The peace in picking blackberries

Cold Comfort Farm has blackberry and raspberry patches.  They grow next to each other on the north side of the pole bard driveway.  We found them two years ago and last year they provided us with a bumper crop of berries, which I made into delicious pies and jam.  This year, the summer has been so cool that they just started to ripen as we arrived in early August.  Before, the berries were huge - sun ripened and juicy.  This year, they are barely the size of the tip of your pinky finger.

The patches grow along the drive and down into a 12 foot grassy ditch.  The slant is so steep that the past owner, Bob Lahti, lined the ditch with local rubble rocks.  The berry bushes have sent out shoots that love the rock and grow down, like fingers or ropes, all lined with berries.  You can stand at the driveway and look down into the slant and see wonderful sweet berries.  Mark drives the mule (farm work vehicle) down along the driveway in the ditch and then places a two story ladder up the pile of rubble rock, climbs up the ladder, and picks the berries.

I prefer to just climb the rocks like a mountain goat, using both my hands and feet. I am careful and lock my feet in between the rocks, use the vines as ropes to steady myself, and pick the berries.  Either way,  we got enough for blackberry and raspberry cobbler, pies and I've frozen the rest to use in scones, pancakes, and fruit shakes.  I have saved enough to bake into something special when the kids and kidlets visit over Thanksgiving.

To freeze berries all you have to do is rinse them, put them into a 13x9 pan, pop them into the freezer until frozen, then transfer them into a ziploc bag

Picking them has been a joyful task, not a chore.  The weather has been in the low 70s, with a light breeze on the days that I've done the picking.  I am away from all the worries of the world and engulfed in a peace of gleaning free, God given, delicious food.  We are blessed and thankful!