Berry-Picking: Backyard Fun, Life Lessons, or Both?

Picking Berries is Best in the Morning Shade

The wealth required by nature is limited and is easy to procure; but the wealth required by vain ideals extends to infinity.  --Epicurus

Today I went berry-picking, right in my own back yard! In the summer I like to make smoothies from Stonyfield Farm non-fat organic yogurt, frozen berries, a little juice or almond milk, and various flavorings, especially mint from my garden.

Due to the antioxidant or flavonoid properties of the berries, and perhaps due to rising fuel prices, the price of the frozen berries I like has gotten high. I have therefore started planting blackberries, fig trees, huckleberries, paw paws, and other "easy" fruits and berries for my region. I am a teacher, so I will use some of my time in the summer to pick and preserve these backyard treasures. In the meantime I may find time to go to pick-your-own places at local farms, which is a terrific way to save money and support local farmers at the same time. I also get some local berries and fruits as part of my family's weekly farm share from Farm Chicks Produce.

But my most rewarding source of fresh berries comes from trees that have been growing on our property for years. We ignored them, almost as though they were a nuisance, until I finally realized the berries they produced were not only edible but truly delicious. The trees are, in fact, black mulberries, Morus nigra, as far as I can tell. Now that I realize how easy it is to pick and freeze these, I pick all I can during the few weeks of the year when the berries are available. Best of all, the purple-black berries are nutritious and a source of those sought-after antioxidants that make the price of blueberries, for example, so ridiculous these days. Besides smoothies, I also like them in muffins, plain, or mixed in yogurt. Their flavor is a little tart, but pleasantly so.

Berry picking is not just a way of saving money. It's a time for reflection and for communing with nature. I love the sound of the birds singing and of my backyard hens softly clucking to each other, or the sight of a native bee among the leaves, seeking pollen from the mulberry flowers. Today I was reflecting about the myriad life lessons I have gathered along with the mulberry fruit:

• Be gentle. Bruise the fruit or break a tree limb, and you wll regret your haste.
• Be persistent. Berries that aren't ripe yet need a revisit in a couple of days, or sometimes even a few hours. Frequent sessions will fill your freezers, but neglect the job, and you will find your potential harvest lying all over the ground.
• Plan ahead.  It is easy to make cuttings or grow more trees from cuttings, and then you can share them with your neighbors.
• The grass isn't always greener elsewhere. Why pay the supermarket for something like berries, when fresher ones are growing on your own property?
• Be thankful for what you have.
• Use the right tools for the job. The right ladder can make a trip to the backyard even more productive, and the right pail (see picture below) can keep you from spilling your berries all over the ground. I learned this the hard way.
• Things go better when your foundation is firm. Plant your ladder securely before you start climbing.
• Don't overextend yourself. One needs to keep a certain balance in life.
• Look at things from different angles and perspectives. It's amazing how shifting your position a few inches in any direction--up, down, or sideways--can cause you to see opportunities you couldn't see before.
• Waste not, want not. Backyard chickens are great for this. If too many berries have fallen to the ground, we can fence our laying hens with them for an afternoon. They will gobble them up, fertilize the trees a little with their manure, and gobble up any ticks or other bugs they can find in the understory. Then they turn all they found into nutritious eggs, all while having a grand time! It's a win-win.
• There are pluses and minuses to everything. Besides getting a little dirty and sweaty, there are greenbriers, poison ivy, and occasional ticks to watch out for. Overall, though, the experience is more than worth it. 
• Setting a little time aside to pick berries is really setting aside time for yourself.
• The best things in life really ARE free!

I wish more people would unplug from their computers, video-games, and television for a while and go berry-picking, even in their own back yards. They would discover the beauty of the natural world around them and be healthier physically, mentally, and spiritually for it. I know I am.

A good ladders is helpful, but it's a long way down!

Backyard Foraging, Or, Adventures in Eating!

The asparagus beds are done. We are just waiting for our order of asparagus crowns to arrive. Now we are moving the rest of the soil, prepared compost, etc., into our two vegetable beds. We lined them at the bottom with cardboard, with paper bags from the grocery store, and with some oversize "lawn and leaf" paper bags I bought at a discount store two weeks ago. Don put a quick fence around the area that he intends to go back to. It needs tightening up and it needs a gate, but it will keep the dogs from using the raised vegetable beds as a digging pit.

While we were working, our Asian neighbor was working on her side of the back fence. She looked at what was to me a weed tree in the wooded are at the back of the yard. "You have a porcupine tree," she said as she gazed at it with great longing. She told me the shoots, properly harvested, blanched and eaten with a dipping sauce, are a terrific seasonal delicacy. She taught me how to properly break off the young shoots, which I did in order to share with her. She said the tops would grow back to be harvested once more, and that the harvest would be over by April 15. The shoots must be harvested young, she said, or they turn bitter. She also warned me to be careful because the plant is very prickly.

She also recommended that I blanch the shoots and then dip them in an Asian-style sauce in order to eat them. There was one shoot left, so I picked it the way she told me and cooked it up. The greens had a strong but pleasant flavor, a little resinous(?) and like nothing I've ever had before. My neighbor had said they taste like broccoli, but she was doing them a disservice.

I blanched the shoots and then dipped them in a combination of minced garlic, minced fresh ginger, organic sesame oil, and Paul Newman's Asian Sesame salad dressing. I also tried the shoots plain, which were just as good.

I ran an online search under "porcupine tree" but only found the name of a British Rock Band and a blog post about someone's gumball tree. This is not the same tree, so I will post some pictures below. If anyone knows the horticultural designation or some common names for this edible weed, please let me know!

Update 8/12/2012: I found out from Karl Klein through the Organic Homesteading and Gardening Yahoo Group  that this tree is Aralia spinosa, commonly known as the Devils Walking Stick. Thanks, Karl!