A Curse or Blessing?

If you have lived in western Washington for any amount of time you will probably be quite familiar with blackberry vines. These persistent plants have been known to sprout just about anywhere and thrive in the most inconvenient places. Before you know it, a small blackberry vine can explode into a great thorny bush and be the cause for great sweat—and sometimes even bloodshed—trying to remove it. If this were the whole story about blackberry vines, I think that they most certainly would be voted as Washington’s most disliked plant

But, before you get too upset about this seemingly noxious weed, you must taste a handful of large, sweet, juicy, blackberries.


Although blackberries can be quite problematic when growing in the wrong place, we thoroughly enjoy the blackberries we have on the farm because they are growing in a great place.


Along the fence bordering our property, great mounds of blackberries grow and each year right about this time yield a bountiful reward of huge, sweet blackberries. Thanks to the horses and cows, these mounds of blackberries are kept trimmed back so that we can actually reach the black bounty without falling prey to the thorns. After several hours of picking, we will come back with enough blackberries to freeze for the winter, as well as to make into an after dinner pie.