My guess is Blackberries, but not the kind that you get e-mail on. They look like blackberries, and blackberries sure have thorns. Green when they first start, red when they're immature, black when they're ready. Might have little thingies between the berry parts. Taste OK, but seed-filled. http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&q=blackberries&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wi

Dan.

Blackberries. I have some growing with my raspberries so I am pretty sure. They are the earliset to bloom and the last to become ripe so, a pain in the neck. And yes, the thorns are vicious.
But hey, if you can have them for free so to speak, go for it (before the birds do).
A good way to use them is: pick berries, put in food processor, whirl into mush and strain through cheesecloth. Heat berry juice and sugar to taste to make a syrup, chill and pour over ice cream! You won't regret it.

They are indeed blackberries. The fruit tastes good, but you'll regret it if you don't get them torn out of the ground now. They spread. If blackberries have a truth, it's "they spread'.

Blackberries. Not to snicker or anything, but how come you don't know what blackberries look like?

Anyway - wait until they're black and then pick them. Tip: when you pluck a berry, check that the bit where it was attached to the briar is white (should look like a little white circle). If it's discoloured, throw the berry away (my father told us this when we were kids gorging on the wild blackberries).

Do a tick check.

Trust me.

You are kidding, right? Otherwise you must be a 100% city boy.

Those are raspberries (with maybee the odd blackberry), have them wild in the back corner of my yard. It is a fight to see whethere we get to harvest them and pour thick cream over same and eat (yum!) or if the birds get to them first.

Sadly, it is usually the critters that benefit, though when my kids were in the 4 to 7 age wincow they did give the wildlife a run for their money.

They're blackberries. It's true that they spread rapidly, but since they colonize disturbed land or areas on the margins of woods, they'll also tend to exhaust themselves over a period of several years as new species take over, without your having to do anything. Just enjoy the fruit--few things enhance a childhood like picking wild berries and making a cobbler with them.

Before I even read the post, I saw the picture and went, "Hey, blackberries!" Raspberries, indeed, Terrapod. Raspies are a matte finish, have a velvetiness to them, blackberries have that lustrous sheen. Here in Oregon, they're considered noxious weeds in many places because yes, Virginai, they DO spread. They're delicious. Blackberry jam (freezer jam is the best), syrup, frozen blackberries for use later in/on pancakes and waffles, syrup over ice cream, pies, but the best way to use them, if you get them a bit before they're ripe, while they're still firm, is cobbler. Mmmm.... cobbler... I don't know a northwesterner who didn't grow up with the stuff.

Blackberries it is. I went out and sampled some after posting the pic. As for raspies, lawd knows I've got plenty of them as well, so I definitely know the difference.

And for those of you scratching your heads as to why I didn't know that alreay, remember that I grew up in South Texas where one simply didn't have this sort of thing growing about the place.

Easy cobbler: ready-made pie crust, laid flat on counter, rolled about 10" round. Mound a couple of pints of blackberries in the center. Dot with 2 T. butter and add sugar to taste. (Won't take much.) Draw up the edges of the crust and pinch together to seal. [Tricky part] Lift and flop the whole package sealed side down in an ovenproof dish with sides at least 1 1/2" high. Pour hot water around the mound about an inch high. Bake at 350 until the crust is gently brown. Serve forth with vanilla ice cream. Makes its own gravy...Yum.

My favorite recipe for cobbler is beloved because it has memories attached -- My father made the most awesome baking powder biscuits, and we'd use that dough as the crust for the blackberries. We'd add a little bit of sugar, and a bit of cornstarch, just to prevent the juices of the berries from taking over completely.

The above recipe sounds easy and delish, too, but it brings up an interesting point. Where I grew up, cobblers don't have bottom crusts -- that's the point of a pie. A cobbler, at least in my family, was always like a dessert casserole -- fruiton the bottom, pastry on top.

Robert wrote: "remember that I grew up in South Texas where one simply didn't have this sort of thing growing about the place."

Now Texas is a BIG state and all, but in the parts I live in, we have wild blackberries (sometimes called "dewberries") all over.

I immediately thought "blackberries!" but then "no way 'cause Robert would have nailed that...must be something exotic". That's how much I respect your gardening prowess.

By the way, thanks for turning me on to "Hollytone"--it really perked up my evergreens this year.