Bramen/Blackberries

I've written at various points before about the nature surrounding our neighborhood. I'm not an "outdoorsy" person, but it's nice that there are so many things for the Little Man to experience in nature. In particular, there is an extraordinary number of bramen (blackberry) bushes growing wild in the wooded areas around Tilburg, and the harvesting season is upon us. This morning I figured it was the perfect opportunity to show the Little Man how to pick the berries, share the story of how I did the same thing with a bush in my yard when I was young, and create his own berry picking story. 

All our picking was done along a long stretch of fietspad (bike path) along the woods, so it's easy to walk right up to the bushes.

In some places the bushes are about 8 feet tall - you can see the same types of leaves all the way up that tree truck.

People have regularly come through and picked the berries, but there are still plenty of ripe berries if you look around the bunches...

And plenty more will ripen in good time.

And even though Little Man had to work through his fear of "pokies" from the thorns...

And I had to work through my fear of accidentally bringing home a spider...

We came home with a good harvest.

Some of which was consumed on site. It tastes the best that way.