It always amazes me when the berries begin to ripen after seeing the canes full of pretty blossoms in early summer. This year was not as impressive as I would have hoped for as I was going to make some jam this year.
It must have been an off year for them since I had to cut out a lot of dead canes. I know that new canes come up and the old ones die off, but for some reason I only had a few canes emerge this year.
This bee was busily pollinating the blackberry flowers when they bloomed last year. Since I did not have many flowers this season I did not take fresh pictures. It is funny how you wait and wait and wait for them to ripen only to see the Bluejays and Squirrels harvesting them first.
Don't these berries look luscious? There were only a few that survived the critters for me to enjoy. Perhaps next year I will have lots of canes come up and then I will protect the berries with some netting to ensure a crop.
This photo was taken another year when I started getting a nice amount off the new canes we had planted three years before. I did end up combining them with some of my raspberries that season and made a mixed berry jam. So delicious!
I am anticipating a bumper crop next year because that jam is getting pretty low in my pantry, especially when the grandkids see that I still have some left, lol.
Happy gardening to all my hive friends. I hope your gardens produced a really nice harvest for you this year. I am already wondering what I will grow come spring. I may try some new varieties I am seeing in the seed catalogs, hmmm, we shall see.
Until next time, this is Sunscape
Sun. Scape. Ing Your Day