麻豆社事件

Blackberries are perhaps the best known of all foraged wild fruits. Whether they grow modestly on the perimeters of a ramshackle farm or thrive ruthlessly along the banks of a forgotten creek, there are hundreds of hidden wild blackberry havens waiting for opportunistic berry fanatics.

Blackberries exist to lure the weak-willed away from the straight-and-narrow path. Their thorns will scratch, and the company they keep can hurt you. Everything flanking straight-and-narrow paths is bound to be interesting, so I say go for it, but I do have a cautionary tale.

Years ago I had just moved to California and was happily exploring the town of Sonoma, where I had recently set up in a little apartment. I discovered a bike path and trails branching off it into the hills, where my running route wound through madrone groves and next to vineyards. In those days I ran for hours and hours under the blare of the midday summer sun, and it made me a little loopy. When I noticed blackberry brambles not far off the bike path, I got right up in them and gobbled up berries to rehydrate. What I didn鈥檛 notice in my frenzy was poison oak鈥攂lackberries have an affinity for it, as tomatoes do with basil鈥攁nd the back of my hand must have grazed a cluster right before I used that same hand to wipe giant beads of perspiration off my face.

A week later I had a robust breakout of seeping poison oak blisters on my upper lip. The ooze of the blisters would dry into a crust the color of light amber. It took all of my willpower not to pick at it constantly. While so afflicted, I met Julia Child at a book signing. As she kindly inscribed my copy of Baking with Julia and offered earnest advice about a career in food writing, all I could think of was my marred face.

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If I had not contracted that poison oak, perhaps I鈥檇 have been more receptive to Julia Child鈥檚 career insights and not floundered around for years working crummy retail jobs and scrounging for oddball freelance gigs. But I鈥檇 not be who I am today. And guess what鈥擨 still get rashes from overenthusiastically taking off after trailside fruit! I have learned nothing!

The blackberries in question were undoubtedly the invasive Himalayan blackberry brambles that overrun hillsides and choke out native species, but that does not mean the fruit of these dominating opportunists cannot be harvested and eaten with aplomb (just look out for poison oak or poison ivy). Himalayan blackberries (R. armeniacus) are not prized for their flavor鈥擨 find them sour and wan, though if you鈥檙e in the middle of running 12 miles (19 km) they hit the spot like nothing else. And if you come across a lot of them, there鈥檚 always our good friend sugar to make them more palatable.

Disappointingly, the Himalayan blackberry is not from the Himalayas. It originated in Armenia and was introduced to Europe in 1835 for people to cultivate as a crop on purpose, if you can believe that. Like a gremlin doused with water, it escaped its confinement and rampantly spread throughout the continent. America鈥檚 own beloved plant maestro Luther Burbank introduced it in America in 1885, likely with no suspicion of how aggressively it would take root all up and down the West Coast. Burbank鈥檚 aim was to develop fruit and vegetable plants that would withstand long periods of shipping鈥攖his was when our nation鈥檚 transcontinental transportation network was coming into its tween years鈥攕o residents of our increasingly urbanized cities could have access to fresh produce. It鈥檚 Burbank who named it the Himalaya Giant, for the size of the berries. He sold the seeds through his seed catalog.

Feral Himalayan blackberries are deeply intertwined with the cultural identity of modern residents of California and the Pacific Northwest. The thickets are everywhere, at once loved and loathed. Tom Robbins set his 1980 novel Still Life with Woodpecker in a Seattle suburb where an exiled king and his family live in a house surrounded with a natural barricade of blackberries. Homeowners and naturalists engage in a never-ending battle with its burly, snaggy tendrils. My brother, who does non-native plant removal, owes his livelihood in part to Himalayan blackberries.

And yet there are the berries themselves, a seasonal token of redemption for the Rubus armeniacus, a plant impossible to eradicate. Therefore, we must coexist. If the truce lasts only as long as the berries, so be it.

Of course, there are hundreds of varieties of blackberries, native and crossbred. Some have thorns; others don鈥檛. Blackberries and raspberries both belong to the genus Rubus. Think of them as the patriarch and matriarch of the bramble clan. The extended family of Rubus pedigrees (boysenberries, loganberries, tayberries) are considered blackberries regardless of their color, because once picked, they retain their firm white core (or receptacle); raspberries don鈥檛. This receptacle is why blackberries have a longer shelf life than raspberries鈥攖hey don鈥檛 crush as easily.

Late summer is the time for blackberries. Farmed crops start coming into season in the middle of June, but the best wild berries don鈥檛 start appearing until July, with holdouts ripening into September. An old English folktale warns against picking blackberries after the fall, when the devil makes a mark on their leaves and claims them as his own, although in reality it鈥檚 more likely birds would have claimed the berries by then anyway.

Gathering fresh blackberries is not without its perils鈥攊nsects, blazing sun, scratchy weeds鈥攂ut the rewards are many. Few activities tap so directly into the spirit of summer.

Native to Asia, Europe, and North and South America, blackberries can be found growing on all continents except Antarctica. In Europe and in North America, blackberries have been used for medicinal purposes for hundreds of years; various preparations of blackberry juice, leaves, and bark were said to soothe eye and mouth ailments, aid digestion, relieve toothaches, and remedy dysentery. Today the focus is more on blackberries鈥� nutritional value: They are rich in antioxidants and dietary fiber.

Harvesting and Storage

Ripe blackberries are deep, dark purple-black鈥攏ot purple, and certainly not red or green. Berries on a given plant ripen in stages, offering opportunities to revisit a patch to replenish supplies as the weeks pass. Blackberries ripen only on the branch and will not become sweeter during storage. When picked, a ripe blackberry should come free of the plant with nothing more than a gentle nudge. Watch out for thorns, too; not all blackberry bushes have them, but most wild ones do.

Once picked, blackberries don鈥檛 hold up very long. Blackberries kept at room temperature may mold quickly, so refrigerate them 3 to 4 days, tops; as the blackberries age, they lose their sheen and plumpness, taking on a slightly withered, matte look. Like most other berries, wash them directly prior to eating and no earlier; a premature rinse will lead to mushy berries.

Culinary Possibilities

Barring an all-out bonanza of fresh berry eating, there are two ways to make good on a prodigious blackberry harvest. One is to launch into a frenzy of canning; the other, which is less demanding and more versa- tile, is to freeze the berries. You don鈥檛 need pectin to make jam, but many like to add it. Soft or squishy berries that are still good flavorwise are a smart addition to shrubs, sangria, sorbet, compotes, or anything saucy.

Balsamic Blackberry Compote

Makes about 2 cups (480 ml)

Showcase the last berries of summer in a simple spiced compote set off with a drizzle of balsamic. Serve this on rice pudding, panna cotta, or plain yogurt.

3 cups (435 g) blackberries
3 tablespoons granulated sugar
1鈦�4 teaspoon cinnamon
Pinch ground nutmeg
1鈦�2 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest
1鈦�2 teaspoon balsamic vinegar

Combine all the ingredients from the berries through the zest in a medium skillet over medium heat. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the berries release their liquid. Simmer 1 to 3 minutes to reduce a little, then crush with a potato masher, leaving half of berries intact. Add the vinegar, and remove from the heat. Serve warm, cold, or at room temperature. Refrigerated, the compote will keep for 1 week.

This excerpt is adapted from Sara Bir鈥檚 book The Fruit Forager鈥檚 Companion: Ferments, Desserts, Main Dishes, and 麻豆社事件 from Your Neighborhood and Beyond (Chelsea Green, 2018) and is printed with permission from the publisher.