Blackberry Pie

(I apologize for my absense this week. I apparently messed up my back sometime over the weekend and Monday I stood up from my desk in the afternoon and was is excrusiating pain. I think it was a pinched nerve but it's only starting to work itself out today. Needless to say I haven't been in the mood for much! Oh and then this morning I stabbed my foot with a knitting needle. Like a for real stab! There's a hole in the side of my foot and it is not a happy feeling! Just my luck! haha!)

Sunday afternoon my dad suddenly got it into his head that we all needed to go blackberry picking. So we drove up to the creek we used to go to when I was a kid. There are wild blackberry bushes all over the place and as long as you've got a parking pass, you're free to pick them. So we went up there. We used to go to this particular place multiple times a year and every late August/early September we'd go blackberry picking. One year we ended up with about 10 gallons of blackberries which were frozen or made into jams and all winter long we had fresh blackberry pie. That was the last time we'd gone and it was when I was 12. So Sunday we went there.

Unfortunately it's changed alot since I was a kid. Most of the trees that kept the place nice and shady have been cut down, fallen down, or burned down in the many fires that sweep throught the area. We were a little dissapointed to see that there wasn't alot of berries left, and most had wilted up. Some still hadn't rippened, but most of them were shrivelled up. And the nice little paths that people had cut when I was a kid? Oh yeah those are gone. So you have to go traipsing through blackberry bushes. Which have thorns. Really nasty ones. And if you happened to be the one who was brilliant and wore a vintage dress and SANDALS to g blackberry picking, well then my friend you had better be prepared for some major, major painful battles between you and many a blackberry bush. I came out alive, but just barely:

My dad, Chelsea, and Eric wore appropriate clothing and were far more willing to get stuck inbetween a bush, a log, and a pair of eyeballs staring up at you that I am pretty sure was a raccoon. My mom and everyone else had just gotten over the flu (as did I, but I sucked it up and got dirty in the name of blackberry pie!), so they just went down to the creek to play in the icy cold water (we'll get there, but in case you were wondering, it was wonderful!) . Being that there weren't that many berries and I at one point was stranded on a log being eaten by some form of bug or another I picked for a good hour (yeilding a whole 11 berries!) and then went to go soothe my sliced up legs in the water. Not before my dad to a rather epic tumble through the thorny bushes which I did not manage to catch on film much to his delight.

We ended up spending the rest of the afternoon swimming, wading, and relaxing in the cold mountain water which really was quite wonderful. The day was beautiful and it was just alot of fun. Grace and I discovered a little natural pond-like area that was deep enough for her to swim around (it hit me about mid thigh) and we went up there for a while. There was a few more secluded areas too where none of the other people there would bother you. It was just lovely. And in the end we had enough blackberries for two pies, neither of which I got a picture of, but I can assure you they were incredibly tasty!

There's more here.