My garden began about eight or nine years ago with a cutting from a blackberry, given to me by a guy in Berkeley. That was not only my first plant in my food garden, but it is also my first big harvest each year. It’s a well-established perennial that has produced over 50 pints in each of the past two years. I’ve had several 10-pint days of ripe berries and one blast of a day last year at 27 pints.

This year is going well. I’ve been getting a small but steady supply of raspberries and blueberries and my blackberries kicked in a couple of weeks ago. Now, I’m in the middle of my harvest. Yesterday was a good day, with 16 pints. I’m freezing berries like crazy (20 pints, over 12 pounds, so far) and giving them away as fast as I can (13 pints, so far, five more sitting in the fridge). I also tried drying a pint, but they didn’t dry very well. (The raspberries dried beautifully–like raspberry flavored rice krispies–but I don’t have an excess problem with those.) Given that I’m still finishing up last year’s 9 pounds that I froze, I should have plenty for the coming year. 🙂

So, here’s the plan: Keep freezing (make some pies this year to use ’em up), keep giving them to friends and neighbors, and make a couple batches of blackberry liqueur. (See recipe: https://urbanagroecology.org/2010/01/18/revised-berry-liqueur-recipe/.) Oh, and start figuring out what to to do with the blueberries and raspberries that are starting to produce well now.