In the spring of 2010, my email box was inundated with writers looking for the softer side of the story of the Deepwater Horizon explosion and following oil spill disaster. These seekers of a different angle flocked to my bayou to interview my shrimping neighbors. As a wetland advocate, I wondered how I could use this man-made disaster as a platform to further the cause of education and awareness.
It became clear to me early on that most of the journalists who arrived at my door really had no clue about our culture and way of life. So, if they wanted a story about how the oil spill had impacted us, then they must humor me and allow me to educate them about this vanishing ecosystem and its people.
What these well-meaning journalists needed first was a foundational perspective from the standpoint of a population of coastal communities who were suffering yet one more blow to their way of life. As a woman who lives, works, and fishes here, I could give them that perspective, which was simply this:
This oil spill was not an isolated disaster for the people of coastal Louisiana. It was like being kicked when we were already down. And here’s why.
Now, the question is, did we learn anything from last year’s conversations about how to tell the difference between black berries and dew berries?
Dew berries is my guess. While feeling the Boom of the thunder and watching the lightening show I wanted to cast my vote.
My power is back so…….dew berries show up earlier than balck berries but I don’t know the difference in the flowers. This is the first year since Katrina that my berries have appeared. If the scruffy kids at the illegal day care center next door don’t get them first I’ll make your berry recipe. Keep ypur fingers crossed.
Will you make cobbler, Katy?
Wendy, I found your blog and LOVE it. It really makes me miss Terrebonne parish and Louisiana!!!
Hi Margie and welcome back to the bayou! Your name sure sounds familiar. My memory banks are not what they used to be, and you called me by my real name, so we must have known each other when you still lived here? Regardless, it’s great to have you and please come back often!
BW
I’m going with Dew berries because they don’t look like blackberries we have on the back fence line.
I might add the back fence line that is expected to be covered with snow in the next 24 hours. You have to love Oklahoma in the spring time…..
Definitely no snow here, just 6″ of rain the last 2 days with more expected tonight! BW, to answer your question about the difference between a Black berry and a Dew berry… They are VERY different. Dewberries are made into Cobblers, jellies, jams, pies etc. Blackberries are a hand held device used for telephoning, e-mailing and browsing the “Web”! Betcha didn’t think a (Graying) Blond would know the answer to this “trick” question!
my heart just broke into a million pieces…. BUT I am happy for you!
You betcha I’m making cobbler! That is if the relentless, pounding rain doesn’t knock them all off.
Definitely NOT blackberries. I pick too many of them and they don’t look like that. I don’t think I’ve ever had a dew berry.
We are suppose to get a little snow, I hope it’s just a little. And i hope it doesn’t get my fruit trees!
Dewberries are classic brambles in that the top roots back into ground after it bends over far enough to touch ground. Most blackberries are upright. Spent too many hours of my youth picking blackberries to love them. Had like an acre or more of them.
I don’t know the difference, but I love Steffi’s answer!
I’m saying dewberries, too. Blackberries grow on canes and dewberries are on brambles – although both have the ability to give you a serious scratch!
Im a few days late, and a lotta days tired..but I would like to chime in they are dew berries. dews fruit earlier than blacks, are smaller and tarter than blacks, grow on bramble vines that wander & root whereever a branch touches the ground. As learned from last year, .” Dewberries have a 5 leaf cluster and blackberries have a 3 leaf cluster” , see BW, I do pay attention and take notes…….lol
And I love me some dewberry cobbler!
Deb
I’m back from a wonderful windy weekend, emphasis on windy, and happy to see all of you contributing to this post and passing the test, displaying your knowledge and making Bayou Woman the in-the-know-place to be!!
They are indeed dewberries. The vines run wild and re-root. They have male and female plants (males have no flowers, of course). They have five-leaf clumps. They ripen early, and the berries are small and tart and often quite seedy. Balanced with a little sugar, they are delicious in cobbler, jellies, and preserves.
I promise a weekend story as soon as I can sit here for an hour or so, but that ain’t right now!
BW
I don’t have a lot of time (in a laundromat) so I didn’t have time to read the replies……..but the difference between the two berries is the leaves and the taste! I love the taste of dewberries WAY over blackberries. Also the dewberries ripen before the blackberries do and are bigger. AT least they were this way at my place in Covington.
Well, Kim, you were the one who educated us last year on the leaves! But everyone got it right: Earlier season, more tart, smaller fruit, etc.!!! And I can’t wait to get my hands on a bowl full!