bamamama

Oh man! I want some for cobbler! Sounds good.

Up North

Oh Yum our do not get ripe till about August. Jam is good! or jelly if you can not tolerate seeds. Evaporated milk and sugar on them in a bowl for a snack!

MoMiMi

I love to make blackberry jelly, because I don't like the seeds in jam. It is easy to make. Our berries here are just blooming.

mama's place

Here in Alabama we have two types of blackberries...the first kind we call Dewberries and they get ripe first. Actually they are about to quit bearing soon. They grow close to the ground and are often plumper and juicier than the regular blackberries. They are often about knee high or shorter.
The regular blackberries aren't ripe yet but will be pretty soon and those can bear until over into late June.
We don't have bears here but wild hogs and coyotes are possibilities as well as snakes and ticks. LOL
So, be sure to watch where you step, dress in long sleeves to keep from being scratched by the thorns, and pick earlier in the day to avoid the heat.
Those tall, headhigh plants are the regular blackberry and they are great to eat as soon as they are black and somewhat soft. Enjoy!!

Gramie bj

Black berries are great do all the above you can even make syrup for your pancakes. Ours haven't bloomed yet When we pick wild we have to watch for bears, they like them as much as we do!

Ramona Byrd

Wear long sleeves like they say. Long denim pants with high boots. Take a piece of rope to tie the bucket around your waist so you can pick with both hands. Take heavy gloves, leather for preference, but I mostly grab the vines with one hand in the glove and pick with the ungloved one. That way I can pick lots of berries rapidly. Take large flat boxes from grocery store to put them in from the bucket, GENTLY. I'm talking about car picking here, but if close to home carry them gently and use 2 buckets so they won't squash with so much weight on the bottom ones.

Dunk gently into water at home and drain, I use a round, new fat spatter guard from the dollar store to dunk them and drain them fast. Spread on a cookie sheet like others say and freeze, then put into plastic bags/boxes/or the "suck the air out" protective bags and they will stay frozen till wanted. You'll be amazed at how many berries a small family can get through during the winter. And the jams/jellies make marvelous gifts.

Ramona Byrd

[quote=Gramie bj]Black berries are great do all the above you can even make syrup for your pancakes.
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My sister and I have a system for making all that. We make our jellies and jams and let them set till the lids are down, fully sealed. After a few days, THEN we label them. If the jelly is firm, it's labeled JELLY. If the jelly is sealed and yet liquid, we label it as BLACK BERRY SYRUP.

Works every time.

amma

If they are alongside a road taste a few of them first, as they can pick up the taste of car exhaust :wink:

We have black caps and black berries here. The black berries are bigger than a raspberry and the black caps are smaller than a raspberry.

BellaBoo

No way I'd step in the grass around a blackberry bush without lot of repellent spray on. You are going to be eat up with chiggers if you don't use Deep Woods Off.

Peckish

Okay I read all of the replies and no one addressed MY biggest concern. Spraying. If the berries are on private property, I would highly recommend you check with the property owner and make sure that he/she didn't spray Roundup or some other poison on the bushes (also make sure it's okay for you to be on the property). If it's county or municipal property, ESPECIALLY roadside berries, check with them for spray schedules and locations. Our county does a LOT of spraying on the blackberries here.