HOw To DEWBERRIES ARE COMING SOON
Dewberry blossoms |
For those of you not familiar with "dewberries", they are a wild berry that we have growing all over the South. They are closely related to the blackberry but are trailing instead of upright...they just sort of put out runners across the ground. The berries are dark in color and as you can see above, they start as these white flowers. Then, in a few weeks, they turn from flower to green fruit, then red, and then when they are dark purple, almost black, if you can brave the thorns, they are ready to be harvested.
Dewberries are prevalent all over this part of the country and in the Houston area, it's not uncommon to see people harvesting them from roadside ditches or empty lots while you're driving home from work! I've been known to be right there with them in years past. It seems everyone has their own secret patch they know about as the berries usually come back strong in the same spot every other year, especially after a wet spring. But this time around, we are very fortunate; we have ACRES of them growing in several large patches all over the farm! Over the years, when Ma lived there, we went out and picked quite a few with her blessing, but we never went crazy with it. Now however, we own it and can go as crazy as we want!
A couple of dear friends have requested access to the patches so they can gather some for themselves. Of course we said yes, and since we should have way more than we could possibly ever need, I think a "berry picking party" will be a fun way to spend a weekend here in just about a month or so. The picture below shows just one large patch I found the other day when walking around, covered in hundreds of little white flowers that will, in a few weeks, become delicious fresh fruit. As for what to do with them, they can be made into cobblers or pies, jam, eaten fresh...anything you can do with blackberries and raspberries, you can do with these.
Dewberry Patch |
Dewberry Patch |
We will keep you posted...I just hope we don't get "berried away"!
(forgive the bad pun, LOL)
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