Dewberries

[Arnold Ziffle]

Well, I think I've seen it all now. Had an excellent crop of wild dewberries this year on my place. I guess pasture mismanagement is not all bad! (for you folks up north, "dewberries" are a small, native berry that most closely resembles blackberries) Anyway, while roaming near the woods I saw sign of what I assumed to be a bunch of poachers/tresspassers trampling all over and picking over my berries. Then, while I was picking my bull came up real close to me and proceeded to chomp down on a bunch of berries, grabbing some of the little stems along with the berries. Would never have believed it had I not watched him from 8 feet away for over a minute. Later on, several cows and "teenager" calves joined in. So I guess the only poaching has been done by my cattle! I chased them off after a few minutes -- figured I deserved the berries more than they did. My hands are all mangled and full of stickers and my back and legs feel like I'm about 150 years old, but I absolutely love mom's dewberry pie. Each pie takes a quart of berries and I now have 55 quarts in the freezer.

Maybe I've led a sheltered ranching existence, but has anybody else ever seen cattle going after berries?

 

[Jogeephus]

Never noticed it but it makes sense. You should see what is left of my plum thicket. They have loved it to death.

 

[Fred]

I've never seen cows eat dewberrys. Maybe one of them started eating them and the others learned from that one.

 

[Brute 23]

I love dewberries... pie, cobler, or just a with a little sugar.

When I was young my grandmother had an area that was probably 30x30 of just dewberrie bushes. That was their garden...

 

[Red Bull Breeder]

Never saw them eat dewberries but i saw a Char bull one time that had learned to shake th persimmons out the trees. Had all the hair wore of his head like he had been fighting, no other bulls around, so we got watching he would shake the tree then eat the persimmons then shake it agin.

 

[stocky]

We never have dewberries get ripe in the pasture where there are cattle. There are lots of thems on the roadways and in pastures with no cows. I never thought about it before, but the cows must be eating them. The wild blackberries, and huckleberries, and raspberries and strawberries always ripen in the pastures, so the cows dont eat them. 55 quarts of dewberries is sure alot of low on the ground picking.

 

[backhoeboogie]

You have to beat the deer to the dewberries around here.

We have a big patch behind a pecan grove that we call "birthing alley". When you don't see a cow that has been springing, and they are in that pasture, you can almost count on her being over in that patch. Probably about 75% of the calves are dropped in that berry patch. Over the next three weeks it will be full of deer and some fawns will be laid up in those vines. Its kind of neat to sneak over there and look for them. They'll be laid up and not moving. The next day berries will be gone and the fawn may be ten feet farther away from where it was yesterday.

I had some boysenberries on a trellis at the house. The heifers got to it once and cleaned out the entire years crop, and trampled the vines on the ground that would have beared fruit the following year. Boysenberries grow like crazy here but they are not sweet at all. I don't know why the cows like them.

 

[pdfangus]

I guess we are far enough north that dew berries don't amount to much. We have em and get to pick the ocassional one but I would have to work for a year to ever find 55 quarts.

Never see any in th pastures so i suspect that the cows do eat em.

My cows know where all the persimmon and pear trees are and seem to even know what time of year to go check em.

I have planted some ginat asian pear near the fences because the stock loves them so much.

As for me, the commercial pick your own strawberries are in here now and they grow em a lot better than i do. I am looking forward to blackberry season. I like blackberrys.

 

[Earl Thigpen]

We just finished putting up about 50 pints of Dewberry jam and jelly. Don't know what the heck to do with it all. Sure is good on hot bisquits with butter.

Never seen cattle eating Dewberries off the bush but they sure like them if you pick em and feed them. Bully really likes them. The cows would come around to get a taste but bully would usually run them off.

I guess the next wild fruit to become available is grapes - and they make great jelly, too.

 

[pdfangus]

what folks roudn here call dew berries must be different from what yall have.

No such thing as a dewberry bush. Dewberry here is a vine that stays on the ground and has a few berries that look a lot like blackberrys but they are pretty few in number and the vines are pretty scragly looking.

 

[backhoeboogie]

what folks roudn here call dew berries must be different from what yall have.

No such thing as a dewberry bush. Dewberry here is a vine that stays on the ground and has a few berries that look a lot like blackberrys but they are pretty few in number and the vines are pretty scragly looking.

Probably they are the same. Mine on the outcrops of brush look like what you describe. They were mowed last year and the only ones with fruit are the remains of last year's vines. Those is the light brush behind birthing alley run all over the brush and get loaded down. Vines are thorned. I am pretty sure that the new vines this year will bear fruit next year, then die. If you brush hog them down, you will lose next year's fruit.

Earl we have to kill out the grapevine on the river to preclude the vines from killing the pecan trees. About every other year I circle through with the Caterpillar, teeth down in the ground, and rake out the vines. It is a mess. Sometimes you cannot even see the Cat because there is so much vine wrapped on it.

 

[Earl Thigpen]

what folks roudn here call dew berries must be different from what yall have.

No such thing as a dewberry bush. Dewberry here is a vine that stays on the ground and has a few berries that look a lot like blackberrys but they are pretty few in number and the vines are pretty scragly looking.

Yes sir, same berry. I should have said vine - my mistake. Usually grows wild along the fence lines here. Really big ones are about the size of your thumb but most are smaller.

I used to "cultivate" them by training the vine up a chain link fence sos you didn't have to bend over to pick the berries. That worked out pretty good for a couple of years but they eventually died - no big lose because they are all over the place.

 

[tup]

dew berry cobbler, i could cry for the want of it.

 

[1982vett]

what folks roudn here call dew berries must be different from what yall have.

No such thing as a dewberry bush. Dewberry here is a vine that stays on the ground and has a few berries that look a lot like blackberrys but they are pretty few in number and the vines are pretty scragly looking.

This picture was taken 4 years ago. The barb wire (hard to see but is where the post is seen above the vines) is the 3rd wire off the ground of a 5 wire fence. This year they are covering the 4th wire. Been spraying some to try to clean up the fences, just seem so make them grow all the better. This years crop was about the best I can recall in quite a few years. Plenty of moisture and cool weather.

 

[pdfangus]

That is the same plant but I have never ever seen them that luxurious in our country.

if we could find three or four berries in a ten foot area it was a good day.

 

[backhoeboogie]

I used to "cultivate" them by training the vine up a chain link fence sos you didn't have to bend over to pick the berries. That worked out pretty good for a couple of years but they eventually died - no big lose because they are all over the place.

Earl, I need to learn you something about berries. Look at the vines that bear fruit this year. They will die period. Their life is over. Look at the little vines that are growing out of the ground like crazy with no fruit. Those will bear fruit next year, then die. The life of a berry vine is two years; one year of growth and one year of leaving out, blooming, bearing fruit and dying it (which is actually about a year and a half).

Hence, the new dewberry vines on the ground should be trained through your trellis. They'll bear fruit next year. After they bear fruit, cut them out and start training the new vines growing under foot then. You'll get fruit every year after the 2nd year of establishing berries.

The folks who brush hog the berry vines and don't get any fruit never learn this.

Earl, I am serious. This is an edit. My maternal grandfather had an orchard and grew them along with many other varieties including boysenberries which work the same way. Check it out.