Yesterday, between bursts of downpours, I was able to get to the many places around the farm that have blackberry canes in production. They were just beginning to produce ripe fruit and I pulled in a quart of fully ripe berries.
I’ll need to revisit each plant daily over the next couple of weeks to harvest each berry at it’s peak. I’ll fill the freezer with all the goodness this natural treat provides before the canes fade back into a thorny and troublesome bush. You freeze blackberries the same way that you do blueberries. Lay them out in a single layer on a cookie sheet to freeze and then transfer into quart freezer bags and return them to the freezer. They’ll last a year like this, which is when next years crop will be in full production— the great circle of life on the farm.
Plan is to make jams and jellies with most of the harvest. Will leave some frozen for wifey and her pie making later in the year.