Oregon Blackberries

There are LOTS of berries that grow wild in Oregon. I have been out there several times in the spring and summer and was amazed at the variety. I am looking forward to the blackberry wine.

Ray

I live in Corvallis OR. We actually have three varieties of blackberries, as well as wild rasberries, thimbleberries and huckleberries depending where you are in the state.

One variety of blackberry is low growing and viney, it does not bear very heavily but the berries are (in my opinion) the best. It bears early, they've already pretty well come in. The other two varieties have different leaf shapes from each other but are otherwise similar, growing into the huge impenetrable thorny thickets that folks generally associate with blackberries. Around here they ripen late July through late Sept. I pick about 10 lbs every year and make a batch of blackberry wine (melomel actually, I use about 2.5 lbs honey and 2-3 lbs berries/gallon) and a batch of jelly.

Truth be told blackberries are regarded more as a pest than anything else and many folks (including me) devote a fair amount of their gardening time to the destruction of blackberry vines by any means possible. But there always seems to be enough left over to eat yourself sick and still have tons remaining for canning and winemaking.

--arne

P.S. - Did you stop by the Flying Dutchman winery at Devil's Punchbowl when you were on the coast? It's a tiny operation, with a couple or three small fermenters, a bunch of carboys and barrels in a room in the back that seems the size of a large closet, and sales in the front.

No, didn't go there. Just one of the many places I wanted to go but my other half was getting tired of wine related touring. I wish we had stopped and spent some time in and around Corvalis as it seemed like a nice place. Unfortunalely all we saw of Corvalis was driving through. I would love to have a modest house with about a half acre in that general area and have a good backyard vineyard.

Too bad. The "Punchbowl" itself is quite an impressive natural feature. It's a huge round hole with a cave that extends to the ocean. You can look down through the top as the waves come in the cave and then swirl round in the bowl, at least if you get there when the tide is in.

As far as growing grapes, if by "general area" you are willing to go out 30 miles or so then good agricultural-quality land in the 10-30 acre size, zoned for residential, can be bought for around $20,000/acre plus the cost of any buildings. Oregon has strict zoning laws, so in general you can't have a residence on agricultural property unless you are an honest-to-god farmer, but some property is grandfathered in as residential. Corvallis itself is a bit pricy, within 5 miles you can find lots in the 3-5 acre size at anywhere from $50,000 to $100,000/acre depending on the location (riverfront and view lots in the hills cost more). There are lots of lots (no pun intended ;-) in the 1-2 acre range, at all kinds of prices in the sme general range. I'm on a 1.5 acre lot, but it's mostly forested (and surrounded by forest) so grapes are kind of out of the question (but I have plenty of firewood in the winter...).

If you are really ambitious there is a whole winery south of town that may be on the market, or so I hear from a friend of the owner:

--arne