Out at just before 7am, I picked our first 2.105 lbs of these big guys and that didn’t even begin to touch what is still ripening out there. They are sweet-tart, just the way I like them. I see blackberry cobbler in our near future.
I’ve had to water a couple of times and if we don’t get some rain in the next couple of days I’ll water again. The netting seems to be doing the trick, now if I could keep the Japanese Beetles off of the leaves. With the netting, I found that pulling it away from the vines at the bottom and weighing it down with scrap lumber keeps the netting away from the berries except at the very top. Even those didnt’ seem to be picked at by the birds. Perhaps the netting confuses them and keeps them off the vines altogether. Its probably a 45 degree angle from the top of the row to where the netting meets the ground. As a control I left the row of Thorn Free plants for the birds. The berries are still on the vines but they are picked clean. There are only three of the Thorn Free vines, they are very small and not doing well. I’ll remove them next spring and replace with Black Satin more than likely.
I had a couple of berries with white sections. I think they are called drupelets? Not sure why but there were only a couple of berries that had them.
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Fruit Cobbler
1/4-1/2 Cup Butter
1 Cup Milk
1 Cup All Purpose Flour
1 Cup Sugar
1 1/2 Tsp Baking Powder
1/2 Tsp Salt
3 Cup Fruit (or more)
Melt butter in casserole dish. Stir together milk, flour, baking powder, salt and sugar. Pour on top of melted butter. Do not stir. Pour fruit on top of batter. Do not stir. Bake at 350 for 30 minutes or till golden. For a thinner cobbler use a larger dish and the 1/2 butter. For a thicker cobbler use a 9″x9″ pan and only 1/4 cup of butter.
Yummee-ee!!! I wish those would grow here.
That was nice of you to leave some for the birds. 🙂
I know BC has a wide range of climates, what is your zone? I have read there are blackberries that will grow in zone 5 with some protection. If you have a lot of snow cover that might be enough to see them through.
I’m in Zone 3 (sometimes 2 or 4 depending on the winter, but 3 is pretty safe). Also, we are in a dry area with not much snowfall or rainfall – except this year!
Berries are so expensive in the stores! They’re not easy to pack and get to the consumer fresh and unbroken. My neighbours were growing raspberries but it looks like they gave up on those.