Wild Blackberries for dump cobbler

[redi]

Okanogan nailed the terrain to find berries in. They really like the shade. If out in the open they dry up before maturing. Usually find them in clearcuts that are a couple years old so they have shade. around maple clumps was productive for me yesterday.

[Okanagan]

Yep, Redi has it dialed.  Maple clumps in medium age clearcuts did me proud. 

Some of the red in the pic below is berry juice... 





For picking steep ground in blackberry thorns, sometimes dew or light rain, slick wood debris and brush I wear stiff soled off-trail boots and gaiters.  When I remember to take them I have along Katoola micro-spikes and my last trip wore hard shell knee pads that helped more than hindered.  The berries are so thick this year that once in awhile you can kneel in one spot and pick a bunch.   

[robescc]

They are doing well this year down here as well. The biggest problem is that they grow side by side to poison oak.

[Bango skank]

I dont know what "dump cobbler" is, but i dont think i want to eat it.

[Bango skank]

Baked a pie this morning and had a warm piece with French Vanilla ice cream for breakfast.  So good, I had a second piece.

Clearcuts, power lines and road rights of way are where I find these native berries.  All of mine have come from two clearcuts this year.   They like to grow over an old stump.  If you recall deer hunting a clearcut where long thin vines tangled your legs in October, go back to that place now.  If prospecting and didn't know where to find berries, I'd cruise a back road and stop often to look for them.  But I wouldn't spend much time nor go more than 20-30 yards from the road unless I found some.  My biggest size berries this year have come from southwest facing slopes semi-shaded by taller brush or small trees where the sun does not hit the blackberries till afternoon, but have found good berries on level flats, north facing and west facing slopes.

Native?  You sure?

[Bullkllr]

Native?  You sure?

Pretty sure.
http://www.wnps.org/landscaping/herbarium/pages/rubus-ursinus.html

Compared to those introduced from Europe:
http://www.kingcounty.gov/environment/animals-and-plants/noxious-weeds/weed-identification/blackberry.aspx

[redi]

Dump cobbler is easy to make. You just need a couple quarts of fruit/berries, 2 cups of sugar, a cube of butter or margarine and a white cake mix. I prefer French vanilla. Put the berries in a glass 9x13 cake pan, sprinkle the sugar over top, "Dump" the cake mix on top evenly then cover the top with thin slices of butter and bake at 350 for about an hour or until the juice bubbles through and turns the top golden brown. Serve warm over ice cream.

[Okanagan]

Native?  You sure?

I am no plant expert but the berries I am calling indigenous wild blackberries are the same plant and berry that I have heard called native wild ones for the past 40 years.  In any year prior to this, I would not have believed the photo was of wild PNW blackberries.  These are nearly twice as big as the biggest ones I'd ever picked before.  As said, it is an incredible year for size and quantity of wild blackberries.   

Below are pics I took a few years ago of the rampant large blackberries that our family calls Himalayas.  None are ripe yet that I have seen in Whatcom County.  These in the photos are not even very big Himalaya berries but rather a small to average size, and growing on a free-standing bush seven feet tall.  These are the invasive species that has taken over vacant lots and road margins of the PNW.   Totally different size of plants, size of berries, type of vines, size of thorns, etc.  The wild ones grow on long thin flexible vines that hug the ground except where they can climb a stump or down log.  They like piles of burned logs in clearcuts.

[Okanagan]

Just can't get the hang of baking wild blackberry pies.  This is my third in a little over a week.  We prefer them quite tart with less sugar, and that makes them fly even better with quality ice cream and good coffee.  Doggone, can't tell whether to use flash when photographing, and obviously did not get the geometry symmetrical when cutting pieces of pie.  Will have to bake another one.  Have to eat all of my mistakes...

[JimmyHoffa]

some brandy/rum/whisky added into the filling with the berries can make for a good way to change spice up pie/cobbler

[Timberstalker]

As much as I hate you coasties, (j/k) I am jealous of the berries you get to enjoy.

  

[Fl0und3rz]

It's not blackberry, but fresh from four highbush blueberry bushes.

And that's after blueberry pancakes, waffles, and lots more to come.

[Okanagan]

Looks like superb eating! 

Himalayas now ripe near sea level along the border.  Huge berries.  Picked enough last evening for wife and I to confirm that we WAAAAY prefer the native wild berries! 

[redi]

Looks great.

[JimmyHoffa]

Himalayas now ripe near sea level along the border.  Huge berries.  Picked enough last evening for wife and I to confirm that we WAAAAY prefer the native wild berries! 

If I'm just grazing along a road or a clear cut, I tend to like the Himalayas.  But for something with berries added to it, the Cascades by far.  The Cascades have so much more flavor and concentration, almost overload when eating alone.