September 8, 2011
“O, blackberry tart, with berries as big as your thumb, purple and black and thick with juice...with such a taste that will make you close your eyes and wish you might live forever." - Richard Llewellyn, Welsh novelist, 1907-1983
On a recent trip to the State of Washington, I discovered to my surprise that in some places in the Pacific Northwest blackberries are considered a "noxious" weed.
Locals there appear to have a love-hate relationship with this plump, musky tasting delicious fruit, hating blackberries for 11 months out of the year and loving them for one when the fruit is in season.
In fact, for most of the year blackberries are a 'forbidden fruit', designated as a 'Class C' offender (sounds like a felony to me) by the Washington State Noxious Weed Control Board.
Apparently, for good reason.
Blackberries in the Pacific Northwest are highly invasive and will effectively kill any vegetation in the vicinity by simply outgrowing it. Something has to be done, but I suggest just eating them all up.
I saw evidence of blackberry invasiveness in back yards, rural woods, along highways and streams and even along city streets. The politically correct folks in 'that neck of the woods' refer to these rambling, thorny blackberry brambles as 'unwanted, invasive vegetation' rather than calling them a noxious weed. I probably had better not get into that discussion, but it did cause me to laugh out loud at the terminology.
Back to the love-hate relationship with blackberries. Come late summer many folks there cannot help themselves, and who can blame them?
According to Nancy Giacolone of Westsound Home and Garden magazine, residents forage for this sweet black gold fruit that is low in calories and boasts the highest concentration of cancer-fighting antioxidants of any berry.
They cannot get enough of them she says," Our attitudes change in an instant and we greedily gather as much as we can pick."
There is even a Blackberry Festival in Bremerton, Washington, held every Labor Day weekend, at which blackberry everything abounds, and of course, we could not miss that.
Chefs in the area love this time of year when they can create luscious desserts, light, sweet beverages and savory entrees that all feature blackberries.
I learned to think outside the blackberry pie box, if you will, when it comes to blackberries, a versatile, pleasing fruit that can be used in more ways than I ever imagined.
Grilled salmon or roast duck with a blackberry glaze or sauce, greens with blackberries and nuts, blackberry tarts and cobblers, poached pears with blackberries, huckleberry ice cream with blackberries, blackberry-cinnamon or blackberry chocolate-chip ice cream, blackberry limeade, blackberry soda, blackberry wine and blackberry jams and jellies. The list goes on and on.
Guilt-ridden though they may be, folks there do indeed seem to be in love with blackberries.
How can something so right be so wrong asks City Arts magazine writer Angela Garbes who wonders about 'blackberry guilt'?
She writes, "The blackberry, insidious as it might be, provides city and country dwellers with tons of free, fresh fruit every year. When you're elbow deep in the blackberry brambles...a little drunk on the heady smell of ripe berries...it's hard to hold anything against the plant."
Meanwhile back in Missouri, our blackberry season is mostly past. There are no overtaking blackberry bushes to fight since they don't like August or September here much anyway. We don't think of blackberries as noxious weeds and about the only way we use them is in pies and jelly. I am not bothered at all by sticking my hand illegally into the thorny branches that will likely draw some blood and popping a fat cluster of luscious blackberries right into my mouth.
Ah, there's something rather nice about not having blackberry guilt.
