Black Caps - Wild Raspberries

As a kid, I searched out every Black Cap bush within a several mile radius of my parents house.  The wild cousin of the domestic Red Raspberry, western Black Raspberries or Black Caps (link to genus definition) as I grew up calling them.  The taste is different, maybe more wild?  I am not sure how to describe what makes them different than red raspberries, but I know that I love the flavor and seek them out as soon as they come into season.  An added benefit, is that the season for these berries is fairly long, with each berry cluster generally ripening one at a time over a period of 4-8 weeks.  A good bush though can have dozens of canes with dozens of clusters on each cane, making for a very good forest treat!

Here in Western Washington, the berries are ripe now and should be producing through August.

The berries produce off of the previous years canes, so when picking be careful of the shoots coming up around the base of the plant as this is the next years crop.

Recipes?  I think a syrup would be delicious, but have never made it back to the house with enough to do anything substantial with.  Last year, I made a mixed berry cobbler with black caps, red huckleberries, and dew berries that came out excellent though!

Easy Essentials: Blackberry Jam

I make a lot of different jams, I think over the last couple of years I made 20 different types and by now they have all disappeared except the sour plum jam, so I think they are pretty good.  But the staple for my boys is Blackberry Jam. Blackberries are everywhere in abundance, and they are relatively easy to pick.  Back when we lived in California, we would go down on the levees and pick buckets full of berries.  Walkers and joggers would wander by and look at us like we were crazy or comment on the novelty of someone picking the berries.  If we did not get to a patch of berries, they would dry on the vines, too many for even the birds to eat!

Now that we live in the Pacific Northwest, there is a lot more competition for natures bounty.  I would go to the end of our driveway where the main road is lined with eight foot tall blackberry brambles on one side before work.  At 5-6 AM in the morning, there would be several other people out in the pre-dawn light filling buckets and trying not to tangle themselves in the thorns.


With my fresh picked berries, I follow these steps to produce a consistently perfect jam:

Prepare jars, rings, and lids - each batch will make 4-5 pints of jam.  I usually prepare 6 jars in case I miraculously have more than I thought.

Ingredients:

6 cups crushed blackberries
5 cups sugar
1 package pectin (usually SureJell)
1 tablespoon lemon juice

Crush berries - I usually pour berries into a measuring cup then mash them until juicy.

In a large pot, a tall stockpot is best, bring the berries to a boil, stirring constantly

Add sugar and keep stirring until all is melted, bring back to a boil.

Add lemon juice.

Add pectin, keep stirring and bring to a rolling boil.

Boil for 2-4 minutes, this is where a long handled spoon can come in handy!

Done!  Ladle into jars, cap, and put into a boiling water canner for 10 minutes.

Enjoy!

Red Huckleberry

Red huckleberries are the lesser known of the huckleberry plants.  Bright red, they look too good to be true on the tall bushes that they grow on - some are tarter than others depending on the bush location and level of ripeness, but all are delicious! 



Red Huckleberry Bush

We have a 1/2 dozen large red huckleberry bushes growing across our property.  We started getting ripe berries around July 4th and most berries will be ripe by the end of July.  The berries are very bright and look like salmon eggs, it would be interesting to try fishing with them to see if they worked as bait. 

My boys and I collected a about two cups full from one large bush that ripened before all the others, and that was after eating more that 1/2 of the berries as we picked. 



Red Huckleberries

Not enough berries for Jam, so we made a red huckleberry crisp with what we did not eat:

Recipe:

2 cups of berries
1/2 cup of white sugar
1 1/2 cup of flour
1 cup of brown sugar
1 stick of butter

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Mix berries and white sugar, put on bottom of pan.

Mix flour, brown sugar and blend in the stick of butter until you get a crumbly type texture.  Crumble on top of the berries

Cook in oven for 20-30 minutes until the berries are bubbling through the crumble mix.

Enjoy! 




Red Huckleberry Crisp