Posted in Plants

Our berries of 2018

Did I mention our red raspberry canes had fruit?  If not, I just did.  We were a bit neglectful in cane management last year, and we have way too many runners, and thus not much fruit this year.

I had two berries yesterday, and they were delish.  The black raspberry canes are still pumping out berries as well.  The blackberries are still green.

We also have other berries that look like black raspberries, but aren’t shaped quite the same in the safety glass bed that hopped over the path between the rock wall border and our yard.  I have yet to find out what they really are.  One guess right now is dewberries, though we’re in the north and apparently they’re more common in the south.  A few looked like they were ready to be picked yesterday, but still stubbornly clung to their cane.  Their canes aren’t really canes, more like vines, and they are creeping along the ground, but just as thorny!

Possible new berry we misidentified last year?
They look like black raspberries, but not quite the same shape, wicked thorns, and and lower to the ground one what seems more vine than cane.

If my memory is worth anything, the few of those we had last year were tart, which is also something dewberries are, yet we might have picked them too soon?  We were a bit too eager to try some berries last year instead of waiting until they want to be picked.  But I haven’t seen anything yet stating that dewberries start red and go black, where boysenberries do.  So maybe they’re boysenberries?

Boysenberries are mid summer, and Dewberries are late June – July from one site I found, so maybe more likely to be Boysen?  Still, how cool would it be if it turns out we have not four types of edible berries that came with the house, but FIVE?

The strawberries have long been pillaged.  We have a few notions about how to prevent complete loss of those next year.  Time will tell how that goes.  I’m bummed because we didn’t even get to eat a single one!

The blueberries are taunting us. More are turning blue, but they’re not ready to be picked just yet.


Later Note: I think I mentioned this in another post, but it turned out that the mystery berries are indeed boysenberries. Noted 12 March, 2019

Care to share thoughts on this?