One of the things I love about fall is the act of harvesting. The fruits of your labors are born and the pioneer/June Cleaver instincts come out. My garden is ripe with tomatoes and pumpkins and peppers and herbs. I wish I had planted more--next year. But my favorite thing this year (or at least this week) is the blackberry. Especially since I didn't have to plant them! They grow like a wild, tenacious weed that I devoutly pull from my yard all year long. Thankfully I missed a few vines growing through my hedge and was rewarded with a bucket full of large purple berries.
There is just something about going out in the wild (I did venture beyond my yard to the edge of the forest for a larger harvest) and picking fruit from a wild vine and eating it. It makes me feel like a pioneer woman.
Do you know the benefits of eating blackberries? Well, let me expound for a moment. They tighten tissue (aka wrinkles), lesson minor bleeding, help with diarrhea and intestinal irritation. They are recommended for sore throats and mouth sores. They alleviate hemorrhoids and protect against cancer. And my favorite. . .they taste really good!
AND, there are so many ways to enjoy them (this is where the June Cleaver part comes in). For example,
Blackberry Cobbler, or. . .
Blackberry Milkshakes, or. . .
Blackberry jam. And my new favorite. . . .
Frozen berries eaten straight from the freezer.
Seriously, they are better than candy. In fact, we just made chocolate chip cookies as a family and while I was waiting for a batch to come out I popped the most recent batch of frozen berries off the cookie sheet (you freeze them spread out on a cookie sheet so they don't stick together in one big clump--then put them in bags or other freezer containers). Rob ate a couple and said, "Forget the cookies, these are better!"
And I have to say, I agree.
Stay tuned for more reasons I LOVE fall.
4 comments:
I wish I could have gone last night. Too late for Blake... Anyway, yum, yum, yum! I'll have to try a frozen one tonight!
I LOVE visiting my bro. and sis. in law over in your neck of the woods this time of year for the blackberries! There's a lot in their neighborhood that was too steep to build on, and it was just full of wild blackberries and bunnies! We would pick and pick, and then my sister would make blackberry syrup and we would eat wheat pancakes dripping in that syrup. Yum! And your cobbler---well it's too late for me to eat now, but if I could, THAT's what I would want!
Glad to see your girls looking so happy about the first day of school. What cute outfits ;)!
picking berries off the road...it sounds like a scene right out of "Anne of Green Gables". I am jealous!
I have to say, you take the most amazing photos, and I know you are a writer, but wow, you have an amazing talent for getting words on paper. I wished I lived anywhere other than the hot, dry, desert. Our soil and heat is not very accomodating for growing a garden. I remember growing up and my parents attempting a garden, but nothing special. Those blackberries look delicious, I am very jealous. Happy BAKING this fall!!!!
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