I love to pick wild blackberries. I never met a thicket that was too dense to get through when the berries are plentiful and ripe. I put on my old camo pants and shirt, slip on my boots and find the best way through the brush and thorns. Blackberries ripen in mid-July through early August, when the summer heat is high and the copperheads are around. So you need to be patient and cautious.

 

This year, I picked Dad’s wild blackberries and also foraged for them in the woods at the bottom of hill on which we live. There’s a patch of them about ¾ of a mile into the woods.

 

But the best harvest came from my sister-in-law Chris’ folks. They have a huge thicket of old wild blackberry vines in their woods. Chris and I had a blast picking there twice this year. We felt like kids who didn’t want to come in from playing when the sun started to go down.

 

The berries combined to make a nice, rich, cabernet-colored jelly this year. Wild blackberry is my absolute favorite jelly. I’m looking forward to having it for breakfast this winter, and I hope you enjoy it as well.