Every year at this time...

...we're usually enjoying some great rockfishing and other fun on the coast.  This has been a tough year in terms of weather and overall number of days that the ocean and winds have let us get out.  There are so many other great things about this time of year though.  One of my favorite passtimes every year at this time is picking wild blackberries.  These aren't "Himalaya" berries - the ones that come on later in the summer and offer huge bunches of juicy (boring) berries that are easy for the take.  I'm talking about the little, tart, tasty wild blackberries that come on in late spring and die out by early summer.  I put away a few gallons every year, and my family eats jam and makes pie and cobblers year round on these berries.  I spend hours picking the berries - at the peak of the season I pick at night with a headlamp.  I pick with one hand and hold the bowl with the other, and I never eat the berries while picking.  They're all to be tallied and stored away.  I think about many things while I pick, but fishing is one of the most common topics of thought.  There are parallels between picking the berries and fishing, and I enjoy contemplating them while I fulfill the berry therapy sessions.   

I never eat the berries while picking

Wow. Now that's self control 

Nice story/picks thanks.

Ben

Zen,

and the Art of Berry Picking....

nice haul eric, love those things, got some the other day myself, cameron

good stuff....we found a healthy patch up the Albion River last year!

PERFECT WHEN MIXED WITH VANILLA ICECREAM

PERFECT WHEN MIXED WITH VANILLA ICECREAM

Exactly!   

What about Berry pie? 

Nice! Miss those tasty berries.  The irrigation canal that follows our property line used to be covered in berries until the irrigation district decided that clean levies were better for management.

I mentioned to Janet the other day that I hadn't seen your berry post yet this year and was wondering about it.

Glad to see you're on track, we still talk about it 

Dude, berry picking at night? Do you ever have bruin company? I guess it makes them all the sweeter! They look delish.
 Randall

My in laws does the samething. Gather as much berries as they can and freeze it
in some individual packs for jams and pies. They have those all over their property
up in Twain Harte.

Jedmo

This report is great.. Living off the land, love it. Keep em coming.

Dude, berry picking at night? Do you ever have bruin company?

Naw, me and Scott GB2 don't make it up there that often.   

Anyone ever heard the phrase, "redder than a squirrel's ass during berry season?"  I was trying to cultivate a blackberry bush in our backyard.  But my dad was like, "You have to get rid of this thing!"  He was scared it would take over the whole yard so we had to uproot and destroy it, before it became productive.

berry picking therapy = "Berr-apy"

nice bounty, Ab