It’s Back Cap (Rubus occidentalis) season which means it’s also Huckleberry (Vaccinium parvifolium) season!

I found a brand new black cap patch this year. It’s much closer to home, like I can even cycle there with my kiddo woot!!

Black caps are a wonderful raspberry that’s one of the first plants to populate an area after its bee clearcut of its tree resource.

Black Caps, Thistle, Fireweed, Trailing Blackberry and many other plants all around while the young seedlings planted last year are just breaking through.

We’ve got about five years of harvesting before the seedlings start taking up too much of the water and sun. Maybe seven years. I got to watch how the clearcut transforms about a decade ago when year by year the black caps got less and less.

I’m not the only one out there in this patch either. I saw someone yesterday who actually had their car on the road through the clearcut. It’s a pretty big field and I’ve got probably another ten good days in the season.

What am I wasting my time with today other than picking these little nature candies?!?

Back in the day I used to make and sell wonderful wild crafted candies. Juice the caps and then boil the juice down with maple syrup into gummy candies. Then coated them with nettle powder.

Maybe I should get back into it now that I’ve found this patch.

Another treat in finding this place was the discovery of an ancient disk golf course in the woods there. I’d heard about it and it was awesome finding it. Not that I’ll ever play it mind you…. There no way I’m spending the day looking for discs in the woods LoL!!

But I’ll be spending lots of days picking this patch. Happy Summer!!!!