Here in Michigan, it’s time to start picking berries! In our neck of the woods, the wild black raspberries are reaching peak, and while strawberries are sadly over now, the mulberries are also reaching peak, and there may be other ones I don’t know about.
When I talk about the wild black raspberries, people smile and look away, and I know they are thinking, “Why on earth waste your time picking those tiny little berries?” After all, the red ones are also coming into season, and they are much larger and sweeter. I wish they would just say it out loud so I could sing the praises of the wild black raspberries!
We have been encouraging all the wild berries we can to grow in our yard. Yes, they do make quite the bramble patch, and yes, we have limited space, but oh how delicious those berries are–there really is nothing quite like them for making jam.
That’s stinging nettle in the right foreground.
Black raspberries are very high in antioxidants, too. This makes them very protective for your bod! And the seeds are a great source of cancer-fighting ellagic acid. All this in a delicious little package that keeps on coming for weeks.
The “king” berry, or the one in the middle that sticks out the farthest from the rest of the cluster, usually ripens to a deep purple before the others get started. When you pick this one, the energy devoted to that berry goes to the next one down, and so on. In this way, picking black raspberries may help encourage the rest to ripen more quickly. Or maybe, that’s just my wishful thinking!
Picking berries always makes me feel nostalgic. There is an old family story about my aunt from Colorado going over to the neighboring farm to pick berries–the same farm where my future uncle lived. She sure invested a lot of time “picking berries,” so there must be something special about it!
My grandma from Colorado used to make berry jam and put it into little jars and seal the top with wax. I have jars and I have wax; why not try some of Grandma’s old recipes?
Well, these are really wine bottle bottoms, and they are just a little too wide to make drinking glasses, and they are a little too plain to make into a vase. I think jelly jars are a good fit.
We’ll see how it goes! Can’t let those delicious berries go to waste!
The Fullers Four 