Farmhouse Berries...

Porch Berries

When the vines first appeared this spring, I thought we had roses (wild or otherwise) popping through the boards on our porch. (I learned of the thorns when I tried to pull one last fall, so I assumed they were roses.)

I patiently waited for the buds to appear, and figured there would be beautiful wild roses growing all over our porch this summer. As we plan to pull the porch and rebuild it, I just let them grow as they wanted.

Porch Berries

When our granddaughters were here with their folks over the weekend, our daughter-in-law and I walked the yard and talked about some of the beneficial plants that grow freely in our lawn. There's the medicinal plantain, wild chamomile (which smells heavenly after the yard is mowed), and another wild ground cover that we think might be wild thyme. I'm still working on that one.

Then, we looked at the plants that Handsome and I added near the house. Some of the hollyhocks are already in bloom, and the lavender, chamomile, cilantro, basil and rosemary are all getting big. The hostas are going to make a beautiful border as they get bigger, too. As we looked at the foxglove plant, I noticed color on the vines next to the porch. There are berries!!

Porch Berries

 

As I began to write this post, I looked up the difference between raspberries and blackberries. I have to pull one to be sure, but I think these will ripen to become blackberries. A few of the berries are already darker than in this picture, and one of the surefire ways to differentiate between the two plants is to pull a fruit. 

 

From what I read, the raspberry is hollow when pulled, leaving the rasp (which holds the fruit to the vine) behind. Blackberries take the rasp with them when pulled, and have a soft, white core inside. That's the first way to tell the difference. 

There are other ways, according to THIS link, but I'll go pull a fruit later this morning to see if I can tell. Right now, my money is on wild blackberry, but I'll edit my post later to let you know what I find out.

I can tell you one thing's for sure, they're tasty! I noticed more of these bushes in the rock wall in front of our house, as well as near the big boulder where I photographed our granddaughters last weekend. I wonder which critters I'll have to compete with to harvest these this summer?