I had totally given up on the blackberry patch in the field south of the house. They have very robust canes with vicious thorns, and the berries never tasted good to me. I even questioned whether they might be an invasive non-native, and I was thinking we should try to eradicate that patch and just have prairie in the field. They were prolific, with big, beautiful berries, but they had no flavor except bitter. Until this year. This year, they actually taste good.
I may know a fair bit about trees and many forest plants, but I’m not a blackberry expert. My beloved blackcap raspberries (Rubus occidentalis) are distinctive enough that they get their own recognition as “blackcaps”. But most of the other plants in the genus Rubus are variable enough that when it comes to blackberries, I usually just call them Rubus spp. or brambles. The common blackberry that we often find here is Rubus allegheniensis, and that is probably what we have in the south field. There are a couple of invasive Rubus that we need to be on the lookout for. One of them is wineberry, Rubus phoenicolasius, which you would probably recognize first as a raspberry that didn’t look quite right… the fruit ripens rich red and it has dense fine red hairs on its prickly canes. The other is Himalayan blackberry, Rubus armeniacus, which is a big invader in the Pacific Northwest. It looks much like the common bramble blackberry “on steroids”, but supposedly they aren’t present in Iowa or Wisconsin yet. I was afraid my robust blackberries might be the Himalayan blackberry, but the back of the leaves of mine are more green-colored than felty white-colored, which should mean I just have good old native brambles. I guess if they taste ok and they’re not invasive, maybe we won’t be in a hurry to try to extirpate them. And I have several jars of fresh, delicious blackberry jelly and puree that I wouldn’t have if I’d given up on them.
Meanwhile I contemplate why they taste good this year, and not good other years. Perhaps it is the quality of the season. Conditions this season must be particularly favorable for good fruit. I contemplate how this kind of compares to life… during some seasons our fruit (attitude?) is better than others, and that may be affected by the conditions we are experiencing during that season. So just like I’m glad I didn’t give up on my blackberries, I guess I shouldn’t give up on some of the sour people I encounter… they may just be having a bad season!
Ok, back to science and reality. Another point is that sometimes there is a genetic component to good fruit. During our wild foods workshop this last weekend, Chris Gavin mentioned that. For instance, you may find a nut tree that consistently produces larger nuts, or a fruit tree that consistently has better tasting fruit. Those are trees that you will want to revisit year after year for your harvest. That is why plant breeders can select and release improved varieties. Chris also mentioned that he’s noticed that blackberries tend to vary from season to season, so it isn’t all genetics.
Last weekend, we had a great time at Chris Gavin’s “Preparation of Wild Harvested Foods” workshop. We learned, we collected, we ate, we learned more, we cooked, we chatted, we ate more…! I truly enjoy the people who come to this type of event, and when we bring in excellent instructors, all the participants have a great experience. All the instructors so far say they’d be willing to come back again, so there will be more opportunities! In less than two weeks, we will have Sam Thayer here again. I haven’t said a lot about that upcoming workshop because it was fully booked before Sam came for the additional June workshop. Andi Reisdorf’s workshop on mushroom foraging on October 12th is already over half full, with many people saying, “I should sign up for that…”. If you’re one of those people and you really want in on it, you should probably sign up soon! We just added a family-friendly “Going Nuts” weekend in October, and we also plan to add a ½ day charcuterie board making workshop later in October. I moved the monthly “women’s walk in the woods” to Sunday afternoons. And I added a “Tea with bread and jam” on August 25 for those who don’t want to do a long hike but want to come see what is going on at Iowisota (maybe with blackberry jam!). You can check the events page of the website and/or follow the Iowisota Facebook page to make sure you don’t miss out on new events.
I have rambled on longer than I usually do, so I will sign off now. I guess that is what happens when I try to throw in nature observations, science, philosophical thoughts AND event updates all in the same blog! Anyhow, I hope you’re having a good season!
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