#20: It's Blackberry Season!

I feel bad in that I've been slacking in getting out the time sensitive material. Blackberry season is well underway and as such, blackberries are on sale everywhere :D!

The inspiration for this posting is my dear boyfriend who, in claiming that all the berries looked the same, brought home a rather sour pint of blackberries. I, on the other hand, examine the berries, open pints, and (if no one's looking) pick out berries to switch into other pints. It's most certainly a longer process for me. Being someone who's rather anal when it comes to produce picking, for the benefit of everyone:

+How to pick out sweet blackberries+

The main things to consider are:

color
overall berry size
globule size
globule packing

1) Color

~ Look for all black ~

blackberries with any specks of red in them are going to be more sour than the berries that are all black

2) Size

~ the bigger, the better ~

if given a choice between berries with specks of red, the bigger one will be less sour.



3) Globule Size

~ look for big and soft (right) ~

I call each little round fruit that composes a blackberry a globule. Smaller ones are more likely to be sour, uptight, and unpleasant.

4) Globule Packing

~ look for somewhat loose and soft globules ~

In conjunction with the thing to look for above, you'll find that big soft globules are highly incapable of packing as tightly as the smaller, sour, less juicy ones.

Overall, you're looking for something big, all black, and soft.

And now you should be set. I might actually regret doling out this advice since blackberries are always on sale now and I may be left with all the small sour berries if people want to go and test out their berry picking skills. Such is life. Happy berry picking!