Blackberries, Part Two

I was just catching up on a little blog reading and came across this post on Ingredients, Inc. We all know blackberries taste good, and here are 10 reasons they really are good for you!

And according to number 5, blackberries' high tannin content is good for stomach disorders—proof that my grandmother knew what she was talking about when she had us drink blackberry juice for an upset tummy!

Before Blackberries Had Batteries

With the arrival of summer, I often think longingly back on the days when I was growing up and the excitement of being out of school for a few months. Living out in the country, there were always plenty of things to do and places to explore. One of the things I remember most about childhood summers, though, is blackberries.

Behind our house was a pasture, and on the fence separating the pasture from the back yard, blackberry vines grew thick and thorny. From the time the first tiny white flowers appeared, I watched the fruit turn from tiny green nodules to red, and finally to deep, blue-black clusters the size of cherry tomatoes.

When the berries were ripe, my grandmother would hand me a plastic bowl and together we would gently fill it with the sun-warmed fruit. She would make sure I watched out for thorns, black snakes and chiggers—three of the hazards of picking blackberries. Our blackberry “orchard” wasn’t a large one, and it would take several afternoons of harvesting before she would declare we had enough for her to make a few pints of blackberry juice.

While a lot of grandmothers might have made blackberry cobblers or blackberry jelly (and mine did many times through the years), my grandmother’s first priority was to preserve a few jars of blackberry juice. She always prescribed it whenever my mother, father or I had a stomachache. And drinking a small amount of it always made us feel better, if for no other reason than the sweet taste of summer and sunshine it provided all year long.