My mother was a farm wife and a prodigious canner. She canned fruit and vegetables from the garden, even occasionally meat. But the best thing that she canned, in my opinion, was blackberry jam. Even as I type those words my mouth waters! Of course, before she could make that jam, somebody had to pick the blackberries. And that somebody was quite often named Dorothy. I think Seamus Heaney might have spent some time among the briars plucking those delicious black fruits as well, so he would have known that "Once off the bush the fruit fermented, the sweet flesh would turn sour." They don't keep; you have to get that jam made in a hurry! Blackberry-Picking by Seamus Heaney Late August, given heavy rain and sun For a full week, the blackberries would ripen. At first, just one, a glossy purple clot Among others, red, green, hard as a knot. You ate that first one and its flesh was sweet Like thickened wine: summer's blood was in it Leaving stains upon the tongue and lust ...
I have often thought about where I could fit something like these in the garden, but just haven't come up with a good location for them.
ReplyDeleteThey are not really picky about location, but they can grow to be quite large - although you can prune them to keep them in shape and in their designated space. They are a valuable addition to any habitat garden.
DeleteOoh, I've never seen a white beautyberry before.
ReplyDeleteThey are not as common as the purple, of course, but the birds like them just as well - maybe even more.
DeleteFantastic photos!!! Greetings!:))
ReplyDeletexxBasia
Thanks for visiting, Basia.
DeleteI love the purple ones, and the golden dewdrops.
ReplyDeleteI like the purple ones, too. They bring a lot of color to my late summer/fall garden.
DeleteThe other day I had to look up spikenard (found on the first page of Gabriel Garcia Marquez' first novel, In Evil Hour.) The images on Google looked like a bush I had outside the back door of our last house: clusters of berrylike things that attracted scadillions of bees. The white beauty berry made me remember them, though the leaves and clusters were bigger.
ReplyDeleteBooks sometimes teach us unexpected things, don't they?
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