Wild black raspberries are available here at the cabin but not without a fight. 80 degrees outside but I dress in blue jeans and long sleeves. I spray myself, including my face and clothes, with mosquito repellent. I tell myself to put on my boots but I just can't take that last step. So wearing flip flops and full battle gear, I arm myself with a berry bowl and the nippers and flip flop out to the ditch.
It is true that there are big, ripe black raspberries here but there is also Sheep's Coat, wild grape vine, hops vines and other rampant, vicious thorny vines. There is also a high probability of poison ivy.
I cut my way into the berry vines. I throw weeds and thorny sticks behind me as I go. Halfway in I decide I need my leather gloves as my hands are already scratched and sore. The day (and I) get hotter by the minute. Sweat runs down my temples. I capture ripe berries as I go. The sorry part of this whole venture is that the berries on a vine don't all ripen at the same time. I will have to re pick the vines each of the next few days.
The moral of this story is that the berries are tempting enough to me that I will cut my way into them and by cutting and trimming today it makes tomorrow's venture easier. The ditch hasn't been cleaned really good for a few years so between the prickly native plants, the water in the ditch from all the rain and the creature holes in the bank I cannot reach all the ripe berries. I just have to close my mind to wondering if snake or wild critter lives in that mud hole.
Guess I will be glad to share what I can't reach with the birds.
Below is a photo of all things removed. Can you see the thorns on the light green stem? They are razor sharp!
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2 comments:
lol I had no idea the amount of work that went into gathering those berries! They sure do look yummy, tho!
Perhaps we appreciate the berries so much because of 'all that work'.
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