In defense of some wild brambles

This past winter was not kind to our red raspberries, which is to say, it was not kind to bunny rabbits, who in turn were not nice to our red raspberries. What was left is producing at a rate about 1/6th to 1/8th of its potential yield, but here and there in the wilder margins of our urban estate, wild black raspberries have risen to the challenge. Fully 1/3d of the berries picked today were wild ones, and actually the combination of the two species is extremely tasty, with a smattering of blueberries thrown in because so far in our alkaline soils, a taste of blueberries is the most the Phactor has managed with his benign neglect management style. So maintaining some balance, cultivated vs. wild is not a bad thing, and one should think carefully before extirpating some wild species. A few years back before the north 40 was so tame, the black raspberries sort of took over for a year, and if memory serves me, with the help of adventuresome neighbors (those were some bad brambles) over 22 quarts were harvested, and damn they make some awesome jam. So hedge your bets folks. It can pay off dividends. Now if only passion fruit would grow on the back fence.

Annual Berry Bramble Battle

One of the annual March chores is doing battle with the raspberry bramble. The reason for this is simple: the aerial shoots (canes) of red raspberries have a biennial cycle. In their first year new canes remain vegetative and unbranched, growing into long whips and over wintering in this condition. In their second year, raspberry canes branch, flower, and fruit, and then these shoots die as the season ends. This means you have to do two things each spring: one, remove all of last year’s dead canes, and two, cut all of the year-old canes back to about two feet tall to promote branching, flowering, and fruiting, and less flopping of fruit laden canes. This means you have to make sure you can tell the difference between live one-year-old canes and dead two-year-old canes; this sounds easy, but people screw up easier things than this. Every time you make a mistake, you shoot yourself in the berry basket. All of this is made more fun because the canes tend to tangle together and they’re armed with prickles (yes, this is a technical term for smallish thorns). Now these prickles are nothing compared to the thorns on climbing roses, and those are nothing compared to climbing rattan palms, but the joy and the bleeding are there. Other than this red raspberries are a pretty carefree, reliable, bountiful, and delicious crop, except of course once you realize you must establish a de-militarized zone, preferably a mine field or retired star wars laser cannons, where any entering raspberries get vaporized. Or as an alternative to bramble warfare, let them spread into the neighbors’ yard.