Lovely.

What a heart-warmiwarming and delightful video!

I never knew about your little wild blackberries!

Smiles,

Sooz

What a great story! Thanks for sharing.

Wish I could try your wild blackberries. $60 per gallon sounds like a steal.

FOAS, I thought that, too. Unfortunately, the guy was a flake and one county over and I could never get him to commit to meeting up so I could get them. Probably plenty of more convenient customers. Made me sad, since it's been years since I was able to pick. Though I have one younger friend who picks and always makes a little wild blackberry pie for our Christmas potluck, so I at least get a tiny taste.

I also enjoyed the story, and Elery's Dad and my Mother both had Hospice care at the end of their lives, as did my daughter's father in law and grand mother in law. Hospice is a wonderful gift for people who need them.

As for the blackberries, they grow wild here too. I remember as a child, standing in the National Forest with my bucket, picking blackberries about the size of my little fingernail. Grandma would make blackberry dumplings and jam and if I kept picking she'd can them in quart jars for dumplings in the winter. I just had to remember to sing or talk, so the bears would hear me and stay away, they liked the berries too.

I picked several years ago and got enough for a batch of jam, it was a lot more work than I remembered, LOL.

Annie

How lovely.

I adore the local trailing blackberries. The flavor is the best and very comparable to a trailing southern Dewberry. They are lucky in the south as the berries are larger and easier to pick with the same intense flavor. I used to make a wonderful blackberry liqueur using tequila as the alcohol. Wonderful stuff. Unfortunately the introduced Himalayan blackberry and the Evergreen have taken over the native territory.

Oh, I wondered if they grew other places! I cannot imagine ever making jam with them, but in my lifetime I've eaten at some little cafes that featured the jam (and the pies).

What a wonderful story. I grew up picking/eating wild strawberries. What a treat!

Thank sharing this!

Thank you, Olychick, that was wonderful!

Cool story and I can just taste that blackberry pie. I have always loved fruit pies and my mother could make the best. Sour cherry was my favorite. I eat blackberries all the time in my yogurt but buy them at the store.

What a beutiful story. Hinds Hospice cared for my DH, and thir care was so wonderful for us. I would like to have a piece of that pie!

Olychick, I had seen the piece on Eric's Heros a year or so ago, and when this came up again this week I was afraid it meant we had lost her. What a lovely, gracious lady and generous in every sense.

Sadly, that did prove to be the case and her services this week. At 98, all who loved her will be saying their final goodbyes tomorrow. I wish I could have known her.

Elma Elizabeth Johnson, The Pie Lady

Oh, Morz8, that's sad to hear. I wonder if that's why her story showed up on my FB page? She was a gem.