Here is your mission, should you choose to accept it: Tell me your favorite ways to use a bumper crop of blackberries. A friend has enlisted my children to pick as many berries as they can from a 500 ft. long stretch of blackberry plants on his property, and he's leaving them at our house, because he doesn't cook. : 0 The closest I've ever come to a frsh blackberry was one of those little plastic cartons at the grocery store, so I'm running short of ideas here. Also, I don't have my canning supplies yet, so jam and jelly won't work. Ideas from the floor? Thanks in advance to all,

-- Kristin, in La. (positivekharma@aol.com), April 18, 2001

Answers

Blackberry Jam, Blackberry pie, blackberry cobbler. We love blackberries. Take care pickin as snakes like to lurk beneath the branches. Love in Christ,

-- Judy (inhishand65@yahoo.com), April 18, 2001.

Blackberry wine is about as good as it gets. I use a gallon of berries for a gallon of wine. Don

-- DON (dessertmaker2000@hotmail.com), April 18, 2001.

Re: snakes in the blackberry patch. We always carried fairly heavy walking sticks to tap on the ground as we moved through the patch. A fish and game guy told us it would create vibrations the snake would feel and leave thinking he was about to be stepped on. He may have been "greening" us but we never saw a snake while tapping along. Now if it just worked on chiggers!

Blackberry cobbler, blackberry sorbet, cooked with sugar and cornstarch to make a sauce for ice cream or cake, fresh out of hand, over cereal. Man, I do miss my blackberry patch!

-- marilyn (rainbow@ktis.net), April 18, 2001.

Hi kristin, do you have a food dryer or the capacity to dry??? I make a fruit leather out of excess berries. Run through a food mill or victoria strainer and dry until leathery and then roll up. Grandkid love it and it keeps for a very long time in the freezer.

-- diane (gardiacaprines@yahoo.com), April 18, 2001.

Kristin: My number one idea is to mail me some! Ha! Well, okay, my number two idea is what my mom did in eastern OK where I was raised. She didn't always have time to make jams and jellies when everything was so busy in the summer. So freeze bunches of them and use them for jams, jellies, cobblers, ice cream topping, etc. later. I think you can dry them also and rehydrate for later use; but have never done that. And you will want to eat a lot of them fresh - they are SSSSOOOOOO GGGooodddd!!!!! And the chiggers, snakes, spiders ARE an issue everywhere I ever picked. Cynthia

-- Cynthia Speer (farmsteader@gvtel.com), April 18, 2001.

Kristin,

Freeze them until you can use them all.

As for the chiggers, I have found that lye soap works great. As soon as you come in the house, jump in the shower and lather up really good with lye soap. Let it soak on you for a couple of minutes then rinse it off. It really helps.

-- Mona in OK (jascamp@ipa.net), April 19, 2001.

Here is my favorite pie recipe. Sour Cream Blackberry Pie l c. sour cream l/2 c. sugar 1 T. flour 2 c. ripe blackberries l T. lemon juice grated nutmeg Pastry, 8" single crust Mix sour cream, sugar and flour. Spread berries in a pastry lined pie pan. Sprinkle lemon juice over berries and cover with the sour cream mixture. Grate a sprinkling of nutmeg over the top. Bake in hot oven (425) for 10 minutes, then reduce heat to a slow oven (325) and continue baking about 40 min. longer till berries are soft, juicy and bubbling.

-- Duffy (hazelm@tenforward.com), May 31, 2001.