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The Kitchen Table

Black Berry Winter

14 years ago

Black Berry Winter has come at last and is about done. Do any of you recall hearing about Black Berry Winter? It is a persistant legend found in pioneering farming families in southern Illinois and Indiana, Missouri, and Arkansas. It states that it is the last really cold spell of the season that occurs about the time the wild black berries bloom. Night time temperatures get into the 40s F. It lasts about 3 days gradually warming and will be the last cold weather of the season. From then on, summer begins in earnest.

Several cool periods happen in the month of May, but the final one of the season occurs when the wild black berries bloom. This is an old time observation by farmers and I have found it to work most of the time. It's interesting how the black berry plant can integrate weather patterns to trigger its life cycle.

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Comments (7)

nod702
14 years ago
Yes, i'm from east Tn. and we have a cold snap every year when the wild blackberries are in bloom. As you said lasts about 3 days. We also have dogwood winter, Whipperwill squal winter and some others i can't think of at the moment. You can still hear some of the older folks say, "Probably gonna have to build a far tonight, em air blackberries are a blooming".
kacram
14 years ago
It' sounds like a name to a very intense novel! lol
I didn't know anything about a blackberry winter!
thank you! that is interesting!@
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I use the cheapest Gempler traps that snap instead of lock when baiting with poison. The bait I use for spring traps is usually peanuts or some other nut if I have stale ones around the house. Insects, especially ants, often remove peanut butter outdoors. I use the trays- plastic ones about 4" high and about 20" long by 14" wide- to cover the spring traps and keep birds and weather out. I weight trays with rocks to keep wind from blowing them away. The reason I use these trays is that they happen to be around for using in my greenhouse. You could improvise something else. If it gets real snowey I neglect traps until thaw. The idea is to get things under control before snow cover gets in the way. I don't think there's much breeding going on outdoors during winter. I also include a few rat traps when there are any wood rats or chipmonks around just to stop them from springing all my traps. I have no other beef against wood rats.
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I'm growing multiple types of viburnums, but the V. trilobum bushes are the largest and oldest. Supposedly humans can eat them, prepared like cranberries. I guess it is just a disappointment when nothing seems to want to eat them "as advertised". I guess the one good thing is that they can be enjoyed as decoration for the entire time since the berries hang on until they fall off in spring. Flocks of robins came in early January, but did not return again in numbers to our area in PA, while they came back several times by the hundreds to our suburban lot in Maryland (on a hill). Why do I never see any cedar waxwings in N. Central MD? My inlaws said they had them in Alexandria, VA (at least once on their holly)
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jude31
14 years ago
You are right,nod. I'm from E.Tn too.

jude
gmom74
14 years ago
I'm in Georgia and we always have a blackberry winter- I've known about it all my life.
sheilajoyce_gw
14 years ago
Well, with the news about the Blackberry manufacturer being behind the times and that Blackberries are fading fast in popularity, I assumed this was news about the severe depression setting in for Blackberry users, or the freedom from those continual messages which have gone into a winterlike dormancy.
User
14 years ago
Interesting!
jemdandy
Original Author
14 years ago
nod702:

Quote:
You can still hear some of the older folks say, "Probably gonna have to build a far tonight, em air blackberries are a blooming".
Unquote.

You got thet rite. I 'ear ya.

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