Rubus occidentalis and other such fruits

Have you ever heard someone mention a fruit and thought they were pulling your leg because certainly it was not a real fruit?

Well, if you haven't, know that it has happened and that the fruit victimized by that conversation was the Black Raspberry (or Black Cap, or Rubus occidentalis if you're fancy). Despite the name, I would say it holds very few similarities to the raspberry you're picturing in your head now, and it is objectively a far superior form of a raspberry than the common red raspberry.

Now, to defend the poor person who didn't believe it was a real fruit, I would argue it's not all that well known of a berry-- I have also had people insist they are blackberries despite their very evident differences. Blackberries have their own merits, being a good fruit for pies or other baked goods, but black raspberries truly are in a league of their own. An added bonus is they don't typically have those tiny little bugs on them. You know the ones. Sadly, of course, that means you miss out on the protein from the little bugs- oh well! At least they can keep living their happy little bug lives.

Where I used to live, there were a few bushes all the way in the verrrrrry back of the property where field met woods, but they did not produce enough to do anything with other than eat a handful at a time as a snack. Here on the old farm, though, there are black raspberries scattered over the whole 270~ acres, which opens up a whole world of possibilities for these delightful things. Some spots are better and more fruitful (literally) than others, and I haven't actually even identified all the areas that have the bushes, but as it stands I know of two distinct areas that tend to produce a significant portion that allows me to fill up a quart-sized container in one trip. Hilariously (or not) they are highly disturbed areas that are home mainly to berry bushes, black locust trees, and non-native rock (yugch!).

Well, disturbances aside, the slopes produce some good berries. I have, thus far, been able to collect just shy of 6 pounds of black raspberries primarily from those two areas. Sometimes I leave some for the birds and other critters out of the goodness of my heart (or because they are very difficult for me to access...). Black raspberry harvesting is an area in which I become very morally grey. But in my defense, I'm not up there every day, and I know that the birds and other animals are picking at them all the time! I'm sure they're getting plenty of good berries that I'm not.

Picking wild black raspberries is not for the faint of heart. I am attacked and harassed by prickles more than I ever thought possible. I regularly trip on hidden downed trees (for whatever reason) and get launched into the brambles. I sweat probably half of my body weight out underneath the ever-present burning sun. I put myself at risk of tick-borne diseases and you know what? I would keep doing it, again and again and again! The risk to reward ratio is skewed disproportionately. A single black raspberry is worth having Alpha-gal a thousand times over. I don't need red meat. I need my Rubus occidentalis!

I think, to a certain extent, you can see the meaning of life in such a thing. Getting the berries is not exactly easy, nor is it fun in its entirety (although you can find joy in the struggle). You're hot, being eaten alive by flies, you get smacked in the face by branches you forgot you had pushed out of the way, there's poison all around you, and you have no water (if you're an idiot like me). Yet, when you get your berries back to your house and you weigh them, clean them, and mix up a hearty cobbler or delicious jelly, all of that struggle pales in comparison. Then, the misery of picking them doesn't seem quite so bad, and you look at it fondly because you know there was a purpose, a trade-off between the bad and the good. And, truly, the good outweighs the bad-- one bite from a fresh cobbler is enough to make up for the bloody arms and twisted ankle. It's joy in its purest and simplest form, pure happiness in something so easy to attain. I think that everyone should have the opportunity to pick berries and make cobblers or whatever their dessert of choice might be.