Blackberry cobbler and Grandmother

Scooterr

  Just on a lighter note. I wonder how many people think about the cooking their Grandmothers or Mother used to do, I'm sure one of them. Today after the Oklahoma rain stopped I grabbed a chair for my wife to sit in, and a gallon  bucket  and we walk to the end of our property, where there lays a giant blackberry patch. This time a year blackberries are going full throttle.  So I began picking through the blackberries and the stickers that go along with them. Within 5 minutes to my amazement my wife was up doing her best to help, it was just a true blessing to have her interacting with me. After about 30 minutes the bucket was full. 

  The whole time we were picking my mouth was salivating, not because I had my mouth half full of blackberries, but I couldn't stop thinking of Grandmothers home made blackberry cobbler. Every year at this time when I was young my grandparents had me with them picking blackberries, then later we would pick peaches and homegrown tomatoes. My gosh I would love to have one of her peach fried peach pies. I can still smell her cooking it was like wrapping up in a warm blanket in the middle of winter.

  My Grandparents were strong people and their values were just as strong. They rode through the Oklahoma dustbowl even stronger. They were poor folks, but were able to utilize everything they could especially if it came out of the earth. I'm so fortunate to of had them as Grandparents and picked up on some of their work skills. 

  I sure would like to have a big bowl of cobble right now. It was a good day!  

Crushed

My grandmothers were TERRIBLE  cooks `

  

toolbeltexpert

Scooterr I second that motion. We have 16 acres with plenty of BB and Black snakes. we also have a patch of the tame BB not as sweet but really big. I squeeze the berries and make a BB syrup for my waffles. They are not quite ready yet. Now I gotta go get my last bottle of syrup so it will be thawed in the morning.

Ed1937

I don't remember my grandmother doing that stuff, but my wife sure did. We had a nice blackberry patch on the property at our last house before this one. Yes, those blackberry thorns could keep you honest, for sure. The blackberry cobbler was great, but the fried peach pies were even better. It had to have a dip of vanilla ice cream too. Thanks for the memories.

M1

Oh, right there with you scooterr. Ours don’t come in until July, but picking and baking the cobbler is one of my favorite traditions. The memory is of my dad, who loved to pick them for my mother but never ate a berry in his life. The chiggers, the ticks, the snakes, the thorns, the June bugs, the stains, and the heat are all part of the experience. Ooh, the feeling when you reach in and grab a June bug rather than a berry!!!  I could make the recipe in my sleep. Thanksgiving dessert without fail (they freeze great)…

Stuck in the middle

My younger brother got lost in a blackberry bramble once.  He crawled down a rabbit tunnel, picking the huge berries that grew in the shade, and got lost.  I stood by the entrance and talked to him until he found his way out, following my voice.  He was about half my size and I could not go in after him.

My grandmothers died before I was born, so we never met.  I remember my great grandmother making water sandwiches for snacks.  A water sandwich consisted of sugar on bread, with a spoonful of water to make it stick to the bread.  Grandma was 80 when I was born and had pretty well lost it by the time I remember her.  I am told she was once a great cook, baking cakes with a wood stove, but that was before my time.  She thought I was wonderful, and I loved her.

Joydean

What great memories. BB, and yes the snakes, chigger and thorns but it was all so good. We would be so full from eating way more than we should have, grandma always waited to make cobbler the next day. In Alabama grandpa had more apple trees than peach so we had fried apple pies. 

Thanks for sharing all your memories and making a bad day turn into a good evening. 

JoseyWales

Blackberries and wild raspberries are so much better when picked off the vine, at the expense of poking holes in your skin. Ours aren't ripe yet. There's a big wild patch of raspberries just at the edge of my property, and we just pick and eat them. Not enough to fill a bucket.

I'd offer you a recipe for blackberry cobbler, but that something I've never made. I think we should hit up Crushed for a recipe!

But even sweeter than those blackberries was probably the interaction with your wife today. 

My grandmothers didn't really cook anything that was worth remembering. One of them was always worried about her weight, and I have no memories of her ever making a desert other than ice cream. There are some things my mom cooks that I'll miss when she's gone. I have her recipes, but no matter how I try I just can't make potato salad the way she can.

Joydean

Josey, my grandma always said if you don’t add that hand full of love it ain’t worth making!

Scooterr

To the good times, from toolbelts syrup ( which sounds really good), Ed's ice cream and fried pies, M1 and his Thanksgiving dessert, Stuck in the middles brother getting lost, Joydean grandpa's apple trees and pies, Josey Wales picking Raspberries fresh off the vine (your right much better off the vine), Joydean's add love. I even bet crush has a good old cobbler recipe he's not sharing, heck it maybe better than Grandma's LOL. Hope you guys have a good morning mine started way to early.

toolbeltexpert

Funny scooter I woke up at 2 and did get back to sleep, to much on my mind I guess. I got my bb syrup out I had dated it 7/7/21 so it won't be long before I get to make some fresh. Thank for this thread I needed it.

BethL

My grandma's specialties were angel food cakes, using a dozen egg whites, and homemade noodles, using a dozen egg yolks. She would sometimes serve strawberries with the cake.

She had black raspberries and red raspberries too. 

Jo C.

Oh how my grandmother could cook!  Being at her house was like being snuggled in a loving, caring, peaceful cloud of happiness and great kitchen smells.  When staying alone with her, it was a warm hug around the tummy as she made my favorite things.  Love her and even though I am now very ahem, "mature," I still miss her very much; what wonderful memories she made that I cherish. She could crank out homemade pastas and ravioli and other wonderful dishes with no recipes.

We lived in the U.P. of Michigan, so we had no blackberries, but we had blueberries that we went out to the woods to pick with our galvanized pails.  And yes; I ate a lot of them while picking.  I still remember those blackbird designed pie vents one stuck in the middle of the top pie crust to stop the berries from boiling over.  Warm with vanilla ice cream on top or cold, those blueberry pies were the best.  Of course, there were also the breads they made including saffron buns and cardamom seeded braided sweet rolls.  The sweet cake like Swedish rye flour bread served warm with butter and honey . . . . heaven, and omigosh how good the house smelled.

I remember being in Gig Harbor and taking long walks, stopping to pick and blackberries that grew wild right on the spot.  Boy; those things were huge and so good.

M1, I would love to get your recipe for your blackberry cobbler; bet it is delicious.  Out here, sadly we have to buy those berries.

J.

M1

Here it is Jo:  but this is kind of like Thanksgiving stuffing, everyone is going to have a variation:

For the pastry (this is the old Betty Crocker recipe): for cobbler or a two-crust pie, mix together 2 c sifted flour and 1.5 teaspoons salt.  Pour together in a measuring cup (without stirring) 1/2 c Wesson oil and 1/4 c whole cold milk.  Pour all at once into the flour and stir lightly until mixed.  Round up, divide in halves and roll out between sheets of waxed paper.

For the filling:  Mix together 1 cup sugar and 5 tablespoons flour with 4 cups of berries.  Pout berries and flour and sugar mixture into casserole dish.  Dot with 1.5 tablespoons margarine or butter and sprinkle with lemon juice and zest of one lemon. Cover with pastry which has been slit in several places, brush with whole milk, and sprinkle with sugar.  Bake at 400 degrees about 45 minutes until bubbly.  Serve warm with vanilla ice cream.

Lorita

Don't forget dewberries!  Just as good but a little earlier to ripen.

We used to pick blackberries along the roads.  Before that daddy had a couple of rows of blackberries in the garden- much easier picking.

We used to have blackberries in the fence rows where I would pick.  You know to avoid getting those awful chiggers, you have to get out and pick the berries while dew is still on.  We sprayed the pastures and the spray killed the berry vines.  But, they began to grow in another pasture. The vines ran up into the trees and I had to reach up to pick them.  They were huge and so sweet.

You know blackberry vines can be very invasive.  They took over almost a third of that pasture.  We're now in the process of clearing it.  The berries had gotten much smaller.

I haven't picked berries in years.  Oklahoma has feral hogs and they love to sleep in berry thickets.  I never once in my life saw a snake while I was picking berties.

I can still remember how good grandma's and mother's cobblers were with fresh, sweet cream on top. Their cobblers had a bottom and top crust.  

Mother and grandma were both wonderful cooks.  No recipes, just a little of that and a pinch of this.  Wish I could cook like that.

Very good thread!

Jo C.

Thank you, M1; it sounds absolutely delicious.  One crust only it seems.  Love those old Betty Crocker recipes.  I have an old Betty Crocker Cookbook from 1958 which my Mom had; love some of those old recipes and how they were put together.

You made me smile; you are right about the turkey dressing.  In our extended family, mine was the dressing lauded by all. (Smile.) I had taken and melded some of my MILs and aunt's recipes and added my own bits.  I did everything from scratch and it was a lengthy process.  One of our sons who loves to cook asked for the recipe for his Thanksgiving dinner. Had to grin; he said, never again as it took far too much work and far too much time. He also said the same thing about my recipe for, "Farmer's Chowder," which is a ham, corn and potato chowder which I served with both homemade cornbread and popovers with butter, honey and cherry preserves.  He made it but said; never again, far, far too much work.  I used to get the worst forearm cramps from constant lengthy stirring of the roux and white sauce in a huge pot as it always had to serve a crowd.  Worth it when done though.

Sorry; once again, waxing nostalgic for things I am no longer doing and wish I were.

You sound like a marvelous cook; are there other things you have liked doing?

J.

Scooterr

BethL angel food cake and strawberries my gosh I love angel food, Jo C fresh bread,  butter and honey just reading about it makes me smile, M1 Thanks for sharing your recipe I'll have to try it now I got the berries and your right they freeze good. Lorita your sure right we have our share of feral hogs and them blackberries aren't good on pasture land at all. Oh yes the dewberries we have them too.

Mint

Have so enjoyed this thread.  My grandmas, my mom, my aunts were all wonderful cooks.  I have always enjoyed eating.  Thanks for sharing recipe.

Rescue mom

Lol Crushed, my mother was, by her own frequent admission, a terrible cook and basically not interested  in it at all. She worked outside the home, so I get it.  Nor were my grandmothers much into it, although one was known for her oyster dressing…..

My “old maid aunts” who stayed home, though, they COOKED! southern home cooking, meat-and-three every meal, several pickles, bread (cornbread and biscuits). Plenty of fat used, and churned their own butter from the cows they milked. 

 That was the rural old south, so tons of blackberries in season. Snakes and chiggers were just part of  the picking process. Snakes  crawled off, a dab of clear fingernail polish did in the chiggers.

But back to baking— I think the older cookbooks, from maybe 1950s to early 70s, are by far the best. They kept things simple. Seems like later, the “cooks” made things (and ingredients) a lot more complicated, and harder to execute, IMO. I was a pretty good cook, but baking? Not so much. The older, simpler cookbooks were what I needed!

jfkoc

Thank you for the delightful thread of lovely memories. No one in my family picked or cooked....Oh, wait. My grandmother made jelly from grapes growing in the side yard.

Stuck in the middle

I am told that my grandmothers picked wild grapes for jelly, but that was before my time.  I picked gooseberries as well as blackberries, but they were so sour I didn't like them much.  Picking gooseberries was a chore, not a pleasure.  I always suspected gooseberries were the inspiration for Al Capp's "trashberry presarves" in Li'l Abner.  They weren't very good, but the price was right.