All plants /Vine /Dewberry
Dewberry
Rubus trivialis, rose family. Abundant in East and Central Texas.
At a glance
- What
- Black berries; leaves for tea
- How
- Raw by the handful, cobbler, jam
- When
- April to early June
- Where
- Sunny ditches, fence rows, old fields
- Value
- Sugars, vitamin C, fiber
Caution: Low trailing canes are thorny, and so are the chiggers that share the patch. Tuck pant legs in and wash up after.
Harvesting
Dewberries run along the ground, not up canes like blackberries, and ripen weeks earlier. Pick dead-black fruit that pulls free without a tug; red ones will only teach you patience.
In the kitchen
The first quart rarely makes it home. Those that do want a cobbler, or a jam loose enough to remember the fruit.
Photo: gailhampshire from Cradley, Malvern, U.K, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
Forages well with
Forage safely. Never eat a wild plant on this site's word alone. Confirm identity with several sources, learn the look-alikes, and when in doubt, leave it in the ground.