Wednesday, April 8, 2020

That Free fruit


 Cars of beauty:


That looks like my first work truck! (48-50 chevy)

But for today (Wednesday):
We had store bought Blackberry jelly with our breakfast. That sent my mind back many years because it just was not mama’s blackberry jelly.

Remember the Free Fruit! God, thru mother nature just flooded our hills and hollars with fruit to save or just snack, while in the woods, on the way to the river.

I have never seen a tame plum tree, but the fields in NC were alive with the small delicious plumb.

I only ate them a few times, but the little wild straw berries weren’t bad. Sherry’s family called them ‘Snake Strawberries.’



Persimmons? Now I have eaten them, but they were not my favorite. When Kat, Sherry and I were wandering thru the woods down on Fort Jackson, they could spot a ‘simmon tree within 75 yards.

I am sort of an odd ball, Many fruits I prefer just a little green, but I only tried the persimmon ONCE green. UCK!! It will turn your mouth inside out!  

I like the little crab apples, but I have also found Apple and pear-apple trees in the woods. Don’t know if in an earlier date someone had planted them or maybe thrown a core out and it took root.

Cranberries, we call them cranberries, they grow here in Gaston County mostly near the river on a low bush, they are tasty.
 
Raspberries and I have a strange history. The first wild raspberries I remember seeing I was in my late 60s hiking the Appalachian Trail and thought I had found some blackberries not ripe yet. I like red blackberries, so I tasted one; it was sweet and realized it was not hard. My girl informed me it was a Raspberry.


Mama told about using most wild fruits in the depression era, but when I came along it was Blackberries. The family went blackberry picking a couple times in early summer. Mama canned ‘em, made super jelly, delicious BB cobblers and pies. We used Syrup buckets. It was hard for me to get the bottom covered; I ate my fill first. My favorite BB has just a tinge of red.

Maine has a great wild blueberry, they are not picked but use a rake looking thingee, they call it raking them. 

An after thought, did your family pick veggies or fruit together?

Nite Shipslog                       

7 comments:

I'm mostly known as 'MA' said...

I remember picking wild strawberries the best . The were much smaller, but sweeter than the store boughwt kind. We too probably ate more than we brought home. Free fruit is good !

Mevely317 said...

The only times I participated in berry-picking were summers spent on my grandparent's farm in SW Minnesota. Later we'd fill big old cereal bowls with the blueberries and eat them with sweet cream from my grandfather's dairy.
My only memory of persimmons was trying to eat them waling home from grade school without making a mess. If memory serves, I think I decided they just weren't worth the trouble. :))

betty said...

I don't think I ever had a persimmon. What great memories you have Jack of different wild fruits you have tasted and picked! In Oregon there were a lot of blackberry bushes along the side of the road and in parks. A lot of good picking there! I think my favorite story of someone picking fruit is my Uncle John. Years ago when I was still growing up he came to visit us in California from Pennsylvania. He saw a mulberry tree on someone's property ripe with fruit. He went and asked the owner if he could pick the fruit to which they readily agreed. He made mulberry pies for them and for us. So very tasty! He and his family went back home and we walked by that tree every year until we moved but never ventured to ask if we could pick the fruit again.

betty

Lisa said...

Oh yea, I remember walking up to the wild blackberries on a hill near our house. Momma would tell us she needed us to pick a gallon and she would make cobbler. I think it just got us out of her hair for a while.
She would then let them soak in a sink all day do clear the bugs. Later in life, I realized she only needed a CUP to make a cobbler. She must of had a freezer full of blackberries.

Bored in gtown
Lisa

Chatty Crone said...

I enjoy your memories here - but no we did not go picking anything - lol.

Woody said...

Good Memories of Black Berry, Blue Berry picking and Beech Nuts and Butternut gathering. Mother made Jams, Jellies and canned, Nothing taste like that today ! Good entry !! Take care down there and stay Healthy ! sending down Love and Blessing on you 2 ! Gary an Anna Mae

Glenda said...

We picked and froze all the blackberries we could find; Mr. Dodd's farm across the road from our place had the biggest and best! We shared with them as they were very elderly and couldn't outrun the snakes! Mama made the best blackberrry cobblers, and peach as well. Miss those days of homemade jam and jellies....happy memories!!! Love and hugs from Chobee, Glenda