Blackberries have arrived in Barb’s backyard!

 

First black­ber­ries of the season!

 

They are start­ing to ripen! This week I picked the first black­ber­ries from my vines here at Bar­b’s Back­yard. As with most “first pick­ins” of the sea­son, these were on the tart side. That’s an easy fix — I can use them as part of a smooth­ie with oth­er fruit and vanil­la fla­vored almond milk, or sim­ply driz­zle a nice orange blos­som hon­ey over them.

 

In about anoth­er week, plumper berries will present them­selves, mark­ing the first of prime black­ber­ry pick­ing sea­son. My friends eager­ly antic­i­pate this time. : ) We grab the strain­ers and colan­ders and head back for the vines in the evenings. By drop­ping them into strain­ers and colan­ders, all we have to do is sim­ply wash them off, and start eating!

 

The mock­ing­birds are help­ing them­selves as well.