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Advice & More July 2019

The Art of Picking Berries

By Deb Biechler

Now my chocolate lab, Jessie, picks like a pro. She delicately places her lips around each one, avoiding the prickers. If the fruit resists her tug or the branch has too much bounce, she plants a paw on the vine, to hold it still.

Three years ago, when I first walked through the log house that was to become our home outside of Necedah, Wisconsin, I saw potential, but wasn’t sold on the place. Then we walked the trails on the five acres surrounding it.

Ripening red and black raspberries lined the paths that meandered through five acres of scrub oak and pine woods. I nibbled my way from one bush to the next, with visions of pie and a freezer filled with fruit, obscuring anything else that the realtor said.

Little did I know then that black caps and red raspberries were just the first entries in a parade of edible offerings that ripened in our woods from mid June through August.

Since that first year, and with the help of the field guide, Wild Berries & Fruits --Minnesota, Wisconsin & Michigan, by Teresa Marrone, I’ve added blackberries, blackish gooseberries and an occasional blueberry to the harvest. 

There’s an art to picking berries. My chocolate lab, Jessie, and I continue to hone ours in the hours, days and weeks that we spend among brambles. Yes, Jessie picks berries too.

During our second year here I dropped a couple of the tasty fruits to her. Jessie loved them so much that she kept getting underfoot, prodding me to give her more.

“You need to pick your own!” I declared after I nearly tripped over her for the umpteenth time. Holding out a low branch and extending one of the berries her way, I watched as she first sniffed then gobbled, getting some of the plant’s fuzzy prickers in the bargain.

Now my chocolate lab, Jessie, picks like a pro. She delicately places her lips around each one, avoiding the prickers. If the fruit resists her tug or the branch has too much bounce, she plants a paw on the vine, to hold it still.

Here are a few tips that we’ve learned so far:

  • Squeeze slightly at the low middle portion of a newly ripe raspberry to release it from the cane.
  • Come at the bush from different directions/look high and low. Leaves obscure the berries.
  • At peak harvest pick twice per day.
  • Leave some for the critters.

This year Jessie has led me to patches of the red and black fruit that I hadn’t discovered on my own. Her company and keen sense of smell, always on alert for the scent of other animals, comforts me. I feel assured that I won’t just stumble on a bear and her cubs eating berries nearby.

Other animals depend on berries for their diet, too. In addition to black bear, chipmunks, fox, white-footed mice, opossums, squirrels, voles and birds are the main eaters of berries according to the Wisconsin DNR website.

The berries are on our property, but they come with a price. I paid dearly in blood to the bumper crop of mosquitoes that also grew this year.

There’s sweat equity too. Even in the hottest days that late June and early July served up, I donned long sleeves and pants. The latter were tucked into high socks keeping ticks at bay.I wore netting over my baseball cap but even so, the irritating drone of the mosquitoes was less than music to my ears. But it was worth it!

Almost six gallons of raspberries are tucked away for winter. As the last of the red ones ripen our blackberry and gooseberry harvest begins.

Because our property has not been “burned” recently, I have only found three blueberries in as many years. The ground is carpeted with blueberry plants, but without a burn, they do not produce fruit.

Always remember that many types of berries are toxic to humans and animals. Before eating any, make sure that you check a trusted resource. Happy and safe berry picking!