Picked wild blackberries 3 years in a row before I realized I was grabbing the wrong ones

I kept wondering why my jam was always so tart and seedy. Turns out I was picking Himalayan blackberries instead of the native ones - they look almost identical but the flavor is night and day. Has anyone else spent years doing something a certain way without ever questioning if you even had the right basic thing?

3 comments

3 Comments

the_lee1mo ago

The real kicker with invasive blackberries is that they actually ripen from the top down instead of bottom up like the natives do. So you can be picking what looks like a perfect cluster and get a mouthful of unripe ones hiding underneath.

torres.thea1mo ago

Buddy picked a whole patch of Himalayan ones last year. @wren638 nailed the cane trick.

wren6381mo ago

Wow, that is such a specific and relatable kind of thing. My buddy spent two full seasons growing what he thought were bell peppers before realizing he'd been planting a hot pepper variety the whole time. His salsa was a monstrosity and nobody told him until we were all crying at the cookout. With your blackberry situation, the real giveaway is usually the cane itself - Himalayan ones have those deep, sharp grooves and a bluish-white powder on them, while native ones are smoother and rounder. Also check the ripening time, the invasive ones tend to fruit a few weeks later. If you still want to use them for jam, mixing half and half with something sweet like apple or pear can balance out that extreme tartness. Most people just don't look close enough at the stems and thorns, it's an easy mistake to make for years.