Large Fierce Mammal

A sample of today's view deep inside the LFM Blackberry patch.

Mrs. LFM and I live in the midst of plenty, all of it provided by Nature and requiring only the investment of time, effort, and gratitude to enjoy. An example of what I’m talking about is the succulent Blackberry that grows in abundance at our place.

I decided this past spring to pursue a couple of rustic/bushcraft skills involving making full use of the Blackberry plant – using the fruit to make wine, and the stalks to make cordage; i. e, thread, twine, or rope.

The stalks are best harvested in the spring, and a portion of our multiple Blackberry patches has been earmarked for cutting in spring 2012 when the sap content of the stalks renders the fibres more receptive to processing. In the mean time, that leaves us with the fruity goodness of the berries that we’ve been harvesting every couple of days for the past several weeks in a scratch and stab fest that never fails to remind me of my favourite line from Lady Gaga’s “Poker Face” – “… and baby when it’s love if it’s not rough it isn’t fun”.

The berries are being frozen in date labelled bags pending the end of the season when wine making will begin. As you can see from the photo that I took today, there are still a lot of berries left to ripen, and unless a killing frost does for the immature berries we’re not done yet. As the wine project progresses I’ll be documenting it here. I am not inexperienced in the making of wine, but this is our first attempt at making wine from fresh fruit. While Mrs. LFM and I have been researching Blackberry wine recipes, we invite our readers to submit suggestions if any of you have a tried and tested favourite you’d like to suggest. Anyone who suggests a recipe we decide to adopt, and that yields a drinkable libation – will receive a bottle with our compliments. Two if it’s especially good.