On the subject of produce

[rsc]

We have a couple of different varieties of feral¹ blackberries growing around our lot; the regular cane-types and a creeper that I decided from my wildflower guide was called "dewberry", but Wikipedia claims their fruits are raspberry-like except for color, and these are distinctly blackberry-like. Anyway, these plants insist on growing where we wanted other things, and we mostly regard them as a pain -- literally, as they have pretty nasty thorns -- but this year the creepers seem to be unusually productive, sufficiently so that it was possible to harvest a useful number of them yesterday. (Usually there are so few that the birds get them all before we can.) And there will still be some more, although only a couple of sections seem to actually be fruiting.

The tall blackberries look like they might have a fair number of fruit coming too; they ripen much later, so we'll see if we can get to them before the birds do.


¹I use this term to refer to plants that have "escaped" from cultivation and gone wild. I've never heard or read anyone else use it for non-animals.

Comments

[ctseawa.livejournal.com]

There are a number of goat herders here in the PNW who make extra money renting out their goats to trim black/raspberry bushes. The goats love to eat them and do a good job of getting rid of 'em. Frequently to the point where the pesky things don't come back.

[maxauburn.livejournal.com]

Mmmm.. Blackberries!

Love most fruits!

[jwg.livejournal.com]

Years ago our next door neighbor had goats who occasionally got loose and came over and ate plants - they were not very selective as to what they chose to eat.