Fresh harvest list - PEP BB foraging.sand.fresh

I spotted these two blackberry patches back in March when they were in bloom.

I used my pitchfork as walking stick and to push weeds back, and its worth noting that i have never seen a snake when i am tapping a stick on the ground as i walk.

...a tip for foraging beginners:  change out of your socks as soon as possible after being in a berry patch ...then change all clothes and shower as soon as you get home ...berry season is chigger season in Texas.

The 1st patch had more red berries, and so i picked 5 lbs there for making jelly ...red berries have more tartness and pectin.

The next patch were very ripe ...i picked 3 pounds there for fresh eating and to freeze some for pies.

This is a submission for the 1 lb fresh list

I was invited to a berry picking party up at one of the camps up the road. They have a number of trails through the forest that are lined with serviceberries. I ended up getting almost 8 lbs of them in 2.5 hours.


Harvesting serviceberries.



The further into the woods you go, the bigger the clusters!



The bounty I ended up with.



Washing the berries in the sink. Good thing I have this giant colander.



Taring the scale.



The berries on the scale.



Final weight: 7 lbs 13.1 oz (that's more than I weighed when I was born!)

Some of my berries are frozen as I picked them over two weeks from the same tree and even managed to leave some for the birds. Now to decide what to do with them all.

Here’s my submission for fresh harvest.  
I harvested over 1.5 pounds of (tiny varieties) Blackberries.  

To complete this BB, the minimum requirements are:
- one pound (total) of:
     o huckleberries
     o raspberries
     o blueberries
     o aronia
     o salmonberries
     o true cranberries
     o serviceberries
     o blackberries (tiny varieties)
     o strawberries
To document your completion of the BB, provide the following:
- A picture of one of the plants the foraged food came from
- A picture of the bounty on a scale showing the weight (or you have so much, there is no need to weigh it)

Here's my submission of one of last years mulberry harvests. This particular tree, a wild hybrid of alba and the native rubra, is very prolific and tasty. Berries were both hand gathered and shaken onto a tarp and sorted. Much more to ripen over the following weeks. The photo strip shows container being tared and the weight of berries: 11.09 pounds. yum yum

These are about half of the frozen dewberries foraged from the woods surrounding our half acre last season.
Collected a pint at a time, they are now ready to be rendered into jelly.
(Not so many this year due top delayed spring rain.)

Rebekah Harmon wrote:Could currants count?

Mike Haasl wrote:I'm not sure if those are a foraging option in Montana...  

I was just about to ask about currants as well. They grow like weeds here. I found this article claiming tgat tgey grow in Montana:

https://extension-store.montana.edu/montguides/growing-currants-and-gooseberries-in-montana

If it doesn't work for this BB, I think the dry list says you can harvest "berries" (without the specific type being specified).

I picked these wild blackberries (dewberries)  to take to market for a few weeks, this submission is for one weeks harvest. I'm pretty sure I tared the weight of the bowl for the photo but at 10.18 lbs it's well over the needed 1-2 lbs regardless. Keep riding the fruit wave, there's always something else coming into season.

This is a submission for harvesting the small wild black cherry, Prunus serotina. This is a very abundant wild cherry and is having a good year. As it is highly variable in quality I look for both trees with fruiting branches within reach for harvest and hopefully largish and tasty fruit. I think I like the taste of these more than most other people I know. I haven't found a good method or food mill to remove the pits so I usually dry whole whatever I don't eat straight from the tree. I'm guided by the advice found at the following link to deal with the cyanide precursor amygdalin. I have infused it in liquors in previous years and hope to try some of the other recipes in the future. https://foragerchef.com/eating-the-whole-cherry/   I'm still gathering more but pictures show a harvest of 2.75 lbs.