The blackberries that grow wild in my yard aren’t as perfectly formed as the genetically modified ones to be found at the grocery store, but they are tasty. I let them grow where they will and over the years the number of brambles has increased along with the amount of fruit.
Nova Scotia is known for its abundance of berries. Like other wild berries, blackberries are full of vitamins and minerals that make them an excellent food choice. For maximum nutritional value, they are best eaten raw, fresh off the vine.
For dessert, they can be piled raw into empty tart shells with fresh whipped cream. Blackberries can also be enjoyed in pies, jams, pancakes and wines. They are also delicious served simply with cream and sugar. Their leaves can be made into a tea.
Berry bannock is an excellent native recipe that can be cooked in a pan over a campfire:
- Mix 2 cups of flour with 3 tsps baking powder, 4 tbsps powdered milk and 1/2 tsp salt.
- Cut in 6 tbsps margarine, butter or shortening.
- Ad 1 cup washed damp berries, mixing gently to coat fruit.
- Add 1/3 cup water and work into a dough.
- Shape into a 1 inch thick rounded cake, dust with flour and place into a warm, greased fry pan.
- Cook over moderate heat until a crust forms on the bottom.
- Turn over with spatula and cook until browned and no dough sticks into a fork inserted into centre of dough.
Often the birds manage to get to the blackberries before I have a chance to pick them. The bramble shown below was picked clean by wild creatures who obviously didn’t believe in wasting anything. I’ve found a nest of cedar waxwings in the yard in the past, placed not far from some blackberry brambles.
The following quotation was used in the first post I wrote in this journal last October. I’m reminded of it whenever I pick the blackberries growing in the yard.
I am not bound for any public place, but for ground of my own where I have planted vines and orchard trees, and in the heat of the day climbed up into the healing shadow of the woods. Better than any argument is to rise at dawn and pick dew-wet red berries in a cup.
~Wendell Berry
We are heading over to my father in law’s house this afternoon to pick blackberries. They aren’t wild but the patch is over 20 years old so they aren’t the type at the store either. They are an heirloom variety. I will have to try the recipe you shared. It looks tasty.
Jessica, let me know how the recipe turns out for you with your heirloom blackberries. They sound wonderful 🙂
These are wonderful pictures. Blackberries grow wild along my usual walk, but the birds almost always get them before I do. Once I stayed in a cottage in Eagle Harbor. There was quite a blackberry bramble in the back yard, and the owner advised that bears frequented the spot. “Don’t let the dog out at night!” she warned. OK.
Gerry, some of these brambles get quite heavy with berries so I would imagine they’d attract bears as well as the birds. We don’t have any berry/dog eating bears in Cow Bay (that I know of).
[…] 8 September 2009 by Reggie My friend Amy over at her beautiful nature blog wrote about wild blackberries today. Reading her post brought back a flood of emotions and memories of our dream trip to Ireland […]
Ah, Amy! This post brought such happy tears of longing to my eyes – it released such a flood of memories about our trip to Ireland last year, so I wrote a post about how we first learnt about wild blackberries. They are MAGICAL!
Reggie, I loved your post. Your descriptions of the blackberries and Ireland make it seem like such a wonderful and magical place to visit. No wonder you’re a travel writer.
Love the Barry quote! And the reminder that I need to get out to our camp and pick some blackberries!
Cindy,’camp’reminds me of Northern Ontario. Here in Nova Scotia, as in Southern Ontario, the term ‘cottage’ is used to describe the same type of place in the wilderness where families can get away from the city.
There aren’t any blackberries at my family’s camp in Northern Ontario, but wild strawberries and blueberries probably still grow there.
When we went picking wild mushrooms the other day, we rode past blackberry bushes just covered with the juiciest ripest most delightful looking berries. Part of me would have preferred to stop right there and get the berries instead of the mushrooms! Don’t know where the blackberries are around these woods. There used to be more.
Kathy, years ago I used to pick blackberries in one spot in Cow Bay overlooking the ocean. Those brambles have been overtaken by rosebushes now. In one spot in my yard where many used to grow, there’s now too much shade because of tree growth and consequently fewer brambles.
You live in a more beautiful part of the world. Quite a contrast to the Arizona desert. I hope that i can visit some day.
Nova Scotia is very cozy and quaint with a beautiful natural setting and a lively Celtic culture. However, later this winter, Arizona is going to look pretty appealing.
We have blackberry brambles on the property but the soil is poor and dry and the berries are always bitter. 😦 Still good for the wildlife, though. And blackberries in general always make me think of a Mary Oliver poem.
– August –
When the blackberries hang
swollen in the woods, in the brambles
nobody owns, I spend
all day among the high
branches, reaching
my ripped arms, thinking
of nothing, cramming
the black honey of summer
into my mouth; all day my body
accepts what it is. In the dark
creeks that run by there is
this thick paw of my life darting among
the black bells, the leaves; there is
this happy tongue.
Thanx for sharing this poem…it’s lovely!
I agree Cindy. It is lovely. I know what she means about the ripped arms.
Waven, the berries here seem to get sweeter as they age but if I wait too long to pick them, the birds get them first. Brambles that nobody owns always have the sweetest berries 🙂