There is a blackberry cache across the road and over the rusty barbed fence, just to the left of the “No Trespassing” sign. The lot across the way has been abandoned for quite some time. Medium-sized trees are growing right next to the foundation of the home that once housed a small farm family. No windows remain and the structure is probably somewhat dangerous. But the old house is not why we ventured across the road. Blackberries and Anne’s wild plum tree brought us over.
“I’ve adopted a tree!” Anne announced as she made her way into our house last weekend. She had been gone for over and hour and returned with another container full of blackberries.
“That’s nice,” I said picking a few juicy plump berries from her bucket.
“You want to see it?” She asked.
“Nah, I’m busy.”Â
This reply never seems to work the way I plan. So we venture across the street with pruners and berry containers and the camera. Jake and Buddy follow – they have learned to pick berries too. Jake is very gentle while Buddy tends to strip the entire branch and later hacks up the thorns and leaves and probably the berries too.
Anne’s tree is the first stop. It’s small, but likely old for a wild plum. Anne trims the dead wood and shapes it up a bit. The fruits are small and only starting to ripen. But in a couple weeks, I’m learning to make plum pudding.
There are plums in plum pudding, right?
