Grab a Bucket! The Blackberries are Ripe!

Sugar Snap with a basket for of blackberries, also known as dewberries here in the South.

Sweet Potato and Hubby in the brambles.

It's that time of year here on the Texas Gulf Coast that is anticipated by those of us who pride ourselves on being tightwads.  Blackberry season.  The old timers call them dewberries, and if you grew up on the Texas Gulf Coast you know exactly what I'm talking about.  Free wild berries are in abundance in ditches, culverts and open fields all over our area.  In the evenings you will see folks walking along the ditches wearing long sleeves, gloves, carrying a bucket and big stick (to scare away the snakes).  Yes, the berries grow underneath a tangle of spiky vines that will try to attach themselves to you with their prickles, and the berry juice will absolutely stain forever whatever you wear to pick in, but it's all worth it!  The thrill of the hunt somehow overcomes the fear of the snakes in that moment where you pull back the vines and see the ripe berries shining like jewels, free for the taking.  The berries themselves are plump and a glossy deep purple.  We live on an acre of land just due south of Houston.  We have fenced off part of the acre and outside of the fence more or less sits dormant.  We mow it every now and again, although in the past year we have been in an extreme drought and there has been no need to mow, so we didn't.  Finally, a year goes by, we get a little rain (thank God) and it's time to start getting ready for Easter, which we host outside at our place.  Hubby decided the outside acre (or back 40 as we call it) needed a good mow.  Papa came over with his tractor, and started up and then stopped.  He realized that a huge area in the center of the back 40 was covered in flowering blackberry vines.  We let the vines be, and now the berries are ripe.  We went out last night when it was cool and filled a couple of baskets in under an hour.  The kids were classic: "One for me (pops berry in mouth), one for the basket (puts berry in basket)."  After filling our baskets but by no means picking all the berries that were out there, we came inside, mouths purple.  There will be more for days so the girls can run out there after school for a snack.  Once inside I whipped up a blackberry pie in no time with Sweet Potato's help and guess who's having blackberry pie for breakfast?  Don't judge me.

Breakfast.