Blackberries are one of the few signs of a divine, all loving, omnipotent God. Take that!

UW is hiring goats to come get rid of their blackberries. I haven't seem them in action yet, but I want to.

Yay blackberries!

Yay goats!

Ever since I've been wary of blackberries... yes I know it's a work of fiction, but the thought of puking myself to death creeps me out.

"along with pit bulls, smoking in cars carrying kids, dogs in restaurants, comments from trolls, trolling for comments, and, of course, cripples on buses."

..all this is missing is whiskers on kittens.

Dan's right. They suck. Stay away from them.

The word category pesticides includes herbicides, plant growth regulators, seed germination inhibitors, insecticides, arachnicides, rodenticides, fungicides, and anything else intended to kill or interfere with the life cycle of pest organisims.

Pest organisms is a category which may include an invasive weed.

I agree that only an idiot would consider spraying a bunch of poison into the world to be the best idea for any of those problems. But it is commonly done nonetheless.

Figs are fantastic if eaten right off the tree. Nothing is better.

Okay, Dan, please balance this out with what you actually LIKE. Aside from musicals, which I generally hate.

sidenote: Sian Phillips IS a Goddess...

BLEEEEEEEEH!!!!!

I might have to wait until I return home to the Hill to actually find it though. :(

And about the UW's goats... it's so wierd. I came to campus this week, bright and early, and as I walk out of the trees I see a small electric fence. Odd. Then I get closer and see a pile-o-goat sitting in the service entrance to the Hospital Parking garage. Yet odder. They're still there today... munching away at ivy, blackberry, and other greenery. Baby goats, old goats, and everything in between.

Also, I love the term cripple. One of my favorite moments from South Park is the cripple fight between Timmy and that other cripple (I forget his name)...

Why is it that blackberries are common weeds here, but not raspberries or other types of berries? What is it about raspberries that's different than blackberries other than taste and color? And why aren't they just as invasive as blackberries?

Is that a good thing or a bad thing?

I love fresh berries picked ripe off the non-native invasive weed.

I grew up in Sydney, Australia where blackberries grow everywhere. My Mum loved gardens but hated gardening and generally lived in abject terror of nature. She ultimately got her way with a huge rockery garden complete with waterfall, pond and fountain.

And, as you might expect, being the eldest son in an Irish Catholic family the task of looking after the garden fell to me.

Did you know that blackberries love rockeries? They grew everywhere - under every rock, and entwined in every plant and tree. I’m not talking about the fluffy-bunny, touchy-feely, bountiful fruit kind you see here in the North-west… oh no. I’m talking about the enormous flesh-gouging and blood-feasting kind with long arching wrist-thick stalks and tiny mean berries.

The kind that you cut back and pull out with blood covered arms on a Sunday and have grown back before the wounds they inflicted have even scabbed over to begin healing. They grew with the unnatural vigor that only comes through unholy compacts with dark powers. Yes, I hates them precioussss.

Even though they are evil to their tiny diamond hard tooth-destroying seeds, He Who Must Be Obeyed (my guy) loves them. For his recent birthday I made him a Spice Cake with Blackberry filling and Cream Cheese Frosting which got pretty good reviews.

Yet with every bite there was this uneasy feeling and the slight metallic tang of my own blood on my tongue.

~GC

P.s. If you decide to make the cake, I recommend making two batches to get enough height and I used 2 nine inch pans for each batch to avoid cutting. I also cut down the confectioners’ sugar in the frosting by one cup (to 4 cups – Christ in a coma!)

http://dnr.metrokc.gov/wlr/pi/go-native/PlantDisplay.aspx?PlantID=77

also sucking ass are the cut-leaf variety. bitter & seedy.

there are hardly any native vines growing wild.

We remove comments that are off topic, threatening, or commercial in nature, and we do not allow sock-puppetry (impersonating someone else)—or any kind of puppetry, for that matter. We never censor comments based on ideology.

How am I going to get breakfast and dinner walking to and from work now?

Just frickin great ...

Never have I disagreed with you about something so vehemently--blackberries are amazing. But it warms my heart to see the I, Claudius reference.

Yeah, I would be skepitcal of eating anything picked off a very public bush.