Berries galore

There is nothing like a little summer goodness to inspire a blog entry.

We have been growing a small forest of raspberries and blackberries in our backyard.  This weekend, the berries all held hands and said, "one, two, three, ripen!", or at least that's what I imagine.  All of a sudden, we are bursting at the bushes with very ripe blackberries.  (This is the 'off' year for our raspberries.)  It is a sight to behold.  The bushes are full of both large and small berries from shades of light pink to very dark purple.    

The only bad thing about these berries, is that their vines are full of needle sharp thorns.  Millions of them.  So it makes picking them quite a chore.  You have to glove up and use shovels to move the vines around so that you can maneuver your hands in to pick the dark purple beauties.  And even while taking those precautions, you will inevitably get stuck over and over again.  In fact, my hands are stained with blackberry juice and stinging from thorn sticks as I type this.

But as I go through life, I realize that the things that are most 'worth it' are those things that take a lot of effort, have the ability to hurt the most, but also bring you the most joy.  Blackberries, family, marriage, raising children, you get the point.  I mean, have you ever been bitten by one of your kids?  I rest my case.

So now we have a beautiful bowl full of plump, juicy blackberries.  So obviously, my next task is to go figure out some yummy, high caloric recipe to make to help us devour them.  Joy.