Blackberries are our favorite noxious weed, by far. They provide valuable habitat for small birds, hold eroded creekbanks together where nothing else will, and bring forth a motherlode of antioxidant and vitamin rich berries, right about this time of year.
Ashar and I have been going foraging on a regular basis in the name of the yearly blackberry jam supply…
Train em young. Currently rolling at a ’1 for the bucket, 10 for me’ ratio, but I’m trying to build incentive with promises of jam
Slowly, slowly
Important blackberrying technology: the two bucket system. The blue bucket stays well away from the blackberry patch and gets loaded by the white picking bucket. This way you don’t loose the entire morning’s haul when you trip and fall over in the brambles
The ones by the creek are the best
Om nom nom
YAY blackberries
First round of jam for the season
Couldn’t wait, burnt my fingers tasting it. Worth it. Yum.
14 Comments
Where are you that Blackberries are out already? I think we are at least 4 weeks or more away here in CO. I could be wrong though. I don’t think I’ve ever seen any in the wild….but I’m sure I’ve just missed them.
Which hemisphere are you in, Alisha?
Hey AlishaR, are you in CO as in Colorado? Milkwood is in New South Wales, Australia. We have loads of wild blackberries here and are at the end of our summer season right now.
I have been eating fistfulls of the gorgeous ripe sunkissed blackberries around our local district as we walk our dogs in the morning. We made wine with the (now ex) blackberries in our garden last year and it was gorgeous! Too timid to ask the people who have the massive blackberry bushes on our walk if I can pick them though
Yay for blackberries! We also got a good haul from blackberries who were in a cool little microclimate at the bottom of our gully, but all the others were roasted right off the bushes ) : We got 2nd at the show for our blackberry jam though ( :
I always figure blackberries are going to conquer the world after people are gone…they have so many ways of adapting and regenerating. If it wasn’t for those yummy berries, I’d really hate this species….but there ARE those yummy berries. Talk about a survival mechanism.
We have some blackberries at the end of our road but I haven’t made it there to see if there’s any fruit. Given that there is a 20m walk from my front door to said end of road, that is totally slack of me. I DO have some organic blackberries n my freezer though. Perfect for berry sorbet.
Do you use a plank to get into the thickets? Back when I used to have a farm I used to put a plank out into a thicket of them to let the goat (tethered) go and browse further into the patch and help ‘control’ it. You can do the same to access the berries further in.
Just got 2 Saanen does to help me with the Blackberrys. The few stinking hot days we had in Woodford, Blue Mountains, frizzled all the fruit
. Managing a few to mix in apple blackberry crumble though. Goats are loving them plus privet which is great 
lol love it! wish we had the stuff for jam … well… not the noxious week of course but ykwim… enjoy!
Great idea to use the blackberries to hold the creek banks
Do you ever have to prune them back? Do they run a bit crazy?
Planted some thornless blackberries in my orchard 2 years ago and picked loads this year, plenty of jams to last the winter. Trying to keep them under control and winning so far … In the Scenic Rim in QLD
The blackberries in the US have huge thorns, I had one stuck in my knee for years it finally worked itself out one day crazy! I love any kind of jam, the wild berries taste the best!
I had LHPA weeds inspector from Upper Hunter here a year ago to do his inspection. Told me that I would have to destroy my brambles both in the vege patch and in our house paddock, they were a noxious weed. I told him to bugger off…….if they were available for me to purchase at a local nursery or by mail order and be delivered to our area with no restrictions, I was not destroying them…….he could fight me further……..but guess what – he didn’t! Perhaps they should concentrate on all the St Johns Wort and other noxious weeds that grow along the sides of the road between Merriwa and Mudgee rather than threaten small holders who are trying very hard with self sufficiency and holistic farming…..Congrats to you on a beautiful crop.!