photos and information so you can verify the identification and also maybe find out exactly what species you might have. 

Blackberry Heaven

The first thing to move in after we did was the blackberries.   Our place had been grazed by cattle for over a century.   We did not have a single blooming dogwood or redbud on this place.   We did not have a tractor either, so the big mowing stopped when we moved here.

And the blackberries moved right on in.  These are the classic 'brambles'.   The berries are good, but smaller than commercial blackberries.  The seeds are bitter, so it's best to make jelly and syrup with it and take the seeds out.

I mow around the big patches as closely as I can so that they're easier to get to to pick.   That also helps control them - a bit.

We have a tractor now and as soon as it's up and running and we learn how to drive it, then we have plans for maintaining the blackberries in a more reasonable way.

Here's a pic of some of the berries on the big hill.  Blow it up for a better view.   They're blooming now and the whole hill looks and smells wonderful. 

Here's a pic of just one of the patches.  The canes at the center are around 8 feet tall.   We have other patches where the canes are taller. 

Scary.  

We've got those scheduled for 'maintenance' first. 

Maintenance will consist of mowing off 4' rows. in three sections.  One section will be path [grass].  One section will be mowed right away to let grow up over the year so that we can harvest next year [2013].    In the fall after harvest, we'll mow off what we picked on this year and let it get started growing for the following year [2014].  Then it's just a matter of keeping the paths always mowed and then mowing this year's berries after harvest so they can get going again.

Why 4'?   Because that's what I can lean into to pick through.    And if we lose a year for some reason, a 4' row would be easier for me to take out with the little riding mower.  

The Berry Bible

This lovely book by Janie Hibler is a fabulous compendium of information about all aspects of berry growing, harvesting, preserving and cooking.

It starts with an A-Z encyclopedia of berries of all kinds:  arbutus, sumac, thimbleberries and a lot of other exotic berries in addition to the standard blueberries, strawberries, etc.    Each listing contains information on the common names, scientific classification, habitat, history, commercial uses, harvest, storage and notes for the cook.   This section alone is worth the price of the book.

But there's more!  The next 170 pages are full of all kinds of berry recipes.

This is a wonderful book!  We find ourselves using this valuable resource more and more.  

Strawberry Rhubarb Jam

I needed some red jam in the cupboard.   We love strawberry rhubarb pie, so I thought I'm make some strawberry rhubarb jam this year.

This is an easy, pectin free recipe.    And it's a beautiful red!

Strawberry Rhubarb Jam 

• 5 cups chopped rhubarb, fresh or frozen
• 3 cups strawberries, fresh or frozen
• 5 cups sugar
• 1/4 cup water

Put the rhubarb, water, strawberries and sugar in a pot.  Stir frequently until sugar is dissolved.  Mash whole berries if necessary.  Simmer for an hour or so to thicken.    Ladle into jars.   Process 10 minutes for pints and jelly jars.  Makes about 4 pints.

Option:   Add a vanilla bean in with the fruit for Strawberry Rhubarb Vanilla jam.  Delicious!!

Want the recipe for this jam and a whole lot of other terrific jam recipes?   Check out my ebook:  A Simple Jar of Jam  at www.rurification.etsy.com.   You can preview the book by clicking the link on the sidebar.  Every purchase helps support this site.  Thank you! 

Blueberry Lime Jam

Remember all those blueberries we picked in June?   Since we were doing peaches at the same time, I froze the blueberries.    It's easy to make jam with frozen berries later.

Last weekend was later.

I had heard about Blueberry Lime jam from Chickens in the Road and then when I was reading through the Ball Blue Book for ideas, I found another version of that recipe and decided that it was a good excuse to use the leftover-getting-kind-of-hard-on-the-outside-key limes I had in the fridge.    I jiggled the proportions a bit and here's my version.    It was a big hit with everyone in the family.

Blueberry Lime Jam

• 5 cups blueberries [fresh or frozen]
• 1 cup water
• 3 T Ball pectin [1 pkg]
• 5 cups sugar
• Juice of three key limes - about 1/3 cup.
• Some lime zest - up to a Tablespoon

Dissolve the pectin in the water and add the blueberries.   Heat and mash.   Bring to boil.   Boil hard for 1 minute.  Add sugar.   Stir to dissolve.  Add lime juice and zest.   Bring to boil.  Boil hard for 1 minute.  Ladle into jars.   Process 10 minutes for pints and jelly jars.

This jam looks like blackberry jam and raspberry jam.   Label the jars as soon as the lids are on so you don't confuse them with something else later.

Black Raspberry Jam - Full Sugar Recipe

I love my black raspberries.  They are wild ones.  We pick them in the heat of the summer, risking life and limb, clambering about on the hillsides at the edges of the woods.   The canes are whippy and full of thorns, but the berries are worth it.  The fruit ripens slowly, so we pick every two or three days beginning in June for about 5 weeks until the last ones are harvested. 

By then, the blackberries are full on and it's tempting to just toss them all together in the freezer, but I don't.   We keep the raspberries separate.   K1 and I love raspberry jam, so I took all of the raspberries out of the freezer and made jam with the whole lot.  It's one of the easiest jams to make and the final product is jewel-like and tastes of hot summer days and sweet rain.  

Black Raspberry Jam

• 8-10 cups raspberries, crushed [leave the seeds in]
• 3 T Ball pectin [1 pkg]
• 7 cups sugar

Put the berries in a large pot.  Sprinkle the pectin on the berries and juice, turn on the heat and stir, stir, stir until it boils.   Boil hard for 1 minute.    Add sugar.   Return to boil.   Boil hard for 1 minute.   Pour into jars.   Process 10 minutes for pints and jelly jars.    Makes 5.5 pints.

Note:  This jam looks just like a lot of other jams.   Leaving the seeds in will help you identify which is the black raspberry and which isn't.     I make true jelly [no seeds] with the blackberries, regular jam with the black raspberries [with seeds], and jam with the blueberries [tiny seeds].   Remember to label them as soon as the lids are on so you won't confuse them with something else later.

For a low sugar version of Black Raspberry Jam as easy as this one, check out my ebook on the sidebar.  A Simple Jar of Jam: 180+ recipes & variations for jam using low sugar pectin.  Every purchase goes a long way toward supporting the blog.   Thank you!