I’m sure you have had fun picking strawberries and blackberries. Maybe in your own strawberry patch or finding a blackberry patch beside a farmer’s dirt road. Where is nothing better than blackberry cobbler with vanilla ice cream. YUM!
Summer vacation was always a trip to see our grandparents in Missouri. I remember walking through the kitchen door and smelling homemade bread just out of the oven. There was also more bread rising on the kitchen counter. Homemade blackberry jam on homemade bread with homemade butter was always a special treat at grandmother’s home. Another YUM! Grandmother loved sharing her special treats including gooseberry pie. The only place I ever had such a delicious pie.
The following is a poem by my friend Clayton Brewer, a member of West Park Baptist Church, Knoxville, TN.
Picking Blackberries
Children walked through the fields with buckets on their arms,
Some had come from neighboring farms;
Patches of berry plants they all did look,
Reminding one of a story from a book.
Each bucket with plump berries they did rapidly fill,
Then they walked to the bottom of the hill;
Their mother washed the berries they did pick,
She did not want anyone to be sick;
Jelly would be made from the berry juice,
Seeds might be fed to the family’s pet goose.
Mom might change her recipe and make jam,
Into the closet, jars she would cram;
They would be opened as food the family did need,
Blackberry jam or jelly is a treat indeed.
There are many ways to count our blessings. God’s abundant bounty of fruit, to give us sweet treats and special memories is a blessing.
Count your blessings name them one by one;
Count your blessings see what God hath done;
Count your blessings name them one by one,
Count your many blessings see what God hath done.
Submitted By:
Pam Jackson
Knoxville, TN