Welcome The Volunteers

There's nothing better than volunteer fruit--especially when it's my favorite fruit. I was thrilled when I saw these fat black berries peeking out from a weedy patch in my little field.

When I spied them last week, they were red and I thought they were raspberries. That was okay, but I like blackberries better. You can imagine my delight when I walked out there and saw them transformed to that nice dull
black luster.

Can you spot those black nuggets of sweetness in that field of green?


There will be blackberry cobbler tonight!


Isn't it interesting that the blackberries that I am growing deliberately are still green, while the wild blackberries are ripe for the picking?

Apricots and blackberries are two of my favorite fruits, with cranberries coming in a close second.

What's your favorite fruit? Do you fix them any special way, like pies or smoothies?

I am a lazy cook at best, but blackberries are the one fruit that I am willing to go through the trouble of using in a recipe. My dream is to someday make blackberry preserves.

Finding tasty volunteers on your homestead is like finding treasure.

LOL! It doesn't take much to make me happy, does it?

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Pssst...There's a Killer Campaign post tomorrow.

Comments

Marianne Arkins said…
I LOVE blackberries. In California, they grow everywhere. You could walk along the side of the road and find them. We don't really get them here... we have a few volunteers, but the berries are small and few.

I think blackberries and cherries are my favorite fruits.

I'm overflowing with berry envy. Enjoy!!!
Maria Zannini said…
I used to see more wild berry vines than I do now. People are keeping their land too pristine.

But the vines are welcome to roam my field. I love it.
Dru said…
I'm not a fan of berries, I can only eat a few straweberries and those have to be extremely sweet.

My favorite fruits are melons, cherries, and grapes.

Have a good Thursday.
Maria Zannini said…
Dru: I love grapes. This is my first year to grow grapes too.

I'm anxious to see how they do.

See, Dru. I'm all ready for you. :grin:

I would have planted cherry trees, but my nursery was sold out by the time I went in. I'll try again in the fall.
Jackie said…
Maria, I love wild berries. The Dewberries have vines on our road side that comes into the forested neighborhood that i live in and when they ripen this summer my Mom and I will try to beat the wildlife to some of them to eat.. I had a wild grapevine for a couple of years and had to oust it because it killed all the shrubs it was growing on and now they are gone as well as my wild purple grapes..

Nice to live out of town though, it is cool to find naturally growing wild anything for me, even if I do not eat it!!!

jackie b central texas
Marian Perera said…
My favorite fruits are the ones you can't find easily in a market here... but which grow all over the place in Sri Lanka.

Mangos, guavas and papayas, most of all. If coconuts count as a fruit, the big orange ones where you drink the sweet water and slice off a piece of the outer shell so you can scrape and eat the even sweeter white pulp.

And then there are the fruits for which I don't have anglicized names - nel-li, which is so sour it puckers your mouth, and amberella, which has to be eaten unripe and peeled first. Plus, its seed is large and sprouts fibers, which are annoying if they get caught between your teeth.

But the fruit tastes tart and tangy and unforgettable. It makes good chutney too.
Maria Zannini said…
Jackie:

Ref: grapes
No kidding? I didn't realize they could be so invasive.

This is going to be my first experience with grapes. Hopefully I've given them enough room.
Maria Zannini said…
Marian:

Ah, you like the exotic stuff.

I used to be a HUGE fan of mangoes but one year I had a serious run in with poison ivy. After that, I became allergic to mangoes. My lips swell up like Angelina Jolie.

That wouldn't be so bad but they also itch like crazy.

Mangoes and poison ivy share the same family.

At first I refused to believe it was the mangoes that set me off, so I did an experiment and rubbed just a tiny slice of the cut fruit on my top lip. Within 24 hours it swelled up.

Allergen confirmed. No more mangoes for me. :(
Jackie said…
Maria, if you have someplace where the vines have room to grow you are fine. What mine did was get too many and too heavy and they smothered the Shrubbery that they grew into and on top of until eventually they died. The grapes were good for making jam and jelly but the problem was the birds and insects would ruin them before I got any once they ripened so eventually the entire mess got chopped up and burned...


I miss seeing it in our backyard though because the birds loved to nest in the "jungle" that the vines created and I love to watch our bird population fairly close rather than in the forest around us...
jackie b central texas
Maria Zannini said…
Hubby promised to build me a sturdy trellis, so I'm hoping that will help.
Jackie said…
It will make all the difference in the world and you will love the effect once the vines mature and thicken out in foilage, it is so pretty especially when they are loaded with grapes. My favorite child hood exploring was done on a creek bank with big old grape vines my cousin and myself used for swings!!!

My least fave memory was when we found the ticks that were from the vines in our clothes and attached to our bodies.... :(

jackie b central texas
Sherri said…
Growing grapes for the first time here too Maria. I plan to tie small pie tins to the vines to help keep the birds away from the fruit...worked with my parents blueberries so hoping it'll work for the grapes.

Ref: favorite
Hm, I guess blueberries and apples would be at the top. Don't think I've met a fruit I didn't like, LOL

As to what I do with them -- assuming they make it into the kitchen without me eating them -- why, pie of course *wink*
Maria Zannini said…
Sherri:

Ref: pie tins!!

I forgot all about that trick. Thanks for reminding me.