Picking Wineberries

When I was a kid, there were what I thought were raspberries growing in the woods behind the house and I used to eat them every summer. They were delicious-- tart and wild tasting. As an adult I could never figure out why the raspberries in the store didn't taste like the ones in the woods. Store bought raspberries always seem to be too sweet and perfumey for me. Well, recently I rediscovered the berries of my childhood and learned that they weren't raspberries, but wineberries.

Wineberries on the bush.

Wineberries are actually a relative of the raspberry, but they are originally from Asia. I read that they were imported and used as ornamental plants, among other things. Now they are considered a non-native invasive species. The even have their tasty mugs on a Plant Conservation Alliance Least Wanted poster.

A couple of weeks ago I found a patch at Elk Neck State Park and made my honey jump into the bushes with me to pick them. We got almost a cup and a half. Since the I was determined to hunt them down closer to home.Unfortunately the nearest patch I found was near a stream that had a sewage spill in it during the last year, and so I didn't want to eat anything from there. And so, my dreams of wineberry jam were dashed...or were they?

This week I spotted some while biking along a path in a nearby woods. Even though it was a bit of a walk from my house, I planned to come back without my bike because it looked like the berries were scattered and there was no safe place to lock up my bike. Through internet research I learned that this spot was one of those "top secret" places that everybody seems to know about, so I know the berries are safe to eat.

My delicious haul of foraged wineberries.

I put on jeans, tennis shoes and a long sleeved shirt and grabbed my backpack and as many medium sized plastic containers as I had available. (I didn't want the containers to be too big because I thought the berries might crush each other under the weight.) I spent about 3 or 4 hours picking but I filled all of my containers and ended up with about 12 cups of berries.

The berries look a little pale here in the picture, but they were ripe enough when I picked them.

If you need more info, "Wildman" Steve Brill has a practical article on Foraging for Brambles. Also, Mary Ann Piccard's article for Mother Earth News tells us all about Picking and Preserving the Wineberry.