Black Cap Fever

The wild black cap (black raspberries) are ripening at a rapid pace right now. The tufts of sticker bushes have sprung up around old slash piles, where stumps are rotting and wherever there is enough sunlight and shade in good proportions to sustain the plants.

Each group of plants may make up only a cane or two that produce flowers and fruit. The lowest on the cane are the oldest and turn from a bright red to blue/black in color. A cane may only have one or two berries ripe at a time with the upcoming weeks continuing to produce.

It is not easy to get enough picked to fill a growly tummy or a container to take back to the house since the canes are sparsely growing here and there throughout the forest and there is competition for the fruit. Deer, elk, bear, birds and coyotes are enticed with the berry fragrance into the area to snack their way along just as us humans are.

One of our helpers in the woods took the long way down the hill in order to do a little berry picking on the way to the landing. With a lot of thorny scratches and nettle stings, the helper made it down the hill with nearly a gallon of berries.

Once at the house the berries were washed and frozen to be held until colder weather when the black caps can be mixed with raspberries from the garden for jam or glaze on a butter cake.