BLACKBERRIES

30 minutes southeast of Moscow there are two little towns that have blackberries growing on the side of the road. The past two weeks we have gone with friends from our ward to pick blackberries. For those of you who do not know, blackberries are brutal. They have thorns so you have to be very careful when picking or you will come away with slivers and cuts.

The first time we picked berries on a side of a hill that was covered with rocks and wood. We had to climb on the rocks and wood which were not very sturdy. It was actually kind of scary and not very safe. When we were about to leave Nate stepped on some weak wood which collapsed and he fell and hit his head. He had no way to catch himself since he had blackberries in his hand. He hit his head pretty hard...luckily he did not get knocked out and he only came away with a tiny cut and bump on his head. We were able to get 1/2 to 3/4 of a gallon of blackberries because a lot of the berries were still red.

The second time we went, we went to a different area to pick and the whole side of a hill was covered in blackberry bushes. There were so many large and ripe blackberries that we were able to get about a gallon and a half!

So what have we done with all those blackberries?

• They are actually yummy to eat. I was not sure they would be that good because growing up we never had or ate fresh blackberries. They are actually really tasty and I like to eat them by the handfuls.
• I put them on my oatmeal. They help naturally sweeten the oatmeal up without using sugar.
• I made some jam out of some of the blackberries and it is actually really good. Raspberry jam is my favorite and I do not usually eat any other kind of jam but the blackberry jam is almost as good as the raspberry jam.
• I also froze some so I can continue to put them on my oatmeal and also put them into smoothies.

Picking blackberries is probably the best thing we have found out about Moscow. It is too bad that blackberry season is not very long. Hopefully we will be able to get out and pick one more time before they are all gone.

Last week we also did Bountiful Basket and we came away with a ton of fruits and vegetables. We have pretty much eaten all of the vegetables but we are still working on the fruit. I am going to make a peach pie tonight with the peaches we got!!