View Full Version : Blackberries: a reason to hike Virginia this summer.
Lemni Skate
05-24-2009, 09:14
Blackberries. My goodness, this is going to be a record year for the berries! Everywhere you go in Virginia you see the little white flowers dominating the flora. They're going to be juicy and big, too. Lots of rain and more on the way.
Look for me if you're hiking here this summer; I'll be the guy with the purple fingers and lips.
mooseboy
05-24-2009, 19:05
Does that include the Northern third? I may be hiking HF to Rockfish Gap... Hoping June is sunnier than May...
Blackberries aren't ready in June.
Frau
Everywhere you go in Virginia you see little white flowers dominating the flora.
There are all sorts of little white flowers blooming in Berks County this Memorial Day weekend: viburnums, multiflora rose and wineberry among others.
Blackberries aren't ready in June.
When the time does come for picking, beware, blackberries bite back! I can wait knowing Juneberries and black raspberries will keep me busy picking and happy until then.
Blackberries. My goodness, this is going to be a record year for the berries! Everywhere you go in Virginia you see the little white flowers dominating the flora. They're going to be juicy and big, too. Lots of rain and more on the way.
Look for me if you're hiking here this summer; I'll be the guy with the purple fingers and lips.
I agree! Lots of blooms in my area, its going to be a great year for berries!
fredmugs
05-25-2009, 21:10
Blackberries aren't ready in June.
Frau
Blackberry shakes are though!
Blissful
05-25-2009, 23:21
Actually the blueberries are awesome up in SNP in July.
vamelungeon
05-25-2009, 23:23
I was hiking the Pine Mountain Trail on the VA-KY line this past weekend noticed all the blossoms while walking through a big thicket of the briars. My own thought was "I bet this place will be crawling with black bears when the berries come in."
Blueberries at low elevation (my yard) are ready the last week of June. Up high--what Blissful said. Blackberries down low, July 4, Wineberries the last week in June.
Red currents, first week in June.
Fr.
Blueberries at low elevation (my yard) are ready the last week of June. Up high--what Blissful said.
Sometimes by July 4th, there are already no blueberries to be found along the AT in Berks County.
Black huckleberries are produced on a taller plant and are more likely to be available later and for a longer time.
Mrs Baggins
05-26-2009, 18:47
In Grayson Highlands State Park this past weekend we also noticed beau coup berry blossoms. Also tons of strawberry blossoms and the apple trees at the old homestead sites were loaded with blossoms. Water is not a problem. The ground in GHSP was absolutely sopping wet everywhere. Kinda makes the park's signs at the bathrooms about "severe drought" lose all credibility.
Lemni Skate
05-26-2009, 19:56
I live near SNP and it's going to be a bumper crop. I think they start coming in at my house (I have them all over the place) the last week in June, but the AT is 1500-2500 feet higher than my house. I also have a blueberry farm on my property (okay, it's wild huckleberries, but they're growing everywhere). I don't actually raise these things, but I don't cut down any huckleberries or blackberries...could be why I have sighted a bear in my yard twice. So if they're growing gangbusters in Lebanon and in Orange then I think blueberry freaks should hit Harper's Ferry around June 28 and start hiking south. By the time you're in Damascus you'll probably have had your fill.
I don't notice much difference in blackberry harvest from year to year in my locale. Blueberries (I didn't grow up calling them huckleberries) vary a lot from year to year, but wineberries and blackberries are always abundant.
I wish I could get excited about the wild blueberries, but I grow several domesticated varieties which are so huge, that the wild ones seem like slim pickin's. Up at Dolly Sods, in late summer, HORDES of people harvest the wild ones, making hiking there a crowded venture for a week or two.
Fr.
Lemni Skate
06-18-2009, 23:42
I got to eat a lot of Mulberries in Maryland last week.
Ratchet-SectionHiker
06-19-2009, 08:11
Picked a couple nalgenes full of mulberries from the local park after kayaking the other night. Wife made an awesome cobbler! They are starting to go for the year so if you can find them snatch em up!
http://chuckwarnockblog.files.wordpress.com/2008/12/blackberry-curve.jpg