Blackberries, Autumnberries, and a Local Breakfast

It's all about blackberries these days, folks. I don't know what it is this year, but the crop is very big along my street. The main collection has yet to ripen, but I've already collected at least six pounds of them. Yum. This is one of the few wild foods I have collected my entire life. They grew all over where I grew up, and these seem to be everywhere where I live now too.

My daughter loves helping me collect them. Last night she and I went out a picked a couple of pounds. I noticed one spot where there are a ton of them that I couldn't reach in my shorts and sandals. I think I'll go back tonight in jeans and my work jacket and finish the job. I read up a little bit on how to encourage growth of these and I may go out with some clippers when the season has ended and cut back the spent canes...

All over where I live are "autumnberries" which is a fruit I've read about in Sam Thayer's book. Based on the book, I was expecting these to not be ready for a while, but there are many bushes with ripe fruit on them already. (I was talking to a local arborist who said practically everything is three weeks early this year because of the crazy weather...) In any case, I tried some and they are DELICIOUS! It does depend on the individual tree. I don't know if that's just because some trees are bad, or have bad soil, or aren't as ripe, or what. But if you find a good bush, they are simply fantastic. This weekend I am going to try to make juice from them. I'll let you know how it goes.

Every morning, I have a breakfast salad of sorts along with my daily eggs. Here was today's breakfast:

• Omelet with cheese. Eggs were local. Cheese from Vermont, I think.
• Handful of raw lamb's quarter's leaves
• A small bit of wood sorrel
• A bunch of plantain seeds
  
• Half a Kohlrabi from my garden
• A good helping of blackberries from last night's harvest
• A couple of strawberries from the grocery store
• Some cucumber from the CSA we belong to.
• Some green pepper from the CSA.
  
• A glass of organic milk. This probably was not local food.

Breakfast is my favorite meal these days, and I'm happy to report significant progress in localizing my food.