Blackberry Picking

Growing up in South Georgia as a child, we often enjoyed blackberry pies in the summer. It usually began with us begging Mom to cook one for dessert. If she had the inclination and an extra pie shell in the freezer, we’d get the green light.

When picking blackberries in the wild, it’s important to have the right tools.

• An empty milk jug with the spout cut out.
• A long stick or pole.

I bet milk jugs were originally designed to hold blackberries. Some plastics developer back in the 50’s was probably using a prototype container to pick blackberries one summer and had an epiphany, “I bet this thing would be great for holding milk!” They’re lightweight, deep, waterproof, large enough for a good haul of blackberries, and have a convenient handle for carrying. All you have to do is cut out the spout with a razor to make an opening big enough for a handful of berries.

We also each carried a tall stick or pole for testing the brambles for snakes. The best berries grow lower in the bush, but you never stick in your hand until you poke in the stick a time or two. We were often reminded that rattlesnakes hung out in blackberry brambles. As I child, I accepted the weird notion that rattlesnakes would eat blackberries. I just couldn’t see it in my mind’s eye. It never occurred to me that rattlesnakes eat the rodents and birds that eat the blackberries.

We usually walked the sandy back roads until we found a good patch of blackberry brambles (or stickers as we called them) in the ditch or beside a field. It was a foregone conclusion that you would get scratched, and like the monkey with the coconut, I often found myself grasping a load of ripe berries and no way to extricate my hand from the thicket.

If the crop was good, it was one for the milk jug, one for the mouth. And in the end, we ambled home loaded with berries and with purple lips. Mom took possession of the crop and our work was done. Nothing left but to wait for dinner. I’ve added a recipe below similar to what Mom used. If you get the chance, give it a try.

So let’s recap: Exploring the countryside, fresh blackberries eaten right off the bramble, homemade blackberry pie for dessert. This is what you call a win/win/win situation. You can’t beat it with a stick.

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Blackberry Pie Recipe

4 cups blackberries
1 to 2 cups sugar (depending how sweet the berries are)
2 Tbs flour
Dash salt
2 or 3 Tbs butter
Thawed pie shell

Wash the berries well and drain. They sometimes have ants or little mites on them. (We’d blow them off when eating them in the field.)

Mix the berries, sugar, flour and salt together, and mound into the uncooked pie shell. It will be heaping. Dot the top with butter and bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit until the berries cook down and the pie shell is done - 30 minutes to 1 hour.

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