Foraging for Blackberries on Vancouver's North Shore

This time of year there are countless numbers of ripe blackberries growing wildly throughout the North Shore of Vancouver. They are so common place that you hardly notice them, and I would say about 90% of them fall off the bush after becoming over-ripened and remaining unharvested. You can simply pick them and eat them while going for a casual stroll or while you wait for the bus.

This weekend my family and I picked buckets of them just down the street from our home. Our little urban foraging adventure caused some curious looks from passers by, and we had great fun filling our plastic containers with these juicy and ripe berries. It was very rewarding to be this close to a food source, and to eat something not shipped thousands of kms from California. We made great blackberry muffins and other treats afterwards. It was gratifying eating something we had an immediate connection to in our own community.

Of course I failed to notice that we even had a few large blackberry bushes in our front yard. I do have a few valid excuses for this over site - we just moved to our house and new neighbourhood a few months ago, and we hardly use the front entrance. Anyways, my kids were ecstatic to note we had the same blackberries in our front yard, and we immediately scooped up more of these sweet treasures from outside of our house.

So here it is, so much abundance and beauty around me, and I failed to notice what was right outside my front door. This happens to me sometimes, such as my failure to notice the majestic North Shore Mountains, until some days they just seem to appear out of the mist and make their presence known. What a crime to neglect such beauty and such sources of abundant life. What else could I be missing?

My quest continues....