Purple Lips and Purple Thumbs
Andrew ate more than he picked.
If you have purple lips and purple thumbs as well as scratches on your hands and ankles, then what have you been doing all morning? Can you guess? That’s right, picking berries.
The dewberries are ripe! They taste good fresh. They freeze well. Dewberry jam is absolutely delicious. It brings the taste of summer to your kitchen year round. Of course, you can make dewberry cobblers and pies. Dewberries are very versatile. My husband would like to try to make some dewberry wine if we have enough this year.
Like most berries, dewberries have small seeds. This bothers some people, but not me. They are sweet and juicy. The berries are a deep purple color.
Dewberries on the vine.
Sunburn, snakes, and poison ivy are the most dangerous things to consider when going berry picking. We went in the coolness of the morning and wore hats to combat the sun’s rays.
Keeping your eyes searching below the vines as you pick helps you look for snakes. Carry a long stick with which to stir up the undergrowth. We did not see a snake the whole time we were picking.
The first step to preventing poison ivy is to teach everyone what it looks like. It likes to grow on the fence lines along with the berries. Avoiding poison ivy is the only way to ensure that you will not get the itchy rash. I will write more about poison ivy in another article.
My family looks forward to picking dewberries every year. It is fun. It also reminds us what a blessing it is to gather food where you have not sown any seeds or worked the earth.
Just like any berry, you do not want to wash the fruit until you are ready to use them. They will mold otherwise. Freezing them is really simple. Wash the berries. Spread the berries on a large cookie sheet and place in the freezer. Once the berries are frozen, pour them into freezer safe storage containers. I use quart size bags.
The following is my recipe for dewberry cobbler. You can make it with wheat or gluten free. Serve it warm or cold. Serve it with or without ice cream. My favorite way to eat the cobbler is warm with homemade ice cream on top.
The young boys riding in style with their buckets full of berries.
Dewberry Cobbler
1/2 cup sugar
1 Tbsp corn starch
4 cups of dewberries (washed)
1 tsp lemon juice
In a saucepan, combine the above ingredients and cook until the mixture thickens and boils. Stir it constantly. Allow the mixture to boil for a minute. Pour into a 2-quart casserole dish and keep warm.
3 Tbsp shortening
1 cup of flour or gluten free mixture*
1 Tbsp sugar
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup milk (I use goat, but almond, cow, or rice would work.)
Cut the shortening in the dry ingredients. Slowly add the milk. Drop the dough over the berry mixture. Bake at 400 degrees for 25-30 minutes. The topping should be golden brown.
*1/3 cup almond flour, 1/3 cup potato starch, 1/3 cup sorghum flour, and 1/4 tsp xantham gum.
We don’t have dewberries. But we can’t wait for the wineberries. We LIVE for wineberries in the summer.
Also, in addition to snakes and poison ivy, we have to watch for BEARS!
I love berry picking season.
Bless you, Lara, and Bless God for giving us such delicious things to eat!
Carol
Carol, I thank God that we do not have to contend with bears. That reminds me of the children’s book, Blueberries for Sal. They mother and son in the book are picking blueberries in Maine, I believe. Please tell me, what are wineberries? And, what do you do with them?
Thank you so much for your sweet words and comments. I wish I could meet you face-to-face someday. I hope that you enjoy a bumper crop of wineberries this summer.
Blessings,
Lara
Are dewberries basically wild blackberries? If so, it must be a lot warmer there than here because ours are just blooming!
Dewberries are in the blackberry family. We also have blackberries. They are not ready to be picked yet. Blackberries here grow on taller canes, and the berries are bigger and more tart. They are not really good eating plain. Dewberries grow in low-lying vines, which will grow up a fence or electric pole. They tend to be more small, but sweeter.