Pickin' in the Park?

Is that what I said I was going to try to do last Thursday... attend Pickin' in the Park at Horseshoe Bend Park?


Well, it was more like Pickin' in the Yard!



Check it out!

I was wandering around in the yard with my camera seeing what new flowers were blooming, when I spotted this!

Could it be...

Yes, it is! I have some ripe blackberries!! I didn't expect this. I thought the blueberries would be ready first since someone told me that the blackberries usually ripen in August.

Ah well, it wasn't Mountain Man Bob who shared the info with me, so... next time I'll confirm it with him!

Whoo hoo!! I dashed in the house to get my little berry bucket and started picking! Darn those thorny thorns... my arms got all scratched up. Oh well, I didn't care. I picked and plucked furiously (because dinner was on the stove... oh bother. I had to stop midway and get eating out of the way.)



By the time I was done, I had filled my little plastic 1lb. berry container that I had washed and saved when my store-bought strawberries were gone.

And you know what? I have discovered that I can make a decent size batch? of blackberry preserves with one pound of berries!

I can trust that I have succeeded in picking one pound of berries since they fill my 1lb. container, right?

The exciting part is that was only a small percentage of what was ripe. I still have days' worth of picking to do!

UPDATE: I picked two more pounds of berries last night!! Oh, are we gonna have preserves!