Blackberries

 The blossoms that we saw in the woods in May are gone, so the accent colors we see now come from blackberries, Rubus occidentalis.

They’re mostly red. I found a few that had turned black, but they were sour. I’d guess another two weeks, if you’re a picker.

Grandmother Taylor, a Tennessean, was a great maker of biscuits and blackberry jam. To celebrate jam-making season, she sometimes served a platter of biscuits and jam for supper. The 12-year-old version of me thought it was perfect, like having dessert for dinner.

The authorities say the common name for R. occidentalis is “black raspberry,” but I’ve never heard a Southerner say that.