Blackberries

When The Writer was 5 and The Artist was 2, we moved into the first, and only, home we'd ever owned. The first thing The Chemist did was buy fruit trees and bushes. We had a peach tree, a plum tree, an orange tree, and four blackberry bushes, all of which we planted in the backyard.

The boys watched those bushes like hawks, or, well, like some berry eating type of bird, just waiting to nab the first berry. Once the bush produced, watch out. The kids would be purple for weeks. They loved the things.

When we moved from that house to a rental an hour & a half away, because The Chemist got the job that led to this job, we planted blackberry bushes in the flower beds out front. I'm sure our landlady was thrilled. The boys certainly were.

Berries, berries, berries. The two oldest boys grew up on a steady diet of blackberries, from the time they were 5 & 2 until the day we moved to Brazil, when they were 10 & 7. 'Twas a sad thing to realize that, in this land of the most marvelous fruits ever imagined, there is a serious lack of all things berry. No idea why that is, but on the rare occasion I find blackberries in the market, they run at outrageous prices. We're talking, if memory serves, R$15 for roughly one cup of berries. Seriously.

Well, folks, The Chemist last night struck gold, more or less. He discovered (how he's been unaware the past three years is beyond me....) a blackberry tree on the grounds where he works. Yes, I know blackberries don't actually grow on trees. But mulberries or boysenberries or something or other do, and I don't remember which, and they look, smell and taste just like blackberries, so, indulge me, okay? The point is, The Chemist saw a bowl of blackberries, inquired as to their origin, was told they grow on the grounds and encouraged to help himself, and that is just exactly what he did. To one heaping bucket full.

AFTER the boys ate their fill today

I dumped the contents of the very  heavy bucket into my colander to rinse the berries. Only, they overflowed the thing. Still, I rinsed, and tucked the colander into a bowl to catch any juice and then put the whole mess into my fridge, thankful for empty space since the milk man didn't come on Tuesday (national holiday and all). Well, I'd have tossed the milk to store the berries, no doubt, but I digress......what was I saying?

Oh yes, the berries. The boys were shocked. Stunned. Thrilled. This little surprise of their father's blessed their socks off. Seriously. In ways you cannot imagine. Being mostly deprived of your favorite food for the past three years, and then being given such a bounty as this.....they didn't know what to do. It took them half of today to overcome the automatic Ration The Blackberries response and accept the fact that they could eat fully and still not make a dent in our supply.  Even after their over-indulgence, we still have 12 cups remaining.

Not one cup.

Not two cups.

Twelve.

Very full, very rounded cups.

I have never seen happier boys.  Or purpler ones.

 

 

Except for The Adventurer. You might recall he was only 2.5 yrs old when we moved to Brazil, and as such, he'd not really tasted a blackberry before. Ever, I don't think.  So when The Artist offered him one today, relishing in this bounty after a three year drought, The Adventurer declined.

Aghast, The Artists insisted. He practically pushed the blackberry into The Adventurer's mouth, against much protest.

The Adventurer promptly spit it out, declared, "I feel sick!" and came crying to me. He wanted nothing to do with this very foreign food. This happens when you've spent more than half of your life, and all the bits you can remember, in Brazil instead of the USA.

Perspective, folks. It's all about perspective. The Adventurer happily chooses rice & beans over a hamburger, and apples or oranges or any other fruit at all so long as he doesn't have to eat a nasty blackberry.

The Big Boys however are hoping we have enough left for pie (umm, pretty sure that's a yes), while secretly really hoping that means they can continue to eat freely and still get a pie out of the deal (again, boys, pretty sure that's a yes....) and I am wondering what on earth we are going to do with all these berries. And how I'll ever get my dishes unstained...

Now, the boys have already eaten roughly four cups, or 60 Reais worth of blackberries, but still. I've got 12 cups, 180 reais worth, left.....no, we're not selling. The boys won't let me; I checked. (conversion rate: roughly 90 dollars......)

What's your favorite way to eat a blackberry? Or a couple of kilos of blackberries? With 12 cups yet to consume, and fridge space that needs vacated ASAP (the milk man comes in the morning...), I need all the suggestions you guys can give me.