'Please,' Brer Rabbit pleaded, 'Don't throw me in the blackberry bush!'

 A popular old Southern tale involves the simple psychological manipulation of Brer Fox by Brer Rabbit.
How? A blackberry patch is the plot.
It's as simple as why Dr. Bill Baker returned again and again to Gilbert, Arkansas. He said people in society say: "Every rabbit has his briar patch."

Ouch! Ouch! Ouch! Dwain is already pricked by stickers on these "tame" blackberry plants. These plants may be tame, but they're still armed with sharp briars ... just like the briars where Brer Rabbit landed.

What makes these blackberry canes "tame" is the size and number of berries per plant. Each of these blackberries is as big as our thumbs, and so ripe they literally pop off the vine.

These plants originated with Megan's Dad, Clinton Tinkle.
He gave Dwain's Mom, Mattie Lair, a few of the canes, and they've thrived behind her house.
This year, she let us pick the berries.

What can we make with a gallon of fresh blackberries? And another gallon? And another gallon? And ...

Yum! Yum! Yum! Megan's just taken a hot blackberry cobbler out of the oven.

Can you smell the aroma, served in heirloom berry bowls with ice cream and whipped cream.

Where is the cherry on top?
Sorry, we don't want that taste to interfere with the blackberries.

Mmmmmm! Here are our main ingredients for blackberry jam: 8 cups of fresh blackberry juice, minus seeds, and Blackberry Brandy.

We'll add some No-Sugar Pectin and artificial sweetener to the bubbling juice, then fill and seal 8 half-pints with No-Sugar added Blackberry Jam.

In 10 minutes, these half-pints of Blackberry Jam will be finished processing and ready to store. Maybe we won't eat all of them this summer.  We have to save two for the fair.

 
If you're not familiar with Brer Rabbit and Brer Fox, the plot involves a rabbit that constantly pesters and belittles a fox.
Finally, Brer Fox catches Brer Rabbit.
Brer Rabbit begs Brer Fox to roast him, hang him, drown him, skin him, cut off his legs. And after each suggestion pleads: "Don't throw me in the blackberry bush!"
At that point, Brer Fox flung Brer Rabbit deep into the blackberry patch.
"Ouch! Oow! Ouch!" Then the blackberry patch fell silent.
A few minutes later, Brer Fox heard a scuffling sound at the other end of the briar patch, and Brer Rabbit scrambled out of the bush.
Remember what Dr. Baker told us years ago?
“Born and bred in the briar patch, that’s me,” laughed Brer Rabbit. “I told you not to throw me there. In all the world, that’s the place I love best!” 

The next berries to ripen will be a different variety of "tame blackberries." They're big and juicy, but the plants don't have briars.

Mmmmm, we love summer.
Dwain and Megan