Longtime readers of this blog know that I have mixed emotions about blackberries (Thinking About Blackberries and Blackberry Battles). A love-hate relationship actually, Today was another one of those days. I did not do my usual blackberry battle last winter due to my injury and then the cottonwood work. So the blackberry vines here are doing quite well. Another year I did not find the time to pick ripe berries, and I then did not have any blackberry wine. That will never happen again so today I vowed to pick blackberries but also took a machete along to whack at the vines at the same time. It seemed cruel to take the fruit and then to slash the giving vines, but you have to be mean when you are dealing with invasive species. Here I am after the battle.
So do you think I won or not? I did come away with 10# of blackberries which are already one their way to becoming wine!
yep. you won! 🙂
Well, I may have won the battle but I am pretty certain I did not win the war.
You are brave and determined and the berries look beautiful! Ours are just ripening now and a recent rain may give us some fruit this year. Here in our high desert environment, the vines don’t grow as vigorously, but they still are invasive; this year, it’s looking like machete time in a couple of places!!!
Thanks Lois! I am not sure how brace or determined I am but I am sore. Good luck with your macheteing to come.
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