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Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Free Candy All Over the Island!

Man! I love blackberries! I had no idea I loved them so much but I do. I can't pass a bramble without wishing I could stop and load up on them. Sometimes I do stop. Sometimes I make a special trip. Sometimes I'm supposed to be doing something else.
My dad was equally obsessed by those fat juicy black pods of yumminess and we gathered a lot a lot a lot while he was here. But, I'm sorry to say, he missed the real jackpot. Now, today they are READY. Every branch of every bramble along every road and edge of every meadow the blackberries are practically humming with ripeness. I imagine that it is the last gasp of summer before we get plunged into the grayness that most islanders warn us is coming. I took Ali G out for a spin in the Burley this afternoon, thinking about exercise and fresh air. We had barely turned the corner when I started noticing the insane berry explosion that must have come on with the full moon. I tried to ignore it for a while. I tried to pretend that I wasn't just looking for a safe place to pull over and start picking but it didn't work. We could only have gotten about 4 miles before Ali G was sleeping and a massive hedge of the black beauties was calling to me from a sidewalk (of all things). I pulled up right on the sidewalk, parked and within 30 minutes I had my Blue Bunny container full to the brim. The only thing I can't fathom is, why isn't everyone else picking them feverishly too? Dad says he met a massage therapist collecting them on one foray but I have yet to see anyone anywhere on the island picking them like they mean it. I mean, dang people! A half flat of blueberries was going for $13.98. These are organic free range local shade grown fair trade freaking blackberries and I'm the only sucker for them? Crazy damn world. I'm going to go stuff my face again tomorrow.