When my father retired and moved to Paradise, Utah, he wanted to grow anything and everything. And he was pretty much successful in most of what he planted. The man had a green thumb! I especially remember the delicious fruit: cherries, apples, sand cherries, strawberries, peaches….

After I married and we moved to Tennessee, I wanted to do the same thing and plant as much as I could. I was able to try for that dream when we bought a house in Athens. First we planted grapes. They were supposed to be seedless, but that lasted only a year. Still they continued to grow and produce for almost fifteen years before the last vine died, making wonderful jelly. We planted two apple trees. One died the first year and the other one didn’t produce one solitary apple for the next ten years. Obviously I didn’t have the same ability as my father.

Then I planted several raspberry canes. They began producing the very next year and continued providing a case of jelly for the next decade. It was only a matter of beating the bugs and birds to the berries.

When we moved to Cleveland, there was no place to plant anything, but nearby were stands of wild blackberries and dewberries. Just in case you don’t know, a dewberry is a cousin of the blackberry. Dewberries have bigger globes, are a bit sweeter, and the vines tend to grow along the ground. Oh, and the thorns are much more vicious. To prepare for picking, I wore heavy jeans, long-sleeved shirts, a large billed cap, and garden gloves with the finger-tips cut off. (You try picking berries with gloved fingers!) Yes, even when it was in the 90’s! During all the years I did this, I only saw a snake once and he was traveling away faster than I was!

Visits to the patch usually began at the end of June and continued into August. By the time the season was over, I usually had six or seven gallon-bags of berries residing in my freezer. That’s where they stayed until Thanksgiving. At that time I got them out, juiced them, and made them into jelly. These were usually given out as Christmas presents to my co-workers and our friends. And don’t think we didn’t eat a few, too! Sadly, various illnesses put an end to berry picking and jelly making, but I still can taste those heavenly berries!

Susan Kite is a member of Author’s Guild of Tennessee and has five published books, with two more under contract. You can check out her books at https://www.amazon.com/default/e/B00J91G0ZU/ Her earlier stories reside on Archive of our Own under the username bookscape.