Urban Foraging

Around the corner from our apartment is a giant blackberry tree on the patio of a Mexican restaurant.  The branches hang over the sidewalk and falling berries have turned a few squares of pavement a lovely shade of purple.  Every time I walk by I think it's such a waste of delicious, beautiful berries.  

So yesterday I decided to do something about it.  And since I'm a bit too short to reach the branches, I dragged the Big Kahuna out with me.  He was a really good sport about it, though I think he was mildly embarrassed to be standing out on a street corner picking a tree bare as the neighborhood brunch-goers ambled by.  

The best berries were way up high out our reach, but we picked until our hands were died purple, and ended up with enough to make a berry crisp, which was my goal.  

I also had a basket of local farmer's market strawberries.  Red all the way through, and flavorful - the way strawberries are meant to be.  Not those sad, watery, white-in-the-middle supermarket strawberries.

I used both berries to make the Berry Coconut Crisp from Veganomicon.  It was delicious, and even more so because we had to work a bit for it.

Now I'm just going to have to pluck up the courage to ask the restaurant (and tree) owner if I can come back with a ladder and get the rest of the berries down.