foraging and the unwelcome harvest

The sun is shining bright and the temps are rising...not unlike other parts of the country. But I remembered about all those juicy blackberries on the vine on my last bike ride. I had forgotten about them after I injured myself and hadn't been on a real ride in 3 weeks. Sadly, that season has passed but I gave it my best effort. I came across these two places on the way back from one of my foraging excursions. Someone's clothesline and really cool garden structure...and the other pic is of a large pond in someone's front yard, across the street from the other house.

I had seen this apple tree in a small, empty field. It is sandwiched between a new subdivision and an older one. Both are fenced and for whatever reason, this lone tree was secluded. I got really yummy apples from it last fall. This year they are falling off before they are ripe and they're not looking so hot. I was sad because I miss apples and was looking forward to these.

I collected the better looking ones for making vinegar. Crossing my fingers I can get it to work this time.

I also went in search of blueberries. Most are not ripe yet and when they are, the birds take off with them so I got a load of almost ripe ones. They are still really good.

This is my sad little picking of black berries. I was really looking forward to making black berry jam form them but there's not enough for one jar even.

In total, I got 2 lbs of apples, 1.5 ounces of blackberries and 1.5 lbs of blueberries.

My unwelcome harvest came from the blueberry picking...chigger bites.

So much better than last year. I had about 60-70 bites last year and only 20 this year which is making life much more bearable this go round. I can wear shoes and walk the dogs...it's not really hampering my daily life. They do get really swollen and itchy from time to time but it's not a constant. Thank goodness for small miracles. I am definitely counting my blessings on this one!