One of my fondest childhood memories is of my grandfather and I driving the dusty country roads together. It was just restlessness - I think, like me, he didn't want to live in the city and was happiest when we were out driving. Sometimes it was just for the heck of it, but we often went out morel hunting in the early Spring. And he knew all the "secret" places where the wild blackberries and raspberries grew on the fence lines off these quiet roads. We'd go home loaded with berries, chiggers and ticks, but neither of us cared.
Those wild berries can be hard to spot and their flowers are teeny. But look at the flowers on my Triple Crown blackberries. They must be a good 2 inches across.
Who knew that blackberry flowers could be so beautiful?
That's one of the new plants that I just added a couple of weeks ago. The existing blackberry plants are growing like crazy and covered in berries. We'll be rolling in the blackberries this year, I think.
It's going to be a good year for strawberries also. Here's one of the little plants blooming it's little heart out back in late April.
The whole bed is now bursting with strawberry plants and runner. Oh, and berries. Mmmmmm!
We harvested a pound and a half last night alone, and J. cut them up and enjoyed them with some milk and sugar. These are Ozark Beauty berries, but he's taken to calling them "Ozark Tasties". I think he might be on to something.
In other fruit news, one of the silly Honeycrisp apple trees that we dug up and put in a container now has our first little apples on it! I think there are about 6, so we're not going to have a bumper crop but we definitely welcome our first apples here at Cranky Puppy Farm. I can't wait....
It was while I was looking at the tree that I noticed that another farmer has taken up residence on the farm and is herding his livestock on my land without my permission. Stay tuned, because I'll have pics and more on that for you tomorrow.
Those berries make my mouth water. I need to check the wild blackberries at the Country House. That is after I check for snakes in the weeds surrounding them!
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