While soft fruits such as gooseberries and currants are rather insensitive when harvesting due to their round shape and firm skin, the careful picking of blackberries requires a little more sensitivity.
How do you pick blackberries correctly?
To pick blackberries carefully, you need protective clothing, gloves and suitable bowls or baskets for transport. Select only ripe, black fruits and avoid picking near the ground to prevent fox tapeworm infections. Wash berries thoroughly after picking.
Blackberry picking season
As early as May and June, the flowers on the blackberry vines contribute to the sea of color in the garden, forest and meadow. Nevertheless, in most locations it still takes until around the end of July before the ripe fruits can be harvested in autumn. For cultivated varieties in the home garden, the season can start a little earlier if the trellis for climbing blackberries is led close to a wall that is illuminated by the sun. Caring for blackberries in espalier form also ensures that the first fruits turn deep black and sweet a little earlier, thanks to the improved sunlight on all parts of the plant.
Picking blackberries from wild plants in nature
If you take advantage of summer walks in forests and along embankments with the whole family to pick blackberries, you should be careful to explain to young children the difference between blackberries and potentially poisonous berries. Snacking directly from the bush is tempting, but also quite dangerous due to the danger of the fox tapeworm. However, a risk can also be ruled out when harvesting wild blackberries if only fruits from around knee height are harvested and all blackberries are first cleaned thoroughly with water at home.
The correct technique for picking blackberries
To harvest wild or cultivated blackberries you need the following utensils:
- Protective clothing with long sleeves and legs (for thorny varieties)
- maybe. Gloves to protect your hands from stains
- sufficient bowls and baskets for transport without crushing
Tips & Tricks
The strong coloring properties of blackberry juice can be annoying when picking. It can also be used wonderfully as a biological dye for coloring foods, juices and ice cream. To do this, simply sort the already crushed fruits into a separate bowl, as this would cause the intact fruits to spoil even faster than usual in the refrigerator. They are then pureed and can be used in various recipes.
