Cutleaf evergreen blackberry

General discussions on hiking in Oregon and the Pacific Northwest
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lordgares
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Location: The Dalles

Re: Cutleaf evergreen blackberry

Post by lordgares » October 4th, 2021, 6:50 pm

Maybe someone could write a poem.
Only if it is in iambic pentameter.
“Build a man a fire, and he'll be warm for a day. Set a man on fire, and he'll be warm for the rest of his life.”
― Terry Pratchett, Jingo

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wildcat
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Re: Cutleaf evergreen blackberry

Post by wildcat » November 11th, 2021, 6:46 pm

Yup, them's good eatin'. Not nearly as prolific as the invasive blackberries though.
Can confirm that. There's a small stand of blackcap raspberries I know of along a Vancouver-area bike track paralleling a BPA route, that I try to make a point of stopping at in summertime when I'm out there and they're ripe. Lovely mid-ride snack.

I have yet to find a cutleaf stand but would like to try the berries, hopefully without getting attacked in the process. Three and a half decades of needless harassment by my emotionally insecure schoolmates, coworkers and asshole relatives have thickened my skin considerably so one would think I probably *should* be safe, but against these kind of barbs you just never know.
Life in Chacos
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bobcat
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Re: Cutleaf evergreen blackberry

Post by bobcat » November 12th, 2021, 2:15 pm

The cutleaf berries are very seedy, little grains of sand that stick between your teeth. Not quite as succulent nor as tempting at the ubiquitous Himalayan a.k.a. Armenian.

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wildcat
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Re: Cutleaf evergreen blackberry

Post by wildcat » November 16th, 2021, 7:25 pm

Digression:

My grandma was the original homeowner at space #53 in Vista Del Rio, along the eastern edge of the park, from its construction in the late '70s until her death in 1997 of lung cancer. (https://www.google.com/maps/@45.5917911 ... ?entry=ttu - street view: https://www.google.com/maps/@45.591979, ... ?entry=ttu) Along what is now SE 177th Lane (dirt and gravel doubletrack at the time) where the gated development of ugly rowhouses towering above the park are was about a 1/6-mile uphill stand of very sweet Himalayan blackberries separating Rio from Smith's Grotto along Fisher's Creek. Grandma called that trail "Up Above" (because it was "up above" her backyard, which sat down a couple feet lower, behind a retaining wall) and a thicket in that stand was my "clubhouse" where me and a school buddy, whose grandparents also lived there, used to play. Dad would sometimes go to "Up Above" and pick big #10 coffee cans of blackberries in the summer and he and grandma would make blackberry jam and wine from them.

Ever heard James Taylor's song "Copperline"? Opening cut on New Moon Shine. Well, that's kind of me at Rio as a kid. That was my Copperline. The last stanza unfortunately describes it and my feelings today.

To this day I can't drive past a fruiting blackberry stand in the summer and not have wonderful flashbacks to my childhood at VDR when I pick up that intoxicatingly sweet smell of blackberries baking in the sun (bonus points if somebody's smoking nearby).

(I could tell more stories (perhaps in a different thread) of growing up in that part of Vancouver in the late 80s-late 90s if anybody's interested. PM me or post if you want me to!)

There's a good-sized stand at the Fisher's Quarry overlook park at SE 192nd. The berries there aren't nearly as sweet (or even taste like anything, some years) and who knows how much longer that spot will be there as development of the planned communities in the former east quarry and along SE Payne Road continues to encroach on it.

[/digression]
Last edited by wildcat on October 22nd, 2023, 11:46 am, edited 3 times in total.
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Webfoot
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Re: Cutleaf evergreen blackberry

Post by Webfoot » November 17th, 2021, 9:27 am

wildcat wrote:
November 16th, 2021, 7:25 pm
(I could tell more stories (perhaps in a different thread) of growing up in that part of Vancouver in the late 80s-late 90s if anybody's interested. PM me or post if you want me to!
Yes, please!

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