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My gardening skills this year have been pathetic. Very few tomatoes, an OK amount of zucchini (which is pathetic -who can't grow WAY more zucchini than they can use?), and a few small pumpkins will be it. But one thing that went reasonably well were these berry plants that I grew in small hanging planters.
I grew up in Kansas eating these berries a lot. I don't know what they are actually called though, and it's tough to describe their taste - they look like small blueberries but taste nothing like them.
My German grandmother called them (phonetic spelling alert) swaspidda.
I've gotten two small bowls of berries so far - this harvest was added to a loaf of zucchini bread (which came out stunningly wonderful). My mother sent me a bunch of the seeds a couple of years ago and this is the first year I've seriously tried to grow them here. I'm thinking next year they will get bigger pots and even more attention - I love fresh picked berries, especially from plants that aren't trying to maim you.
The grandkids have started school. Grandkid First Born (above) is in third grade (!) and Grandkid Second Born (below, eating chicken nuggets) is in first grade.
GFB told me about how she was one of the few successfully climb a flagpole at school yesterday. And she did it multiple times. Then she showed me how she can climb doorways. In a princess dress.
I have more than a little pity for her teacher.
That's it - move along…
4 comments:
Very interested in those swaspidda.. Got any more seeds lying aeound? Grandchild First Born looks riight at home with that burger.
P.S.
I thought, maybe your grandma was saying "schwarzBerren," or blackberry? I read that German Mennonites brought over a wild berry with that name. But yours look like a blueberry. What does the bush look like?
I too am fascinated by the berry, but I also love the g.dot and her fancy dress. Missing a dog or two and a cat in this post, however...
From what I can tell (thanks to Eirrac, not her real name), these are Black Nightshade. Depending on which site you look at on the internets, They are either deadly (Death Berries!) or a superfood that will save the world.
I've eaten them forever, so I have my doubts about deadly. And also about them being a superfood. I think they are just a different kind of berry that not everyone will like (they are classified as a weed). And yes - I have seeds, and if you plant them once, you will never get rid of them, so use care (that's why I put them in a planter).
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