No limit on nice grade of blacks today - the freezer's getting stocked! 8>}

Ever get huckleberries?

-Brian G

Gooseberries but not huckleberries

Started picking with my Grandma as a kid we picked everything we could find but Blackberries along the Russian was our favorite. She made Jam,Cobbler,Syrup,Brandy and sort of a Fresca like Juice damn do I miss those flavors and good times. I still do my fair share and forbidden fruit still tastes the best.

Is this off topic?  oh well,....  When I was a young pup, my mom and dad would take the old pb out on Natomas where we would pick buckets of blackberries. Dad would then brew up some sort of blackberry wine in the garage. I was to young then to enjoy it then. But now, I would like to give it a try.

Al

Is this off topic?  oh well,....  When I was a young pup, my mom and dad would take the old pb out on Natomas where we would pick buckets of blackberries. Dad would then brew up some sort of blackberry wine in the garage. I was to young then to enjoy it then. But now, I would like to give it a try. Al

Give it a try Al. It should be PLENTY fermented by now..

It should be PLENTY fermented by now..   

Don't you mean evaporated

It should be PLENTY fermented by now..   

Don't you mean evaporated

ha!   Good one guys.
I might have to start a FRESH batch.

I love this site............a brotherhood of "hunters and gatherers".  You can usually see us on the side of a road picking berries as well. In the fall we can be spotted on ladders in mall parking lots picking olives. It's funny how many people will stop and ask how much we would charge to get rid of their messy olives off  there trees at home. You gotta love it.

Ok-- so now you opened it up- do you have a recipe for those olives?  I'm dying to try it, and that's the other tree that is endemic around here....

     I'll dig up the recipe and post it if others will share their blackberry concoctions as well. We use the lye and salt process that's pretty simple if you heed the warnings on the lye can. Toward the end of the process the smell of the escaping olive oil is amazing. The only downsides we have come across is the pits will actually scrape the enamel from your teeth if you eat too many, there is a strict shelf life (should be posted on each jar you gift out), and an old timer (yeah older than me) told me the olives are about 80 calories each.
     About four years ago a buddy calls me and tells me to bring the biggest trailer I could get and meet him on a job site in Marin as his company was removing a bunch of olive trees and we could have as many as we wanted. I showed up and couldn't believe my eyes.........they had pulled the trees out with an excavator and chains and piled them up  in the parking lot . I ended up with two  the best of the trees (each of forty years old and planted them in a sand base at the entrance of the driveway. The recycled trees survived and are gorgeous and have even begun producing olives again.
      Today I am going to pump up the bike tires and head out for some blackberry re-con. (now the thread is back on track).

Hi BG:

        When my Family and I lived in Albion, I would pick and clean 8 cups and my Wife would make Jam. I had a "Huckleberry Hound" that always had Blue Lips when he helped me pick. Leave the low hanging
Berries for the Dogs.
        The best in Albion are found around late Summer unless the Deer
have wiped them out.
                                                                  Sea-ya
                                                                  Ernie