I’ve been spending a lot of time out in the Blueberry patch this August. It’s been a great summer for berry pickers!
Blueberries
In some places the Blueberries are so plentiful they look like grapes hanging on the vine. After 3 years of mediocre Blueberry crops, the plants must have been more than ready to burst forth with a flourish. The abundant rain and cool temperatures of this summer are what Blueberry plants really like. The forest and all the mosses and lichens have been replenished, it’s like the forest has said aaaaaah! just like after taking a long cool drink of water on a hot summer day. In July alone we received over 4 inches of rain in the Crane Lake area. Like a lot of the flowering plants this year, the Blueberries seem to be a little behind their normal fruit bearing time. The Blueberries are still yielding good size harvests if you find the right spot.
Blackberries
And now the wild Blackberries are starting to produce. They are a little easier to pick although you do have to watch out for their prickly canes.
Blackberry
An interesting tidbit of needless trivia is that when the Blackberry fruit detaches from the bud, the receptacle is included with the berry. With Raspberries, the receptacle will be left protruding from the plant stem. A Raspberry fruit is hollow.
Wild Raspberry core
And that’s how you can tell you are picking a true Blackberry and not a “Black” Raspberry.
You truly have a great blog! I am surprised you have very few comments..must join twitter or facebook to show off this wonderful blog you have!
Thank you for the kind comment. I do have a Twitter account set up as Deebirder, I’ve also got a facebook account, but I haven’t been using it. I’m too busy out in the woods! This winter will have me inside hibernating and surfing the web.