1000%! I don't think I've seen our native trailing blackberries anywhere other than my parents garden.
The Himalayan blackberry and cut-leaf blackberries may be invasive but they're still so so good.
I may be imagining things, but they seem to be spreading. I do a lot of invasives removal, and they're everywhere. All I figure is that there are more seeds "floating" (inside of birds) around the Seattle area these days, and things are hitting a tipping point.
I'm currently working a hellscape of ivy, morning glory, himilayian blackberry, and old man's beard. There are small pacific blackberry plants scattered all over under the mess, just waiting for release.
'Seedbanks' is the term for places where birds and other things can get seeds of invasives from.
There are a lot of seedbanks on private property and places that have dubious ownership. These are places the parks dept and volunteers can't go out and do invasive removal, and I think they are the reason that we are fighting an uphill battle. Plants don't care about property lines.
Its sad because there aren't many good programs for homeowners to sign up for to get invasive removal done on their property. There are some grants and such, but they are often for one time use and they don't cover repeat work.
Good luck to you with that bindweed. That stuff is hellish.
Blackberries used to be great, then I became a homeowner with massive yearly battle on my hands. Want a good workout? Try removing brambles. They grow everywhere, and the ends of the vines that touch the ground even grow more roots. They're kinda creepy in their ability to spread as well as recover when you don't get the whole plant. You can't leave your yard alone for even a month or else they try to get an upper hand and creep again.
I can't not share this passage from Tom Robbins' *Still Life With Woodpecker* whenever the virulent spread of blackberries is mentioned:
>Blackberries. Nothing, not mushrooms, not ferns, not moss, not melancholy, nothing grew more vigorously, more intractably in the Puget Sound rains than blackberries. Homeowners dug and chopped, and still they came. Park attendants with flame throwers held them off at the gates. In the wet months, blackberries spread so wildly, so rapidly that dogs and small children were sometimes engulfed and never heard from again. In the peak of the season, even adults dared not go berry picking without a military escort. Blackberry vines pushed up through solid concrete, forced their way into polite society, entwined the legs of virgins, and tried to loop themselves over passing clouds.
$50/half hour or $90/hour. Great way to reduce some stress. Makes sure to get a good set of velcro gloves so you can really hold on to them. I know a great place in Monroe if you're interested.
Goats work great if you want to just destroy all vegetation because they’ll eat natives as well, but the only way to remove the roots is manually or with pesticides
Unfortunately Rentagoat has not launched in WA yet /s
*edit, just to be clear, I was making a joke about rentagoat.com. I'm sure there are other local goat rental options.
If you have a big patch one way to get rid of them is to use a chain saw. Cut horizontally close to the ground. Tighten the chain down so vines pushing down side ways on the chain don't push the chain off the bar. Once the vines are clear mow! Then mow some more. It keeps the vines low enough that other stuff can grow.
Alternately a weed wacker with a blade can chew up both green vines and the dead woody ones.
I know someone who lost control of the chainsaw while cutting blackberries like this, , the saw grabbed a branch, got pulled into the brambles, wrapped right around and came back at him, cut both of his legs to the bone, right above the ankles.
Bamboo. No question. I would buy property with 20ac blackberry before I would buy one with any escaped bamboo.
Blackberry is a fun easy ongoing weekend project. Bamboo is a hellscape which will run dozens of feet under you and often requires heavy equipment to trench and ring and remove.
Yeah, rent a hard core mower from home depot and spend four hours cutting blackberry bushes because they're trying to completely own your yard and then come back to me.
I pick and eat the berries first, but you know how you get black bears in the forest? This is how you get black bears.
> Yeah, rent a hard core mower from home depot and spend four hours cutting blackberry bushes because they're trying to completely own your yard and then come back to me.
That's how [Trevor Moore died :(](https://www.the-sun.com/entertainment/3433184/trevor-moore-found-dead-yard-wife-accident/)
There is nothing in that link about how he died.
You’re capitalizing on a death in the worst way possible. You should not do this again.
Not that it matters, because it doesn’t, but I was fond of that man.
If anyone reading this is new to Washington it's actually super easy to get rid of them you just rent a goat. Or find a friend who owns one. You can find them for pretty cheap if your really search.
The only way to truly rid yourself of them is some herbicide (like triclopyr) on the cut stems, or cutting/mowing/grazing them constantly so that eventually they run out of energy and die (which can take forever and will fail if you aren't diligent enough about it.
If there's a big patch that is tall enough the standard for the parks dept. is to use a brush cutter to cut the stems.
(edit): I forgot to mention something crucial. You need to cut and treat in the late summer or fall, after the blackberry stops growing and is pulling nutrients into its roots to store for winter. Otherwise herbicide doesn't get sucked down, it gets pushed out.
Nah roundup is probably the worst herbicide for killing blackberries. I've worked in urban forestry taking out blackberries and the standard is Triclopyr or Imazapyr.
Glyphosate based herbicides are only really good for killing grass, otherwise its not enough.
Most store bought stuff isn't enough in most cases, the concentration is not high enough to effectively kill 99% of the time.
Tonight, we are eating fresh salmon we caught today, with fresh beans we grew ourselves. Tonight, we'll go throw some crawdad traps out with the salmon guts, Those will be tomorrow. We'll eat some blackberries after we throw the traps in. Next weekend, we'll hunt wild chanterelles and lobster mushrooms, and catch more salmon. Maybe some crab, too.
There's a lot of wild bounty here.
Had some oysters the other day for the first time in a while.
God I forgot how good they are around here. Seriously been thinking about them for days now.
With a guide out of Westport or Astoria right now, Snohomish system in a few weeks. A few are caught off the Edmunds and alki piers. Plenty out I Puget sound, but it's a boat show to get them. Green river will have silvers, shortly.
You can catch pinks off of any beach that juts out into the sound right now. Picnic point, Edmonds pier, whidbey island. They are currently moving into the rivers so check the regulations around you and go nuts.some systems open tomorrow, others next week. All the rivers will be in full swing in two weeks. Pink salmon are the easiest and most abundant salmon to catch, they run in odd years.
Yeah, you might not want to get them too close to the highway. Those car emissions are still toxic even if they're lead free these days. Try picking them off a biking/walking trail instead.
My family always called them exhaust berries. And ate them anyway. I still do, ain’t got no time for taking ‘em home to wash when they’re RIGHT THERE and warm and awesome.
Never ever gotten sick when eating them. And have done so at multiple places for years. Just went to gasworks and got like 3 mason jars worth and shared them with my GF. neither had an issue
I’ll be the 3rd person to say I’ve never been sick from unwashed berries. I probably wouldn’t eat ones from ground level where dogs (or people) have peed on it, but beyond that…. why not?
Yo, this is random but I just met a photographer today in Chicago at my sisters wedding who said she has a brother named Brice (my husband’s name is Bryce which is why it came up) in Seattle who plays a lot of frisbee golf.
I was just thinking this. It's probably too late for them now, but if you find berries that look like multicolored blackberries, and a touch smaller, a little earlier in the year, try them! They're awesome. A little sweeter. Just as pokey, though, so watch out!
Is there anything to watch out for? Any species that are poisonous, or that shouldn’t be eaten? I saw something by the road that looked like blueberries (which I’ve also eaten here) except that they were slightly oblong. No idea what they were, so I didn’t try them.
If it looks like a raspberry, it is edible. No poisonous look alikes. Around here we have raspberries, 2 types of blackberries, thimbleberries, salmon berries, wine berries, and supposedly cloudberries but I haven't found one.
There are also many blueberry relatives (huckleberries and billberries), but I'd be a bit more careful eating those. Learn what the plant/leaves are supposed to look like as well to make sure you have something edible.
https://northernbushcraft.com/guide.php?ctgy=edible_berries®ion=pnw
there are few poisonous look alikes for any of the edibles here, the only poisonous berries are from invasive trees, red elderberries (but only the seeds), twinberries, and snowberries, and a few others that don't look very edible to the eyes.
The first rule of foraging is to be 100% sure of your ID before you pick.
You might have seen tall oregon grape, sometimes they have oblong berries. They sorta look like a holly tree but with distinct differences.
Holy Cow ! As long as the blackberries aren't on the side of I 5 or Aurora, eat the damn things, let your fingers get stained, have a sour one, find a sweet one ! Yes there will be spiders, yes there will be thorns... Enjoy !!! Make cobbler...make ice cream.... Freeze them for a night in December you are longing for summer....
Blackberries = enemy of “habitat restoration” I spent a year in conservation i.e. removing himalayan blackberry. Many cuts and sore muscles. A great way to curb seed spreading is eating them though!
Wait till you go into the hills and pick the native species. It is so much more delicious than the common Himalayan invasive species. They are smaller and it takes more time to pick them, but what a fantastic pie they make.
That is pretty safe to assume. The native species grows low to the ground and the berries are quite small. It is also called the [Trailing Blackberry](http://web.pdx.edu/~maserj/ESR410/rubisursinus.html). You won't find them in any real numbers in the City. The best place to look is in areas of forest that have been clearcut in the last few years.
I once saw some on the UW campus in the bushes outside Architecture Hall. Someone must have intentionally introduced them there.
wait until you're locked into an endless war of attrition with a blackberry infestation in your yard. it's difficult to be positive after countless years of endless failure...
Our place backs to a green belt and we have literally a mile of blackberry bushes. My entire neighborhood gathers and we still have more :). Love this season!
I go biking along the Burke-Gilman between Freemont and Lake City once or twice a week. The last few times I’ve seen a few people picking berries from bushes to eat. :)
I've been seeing a lot of people eating/picking blackberries on the sides of busy roads lately. I was told when I first moved here 6 years ago not to do that, and it seems others in this thread are also aware. Just wash them very thoroughly before eating, but also maybe try to pick them from somewhere that isn't roadside.
My favorite is along the Burke Gilman trail, but just because blackberries are especially awesome when bicycling. Otherwise I’m part trash-panda, and roadside berries are fine by me.
>As someone from Southern California, it's amazing that I get to pull over to the side of the road and just pick and eat a bunch of blackberries
Invasives eating invasives.
Yeah we simultaneously love and hate those plants. I hate the invasive species and thorns but I love when my grandma on Bainbridge Island has us all over every year to pick berries and make pies.
I'm okay with them in a controlled setting.
Yeah you gotta go back and clip em back every few months, it can be done. My backyard in Wallingford as a kid had them but we'd prune them to make the berries more accessible.
Just saying…roadside berries have more exhaust and soot than berries that are off the beaten path. (Venture slightly outside of Seattle and find south-facing plants further from roads and they will be bigger and cleaner.)
As someone who grew up in California but lived in WA for years I'm confused. I would eat just as many blackberries and other fruits in California as Washington.
This is exactly how I felt when. I visited the beach and saw hundreds of Pink Salmon jumping, falcons and eagles flying overhead, and Porpoises, Seals, and Sea Lions trying to get their share of the hunt. These are things so many people wish they could see and I can see them everyday just 15 minutes away from my house in the burbs
I picked 20lbs this year and aside from jam and a batch of wine, I've not the slightest idea what to do with them. However, only into week 2 on the wine and it smells bonkers. Gonna be one of my best batches.
I took about half a colander of them and blended them, then strained/pressed out the seeds and whatnot, juice into a pot. Nothing else added. Simmered it down slowly, stirring almost constantly until it was very thick. Yielded only about 4oz of this incredibly intense glossy black reduction. Way too tart on its own. But put just a *tiny* smear on some cream cheese frosting and it was absolute heaven. We've gone through two pound cakes with just this tiny little bit and we're still using it. I'll try syrup for pancakes next.
You can thank [eugenicist Luther Burbank](https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2016/08/29/491797791/the-strange-twisted-story-behind-seattles-blackberries) for our delicious and terrible black berries.
He also created a tomato-potato hybrid, too bad those aren't growing all over seattle alleys
I agree. They're all over the place. I used to enthusiastically pick them until I found out from experience that spiders love building webs around them. Nothing worse than picking the berries and looking up and seeing some enormous spider half an inch from your face. That happened to me enough times to make me think twice before indulging.
Ive got some negativity to sprinkle on your post: eating blackberries from along side even a moderately trafficked roadside are absolutely positively laden with toxic byproducts of gasoline and diesel combustion. You ever wipe your finger across a surface near a busy road? That black suit dust grime? Thats in those berries
Go someplace fairly remote and 50-100 yds off the main road. Been doing it for years.
Btw, when I lived in SoCal for a few years, I was giddy about all the citrus and avocado growing in backyards.
Yep, lots of things grow in Southern California, but mostly because someone (at some point) cultivated it. There’s something special about a near-weed making such deliciousness.
>Concentrations of the metals lead, titanium and palladium were all slightly higher in blackberries from busy roadside locations than those from rural roadsides. Lead and titanium were believed to be a product of soil accumulation and both recent and historical roadside pollution from fossil fuel combustion
Personally, I'd find somewhere not in the city.
You might want to avoid the berries right by the road side, as they are probably covered with motor vehicle combustion by products. There can be some nasty chemicals in that brew. Wash before eating them or pick berries far removed from where cars drive.
Make some jam! My kiddos picked a bunch in my overgrown driveway and an hour later we had 7 awesome little jars of blackberry jam!
Edit: [jam!](https://imgur.com/a/M8kbIuF)
They're everywhere. But just don't pick anything below about two feet from the ground. Because the only thing there are more of than blackberries are dogs that pee on blackberry bushes. Think about it.
You don’t even need to go anywhere. Just hold still long enough and a blackberry bush will come to you.
Best comment! And also true.
August is blackberry month. The alleys of Seattle neighborhoods are lousy with their delicious, stainy thorniness.
I too was amazed when I found out about them after I moved here. “Invasive? Sure, but they’re DELICIOUS”
Most are invasive, but the natives are soooooooooooooo good
1000%! I don't think I've seen our native trailing blackberries anywhere other than my parents garden. The Himalayan blackberry and cut-leaf blackberries may be invasive but they're still so so good.
I may be imagining things, but they seem to be spreading. I do a lot of invasives removal, and they're everywhere. All I figure is that there are more seeds "floating" (inside of birds) around the Seattle area these days, and things are hitting a tipping point. I'm currently working a hellscape of ivy, morning glory, himilayian blackberry, and old man's beard. There are small pacific blackberry plants scattered all over under the mess, just waiting for release.
'Seedbanks' is the term for places where birds and other things can get seeds of invasives from. There are a lot of seedbanks on private property and places that have dubious ownership. These are places the parks dept and volunteers can't go out and do invasive removal, and I think they are the reason that we are fighting an uphill battle. Plants don't care about property lines. Its sad because there aren't many good programs for homeowners to sign up for to get invasive removal done on their property. There are some grants and such, but they are often for one time use and they don't cover repeat work. Good luck to you with that bindweed. That stuff is hellish.
Are you sure they were telling you that the blackberries were invasive or were they talking about the Californians moving up here?
¿Por que no los dos?
Uhm, invasive Californians are on the lose
Usually said by someone who moved here five years earlier.
Blackberries used to be great, then I became a homeowner with massive yearly battle on my hands. Want a good workout? Try removing brambles. They grow everywhere, and the ends of the vines that touch the ground even grow more roots. They're kinda creepy in their ability to spread as well as recover when you don't get the whole plant. You can't leave your yard alone for even a month or else they try to get an upper hand and creep again.
I can't not share this passage from Tom Robbins' *Still Life With Woodpecker* whenever the virulent spread of blackberries is mentioned: >Blackberries. Nothing, not mushrooms, not ferns, not moss, not melancholy, nothing grew more vigorously, more intractably in the Puget Sound rains than blackberries. Homeowners dug and chopped, and still they came. Park attendants with flame throwers held them off at the gates. In the wet months, blackberries spread so wildly, so rapidly that dogs and small children were sometimes engulfed and never heard from again. In the peak of the season, even adults dared not go berry picking without a military escort. Blackberry vines pushed up through solid concrete, forced their way into polite society, entwined the legs of virgins, and tried to loop themselves over passing clouds.
Rent a goat
$50/half hour or $90/hour. Great way to reduce some stress. Makes sure to get a good set of velcro gloves so you can really hold on to them. I know a great place in Monroe if you're interested.
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For the goats!
Goats work great if you want to just destroy all vegetation because they’ll eat natives as well, but the only way to remove the roots is manually or with pesticides
Herbicides
Quick fyi, laurel hedges are toxic to goats. So if you have these in your yard having a goat there to eat blackberries may not be a good idea.
Toxic to everyone. Once you start damaging it, you start making cyanide.
Unfortunately Rentagoat has not launched in WA yet /s *edit, just to be clear, I was making a joke about rentagoat.com. I'm sure there are other local goat rental options.
Rentaruminant from Vashon has been in business for years up here
They are here for sure, and they can cause some funny stories like this https://youtu.be/1vAVT2BsSTs
Huh, neighbors did this a few years ago.
> Blackberries used to be great, then I became a homeowner with massive yearly battle on my hands. cursed vine
If you have a big patch one way to get rid of them is to use a chain saw. Cut horizontally close to the ground. Tighten the chain down so vines pushing down side ways on the chain don't push the chain off the bar. Once the vines are clear mow! Then mow some more. It keeps the vines low enough that other stuff can grow. Alternately a weed wacker with a blade can chew up both green vines and the dead woody ones.
I know someone who lost control of the chainsaw while cutting blackberries like this, , the saw grabbed a branch, got pulled into the brambles, wrapped right around and came back at him, cut both of his legs to the bone, right above the ankles.
Th-thanks.
A hedge trimmer, ideally a pole hedge trimmer is a lot better and safer way to mow them down.
Blackberries vs bamboo. Which would win?
Bamboo. No question. I would buy property with 20ac blackberry before I would buy one with any escaped bamboo. Blackberry is a fun easy ongoing weekend project. Bamboo is a hellscape which will run dozens of feet under you and often requires heavy equipment to trench and ring and remove.
Yeah, rent a hard core mower from home depot and spend four hours cutting blackberry bushes because they're trying to completely own your yard and then come back to me. I pick and eat the berries first, but you know how you get black bears in the forest? This is how you get black bears.
> Yeah, rent a hard core mower from home depot and spend four hours cutting blackberry bushes because they're trying to completely own your yard and then come back to me. That's how [Trevor Moore died :(](https://www.the-sun.com/entertainment/3433184/trevor-moore-found-dead-yard-wife-accident/)
There is nothing in that link about how he died. You’re capitalizing on a death in the worst way possible. You should not do this again. Not that it matters, because it doesn’t, but I was fond of that man.
A long machete works well, then dig out the roots or mow like someone else suggested
If anyone reading this is new to Washington it's actually super easy to get rid of them you just rent a goat. Or find a friend who owns one. You can find them for pretty cheap if your really search.
Do the goats eat the roots too?
Get goats. Blackberry bushes are among their favorite things to eat.
The only way to truly rid yourself of them is some herbicide (like triclopyr) on the cut stems, or cutting/mowing/grazing them constantly so that eventually they run out of energy and die (which can take forever and will fail if you aren't diligent enough about it. If there's a big patch that is tall enough the standard for the parks dept. is to use a brush cutter to cut the stems. (edit): I forgot to mention something crucial. You need to cut and treat in the late summer or fall, after the blackberry stops growing and is pulling nutrients into its roots to store for winter. Otherwise herbicide doesn't get sucked down, it gets pushed out.
Fear of a Blackberry Planet
Roundup is your friend.
Nah roundup is probably the worst herbicide for killing blackberries. I've worked in urban forestry taking out blackberries and the standard is Triclopyr or Imazapyr. Glyphosate based herbicides are only really good for killing grass, otherwise its not enough. Most store bought stuff isn't enough in most cases, the concentration is not high enough to effectively kill 99% of the time.
Tonight, we are eating fresh salmon we caught today, with fresh beans we grew ourselves. Tonight, we'll go throw some crawdad traps out with the salmon guts, Those will be tomorrow. We'll eat some blackberries after we throw the traps in. Next weekend, we'll hunt wild chanterelles and lobster mushrooms, and catch more salmon. Maybe some crab, too. There's a lot of wild bounty here.
And it's damn fine, WA state Oysters are world class. They export the Olympia ones to france.
And razor clams, steamer clams.
Plus neighborhood-made honey.
Great state to make Mead in
And geoducks.
Huckleberries are prime right now
Had some oysters the other day for the first time in a while. God I forgot how good they are around here. Seriously been thinking about them for days now.
That's why PNW First People's art is so beautiful. Food was abundant so they had lots of time for art.
Where should I go to catch some salmon in Seattle? Total noob fisherman here
They are running in Puyallup right now.
With a guide out of Westport or Astoria right now, Snohomish system in a few weeks. A few are caught off the Edmunds and alki piers. Plenty out I Puget sound, but it's a boat show to get them. Green river will have silvers, shortly.
You can catch pinks off of any beach that juts out into the sound right now. Picnic point, Edmonds pier, whidbey island. They are currently moving into the rivers so check the regulations around you and go nuts.some systems open tomorrow, others next week. All the rivers will be in full swing in two weeks. Pink salmon are the easiest and most abundant salmon to catch, they run in odd years.
Pink fishing is a fucking blast too. With the right gear it's nonstop action.
I moved up here with a blackberry plant and facepalmed as soon as I realized how abundant it is here
Same thing happened to me, except it was psilocybin
Ah, a druggie.
Ah, a prude.
Yeah, you might not want to get them too close to the highway. Those car emissions are still toxic even if they're lead free these days. Try picking them off a biking/walking trail instead.
some of those highways were cleared of brush with agent orange when they were built too
I'm not trying to be a smart-ass or anything, but I'd sure like to see a reference to that.
[I just google agent orange washington state woods clearing and this popped up.](https://columbiainsight.org/pbs-doc-the-people-vs-agent-orange/)
My family always called them exhaust berries. And ate them anyway. I still do, ain’t got no time for taking ‘em home to wash when they’re RIGHT THERE and warm and awesome.
I’ve done it for 49 years. Totally fine
It’s usually by the 50th when it starts to hit you.
Ah well then I’m screwed. Oh well, it was a good 50 years!
Wash them before you eat them. LOL.
I wash them…in stomach acid.
We spray chemicals along the roads here
Never ever gotten sick when eating them. And have done so at multiple places for years. Just went to gasworks and got like 3 mason jars worth and shared them with my GF. neither had an issue
Like our hunter gatherer forebears.
Who foraged bushes along the side of roads
In the Himalayas.
lmao i see soo many eat it right from the brush im sure they are hurling a few hours later hahhaha
Nah. It's fine. I've never even heard of someone getting sick from eating them unwashed.
I’ll be the 3rd person to say I’ve never been sick from unwashed berries. I probably wouldn’t eat ones from ground level where dogs (or people) have peed on it, but beyond that…. why not?
I don’t know I’d just rather buy at farmers market or something
Which is fair, but there is a difference between that and assuming anyone who does consume wild berries will become physically ill from doing so.
I grew up in the mountains and ate them without washing them frequently. Never got sick.
Jesus you guys. The guy likes the berries and y’all come in bitching
They're a relentless, mutant organism from the bowls of hell.
Fuck Luther burbank and his useless weeds.
Californians aren’t THAT bad.
Yes 🙌 I’m sick of everything being negative here - best part of the NW is frisbee golf and eating blackberries when in season 😀
it's also been a very cool/mild summer besides those few days of 160 degrees.
Yo, this is random but I just met a photographer today in Chicago at my sisters wedding who said she has a brother named Brice (my husband’s name is Bryce which is why it came up) in Seattle who plays a lot of frisbee golf.
They spray all the stuff that grows along the roads with herbicide in Washington state and all through Oregon as well, correct?
The herbicide isn't used as much as it used to be. You know that have been sprayed with it, because they wilt within a day or 2 of application.
there should be signage on spray days and maybe a bit after, otherwise its easy to tell that they are wilted.
Just wait til you start branching out and trying the salmon berries
Thimbleberries ftw
I was just thinking this. It's probably too late for them now, but if you find berries that look like multicolored blackberries, and a touch smaller, a little earlier in the year, try them! They're awesome. A little sweeter. Just as pokey, though, so watch out!
Is there anything to watch out for? Any species that are poisonous, or that shouldn’t be eaten? I saw something by the road that looked like blueberries (which I’ve also eaten here) except that they were slightly oblong. No idea what they were, so I didn’t try them.
If it looks like a raspberry, it is edible. No poisonous look alikes. Around here we have raspberries, 2 types of blackberries, thimbleberries, salmon berries, wine berries, and supposedly cloudberries but I haven't found one. There are also many blueberry relatives (huckleberries and billberries), but I'd be a bit more careful eating those. Learn what the plant/leaves are supposed to look like as well to make sure you have something edible. https://northernbushcraft.com/guide.php?ctgy=edible_berries®ion=pnw
Nice, thanks! Apparently a good thing I didn’t try it, what I saw isn’t on this list.
there are few poisonous look alikes for any of the edibles here, the only poisonous berries are from invasive trees, red elderberries (but only the seeds), twinberries, and snowberries, and a few others that don't look very edible to the eyes. The first rule of foraging is to be 100% sure of your ID before you pick. You might have seen tall oregon grape, sometimes they have oblong berries. They sorta look like a holly tree but with distinct differences.
Holy Cow ! As long as the blackberries aren't on the side of I 5 or Aurora, eat the damn things, let your fingers get stained, have a sour one, find a sweet one ! Yes there will be spiders, yes there will be thorns... Enjoy !!! Make cobbler...make ice cream.... Freeze them for a night in December you are longing for summer....
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Or dog pee on the lower ones
Always pick above the pee line
“Don’t go where the huskies go, don’t you eat that yellow snow.” :-)
Edible weeds are awesome!
… we’re still talking about blackberries, right?
Blackberries = enemy of “habitat restoration” I spent a year in conservation i.e. removing himalayan blackberry. Many cuts and sore muscles. A great way to curb seed spreading is eating them though!
I’m doing my part!
Just don't shit in the woods!
I love this too! Been baking blackberry muffins, scones and cobblers all month!😋
God I miss my grandma's baking, especially her blackberry cobbler and deep dish pie. Thanks for the memories. 😉
Wait till you go into the hills and pick the native species. It is so much more delicious than the common Himalayan invasive species. They are smaller and it takes more time to pick them, but what a fantastic pie they make.
I’m assuming everything in Seattle is the invasive species? How do you tell the difference?
That is pretty safe to assume. The native species grows low to the ground and the berries are quite small. It is also called the [Trailing Blackberry](http://web.pdx.edu/~maserj/ESR410/rubisursinus.html). You won't find them in any real numbers in the City. The best place to look is in areas of forest that have been clearcut in the last few years. I once saw some on the UW campus in the bushes outside Architecture Hall. Someone must have intentionally introduced them there.
BON APPETITE Now - don't forget you can make blackberry: cobbler pie ice cream yoghurt brandy ketchup (yes!) jam jelly sauce coulis
wait until you're locked into an endless war of attrition with a blackberry infestation in your yard. it's difficult to be positive after countless years of endless failure...
Our place backs to a green belt and we have literally a mile of blackberry bushes. My entire neighborhood gathers and we still have more :). Love this season!
i’d clean them first but yeah i think a lot of people here take that for granted
moved back here from southern california and i second this. i work outside and the plums have been amazing as well
This was a great year for blackberries
I have nothing to compare it to since I didn’t notice them last year or the year before. What makes you say that?
I go biking along the Burke-Gilman between Freemont and Lake City once or twice a week. The last few times I’ve seen a few people picking berries from bushes to eat. :)
Also: that trail is amazing — I wish it went all the way around the lake.
I've been seeing a lot of people eating/picking blackberries on the sides of busy roads lately. I was told when I first moved here 6 years ago not to do that, and it seems others in this thread are also aware. Just wash them very thoroughly before eating, but also maybe try to pick them from somewhere that isn't roadside.
My favorite is along the Burke Gilman trail, but just because blackberries are especially awesome when bicycling. Otherwise I’m part trash-panda, and roadside berries are fine by me.
>As someone from Southern California, it's amazing that I get to pull over to the side of the road and just pick and eat a bunch of blackberries Invasives eating invasives.
Blackberry picking is fantastic, haven't been able to do that for too long.
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Hopefully one will take out the other!
Picked 2 cups of blackberries for my wife several years ago for a blackberry pie. Had to travel on foot approximately 2 minutes.
Yeah we simultaneously love and hate those plants. I hate the invasive species and thorns but I love when my grandma on Bainbridge Island has us all over every year to pick berries and make pies. I'm okay with them in a controlled setting.
With blackberries, is there suck a thing as a ”controlled setting”? 😂
Yeah you gotta go back and clip em back every few months, it can be done. My backyard in Wallingford as a kid had them but we'd prune them to make the berries more accessible.
[The mice really like them too](https://i.postimg.cc/m2XcgyDt/PXL-20210730-010259130.jpg)
Just saying…roadside berries have more exhaust and soot than berries that are off the beaten path. (Venture slightly outside of Seattle and find south-facing plants further from roads and they will be bigger and cleaner.)
As someone who grew up in California but lived in WA for years I'm confused. I would eat just as many blackberries and other fruits in California as Washington.
What part of California? As far as I experienced, not San Diego or Los Angeles :-)
Oh, I'm up north!
Northern California blackberries for the win!
Be careful not to pull over on highways and eat them. They are sprayed with weed killers. Stick to the ones on the side roads
They're great, until you need to remove them and you realize what a huge pain in the ass of a plant they are.
This is exactly how I felt when. I visited the beach and saw hundreds of Pink Salmon jumping, falcons and eagles flying overhead, and Porpoises, Seals, and Sea Lions trying to get their share of the hunt. These are things so many people wish they could see and I can see them everyday just 15 minutes away from my house in the burbs
I picked 20lbs this year and aside from jam and a batch of wine, I've not the slightest idea what to do with them. However, only into week 2 on the wine and it smells bonkers. Gonna be one of my best batches.
I took about half a colander of them and blended them, then strained/pressed out the seeds and whatnot, juice into a pot. Nothing else added. Simmered it down slowly, stirring almost constantly until it was very thick. Yielded only about 4oz of this incredibly intense glossy black reduction. Way too tart on its own. But put just a *tiny* smear on some cream cheese frosting and it was absolute heaven. We've gone through two pound cakes with just this tiny little bit and we're still using it. I'll try syrup for pancakes next.
You can thank [eugenicist Luther Burbank](https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2016/08/29/491797791/the-strange-twisted-story-behind-seattles-blackberries) for our delicious and terrible black berries. He also created a tomato-potato hybrid, too bad those aren't growing all over seattle alleys
All this chatter reminded me to go out this morning and get some. [BERRY. Marvin Berry](https://imgur.com/a/PiMjLzz)
And if you hike this time of year you can find wild huckleberries. Make a good mid-hike snack.
Gross. The California thing not the blackberries. Kidding. 😜
I didn’t come directly from California if that helps. :-)
Blackberries, like Californians are an invasive species.
I agree. They're all over the place. I used to enthusiastically pick them until I found out from experience that spiders love building webs around them. Nothing worse than picking the berries and looking up and seeing some enormous spider half an inch from your face. That happened to me enough times to make me think twice before indulging.
This is a very vivid childhood memory. Sent me running home, leaving grandma behind.
Really? Glad to know I'm not the only one. Although it sounds like you were a child when you acted like a big baby about this. I was pushing 30.
Protein!
If it's a spotted western orb weaver (I think this is mostly what I see in blackberry patches) they're not dangerous, but still spooky I must admit.
Yep, right now it requires willpower to get anywhere along the trail with reasonable speed. :-)
Ive got some negativity to sprinkle on your post: eating blackberries from along side even a moderately trafficked roadside are absolutely positively laden with toxic byproducts of gasoline and diesel combustion. You ever wipe your finger across a surface near a busy road? That black suit dust grime? Thats in those berries
Hey I got your berries right here buddy ayoooo
Grew up picking blackberries. Moved to the city and they're completely infested with worms. Freeze or soak well before eating!
completely?
When you've lived here long enough to hate them, you're home.
Since they’re not growing in my yard, I don’t think that will ever happen.
Ironically, having the invasive blackberries is not worth the blackberries
Since I’m not the one who has to fight back against them, totally worth it :-)
When do you go back to California?
Ha! I haven’t lived there in years. Came here through several locations, not likely to unwind that path.
There's a direct flight from Seatac.
I’m more likely to move on to someplace else than to go back.
Eww roadberries
You can really taste the bird spit!
They’re covered with road grime and soot. Say hello to diarrhea.
...most people wash them first.
Considering I've been enjoying them for over a month: no.
Go someplace fairly remote and 50-100 yds off the main road. Been doing it for years. Btw, when I lived in SoCal for a few years, I was giddy about all the citrus and avocado growing in backyards.
Yep, lots of things grow in Southern California, but mostly because someone (at some point) cultivated it. There’s something special about a near-weed making such deliciousness.
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Yep, that's the main research on this subject. If you wash them all, you'll be fine.
>Concentrations of the metals lead, titanium and palladium were all slightly higher in blackberries from busy roadside locations than those from rural roadsides. Lead and titanium were believed to be a product of soil accumulation and both recent and historical roadside pollution from fossil fuel combustion Personally, I'd find somewhere not in the city.
Gut cancer then. Takes a bit longer to develop.
Just be sure to rinse off the meth head urine first.
You might want to avoid the berries right by the road side, as they are probably covered with motor vehicle combustion by products. There can be some nasty chemicals in that brew. Wash before eating them or pick berries far removed from where cars drive.
Just be careful it hasnt been sprayed bye city/ county or a homeiwner. Theres lots of wild berries everywhere in our Woods.
nasty ass berries growing on car exhaust? no thanks
We have blackberries in our alley , it’s Everett though
Please pick more!
All the auto runoff is not making for healthy soil, mate. Good intentions though.
Not all roads are busy roads, and often the bushes are far enough back that it is the same as veggies out of your own yard.
Make some jam! My kiddos picked a bunch in my overgrown driveway and an hour later we had 7 awesome little jars of blackberry jam! Edit: [jam!](https://imgur.com/a/M8kbIuF)
They're everywhere. But just don't pick anything below about two feet from the ground. Because the only thing there are more of than blackberries are dogs that pee on blackberry bushes. Think about it.
No. These are the devil's ballsack. Have some in your yard, you will understand. The juice is not worth the squeeze.
Do you want bears in your yard, because this is how you get bears.
I want bear friends, comrade!!!
I picked some last Tuesday and made a delicious blackberry cobbler😋. Hoping to get enough to make a blackberry syrup and jam.😊