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Foraging for Blackberries in the Back 40

Have you ever heard the phrase “back 40”?  It refers to what is grown on a farms back 40 acres.  Well around here we don’t have any back 40 acres.  We do have 40 feet so I guess I could refer to what is growing in my back 40 feet but instead I will call our back 40 the wild acres all around us where we can glean free food.
 
 
We have access to this amazing partially wild land which consists of open fields and forrests.  It is about 20 acres and today we went for a visit.  What where we after you may ask?  Wild juicy Florida Blackberries.  Each kid with gloves on and bag in hand jumped out of the van and went to it.  Everywhere the eye can see there are blackberries growing among the throny brambles.  The kids know how to be careful and not get scratched and which ones to pick.
 

 
It was such a beautiful day and walking through the tree canopies was a treat.
 

And when we were all done we gathered about 10 quarts of blackberries.  We have blackberries planted in our garden but it is hard to pass up the free food which is completely orgnanic, natural, untouched and unhelped by human hands.  Of course I could not count the blackberries we gave away on our way home or all the berries that went straight into my childrens tummies but we now have enough berries to make jam, jellies and blackberry syrup for pancakes, ice cream and to flavor our homemade kefir and yogurt.

So what’s growing on your back 40?

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