Time to Pick Dewberries

Dewberries are popping up everywhere. That means purple teeth and stained clothes around my place.

I love dewberries. Dewberry pie, dewberry jelly, dewberry wine – all of it.

Dewberries remind me of a special spring some years ago. It was the mid-2000s, I believe the same year as the Great Schulenburg Donkey Escape, but that’s a different story.

That year I found myself surrounded by a motley crew of twentysomethings, some who recently moved back home, and some who never left. There were a few couples, but most of us were still single. One of the couples was getting married that year, so we decided to make some homemade dewberry wine for the wedding.

First we had to pick dewberries. That called for a hayride, of course. So we hitched a lowboy trailer to a pickup truck and loaded up for a ride in the country. As I recall, the vines in the fencelines along Middle Creek Road were especially productive. I better end this story before I say too much. We filled buckets and buckets of dewberries that we turned into wine.

I’m no expert at wine making, although I have practiced the art a few times. I’m not confident enough in my knowledge to offer any advice on this topic. But I will offer a few “observations.”

Many recipes call for the addition of sugar. In my experience, much better wine is made from sweet fruit at the peak of ripeness rather than additional sugar.

The best wine I ever had a part in making was fermented in big glass bottles stored a dark closet. The wine I’ve made in metal or plastic containers was never as good.

You can make wine (and liquor if you distill it) from just about any sweet fruit. Pear wine is one of my favorites. It tastes like Pinot Grigio, but better. I know a guy who knows a guy who makes tomato wine and distills it into a bourbon-like spirit. It’s exquisite. Sorry, but I can’t say more than that.

Let’s get back to picking dewberries.

You will find the sweetest dewberries growing in spots that receive full sun and plenty of water. Look for dewberries growing along ditches. Be careful of the thorns, of course, and also snakes. Snakes love to hide in dewberry patches. It’s probably a good idea to wear gloves, long sleeves, pants and boots when picking dewberries.

This is a crop everyone can enjoy. Just drive along some backroads anywhere in the county and you will find dewberries growing along a fenceline.

I’m told a delicious tea can be made from dewberry flowers, but I’ve never tried this. The roots of dewberry plants were used by several Native American tribes to treat various ailments from diarrhea to eye sores.

Most importantly, I think, dewberries are packed with antioxidants, especially anthocyanin. These purple-colored chemicals occur in many foods. Some studies indicate that they may possess anti-cancer and neuro-regenerative properties.

Get out there and pick some dewberries!