Black bounty
Blackberry season is well underway this summer with Powell River’s roadsides, lake shores, fence lines and empty lots hung heavy with bunches of dark berries. Despite having a drier than usual spring, the berries this summer are particularly plump.
Expert pickers can been seen at their favourite berry picking spots around town, donning gloves, pruning loppers and their white four-litre plastic ice cream pails as the afternoon heat gives way to cooler evenings.
Despite its thorny bramble, what’s not to love about the humble blackberry?
The berries, because of their dark hue, offer one of the highest antioxidant levels of all fruit and the berry’s tannins, like red grapes, provide a number of health benefits including improved digestion through reduced intestinal inflammation.
Blackberries, a plant which botanists consider a weed and invasive species, were brought to BC’s south coast by European settlers. Two species of blackberries flourish in the warm coastal climate: the Himalayan and Evergreen. Both species spread quickly and can take over the edges of forested areas and fields.
For berry connoisseurs, though, the plant offers a sweet succulent black bounty which is cause for celebration every August. Anyone familiar with Ralph Waldo Emerson’s writing knows his often quoted words that weeds are just under-appreciated plants.
That is certainly not the case for Powell River though. For the past 20 years, during a week each August, the town has hosted a week of festivities to celebrate the fruit and bring the community out to enjoy the middle of summer on the Sunshine Coast.
This year’s Blackberry Festival running from Sunday, August 10 to Sunday, August 17, like the prolific vines of its namesake, seem to be growing even more. Events are planned throughout the week and include a blackberry-themed opening at the Open Air farmers’ market, the newly renamed Serving Olympics on Monday, Movie Under the Stars on Tuesday, the festival’s cornerstone Friday night annual street party on Marine Avenue with live entertainment and a fireworks display provided by Quality Foods. This year’s display will be choreographed to music that will be played for those watching at Willingdon Beach and also simulcasted over SunFM. Arts Alive in the Park which celebrates the work of our artists and musicians winds the jam-packed week up on Sunday. All that for a berry.
