Wild Berry Picking in Santa Rosa, Sonoma County
July 15th through September 15th is prime time for picking wild blackberries in Santa Rosa and other nearby cities in Sonoma county. You can find wild blackberry vines just about anywhere you find water - even drainage ditches. My favorte blackberry bramble is at Howarth Park in Bennett Valley. Most of the vines that are easily accessible are around Spring Lake. You can pay to drive in close right by the swimming hole and snack stand area or you can park on Montgomery Drive just a few blocks east of Summerfield Road and walk about 100 feet to the paved trail that leads around the lake.
If you take your children to pick blackberries you will most likely need to sort through their berries before they are consumed. The berries that are ripe will be a little soft to the touch (or even mushy) and will come easily off the branch. The berry should be completely black. Bring wipes for purple sticky fingers and plastic bags or cups for holding your berry booty. Poison oak looks a lot like blackberry foliage and grows in similar shaded areas. in summer the poison ivy leaves are green and as the evenings get cooler in August they turn red; “leaves of three - leave them be”.
There will be lots of things to see; plan on about 2 hours for getting around Spring lake as you pick berries. There are lots of geese and ducks; If you would like to feed them, a trip to “The Wild Bird Store” for some cracked corn might be something to consider as you make plans for your day (see the map for store location). There are several scenic spots along the paved trail looking towards the lake for great picture-taking so don’t forget your camera.
After you have sorted through the berries and made sure they are all edible, you will need to rinse them. Do not rinse until just before you are ready to eat them. You will find the berries are very sensitive to pressure so handle gently. If you want to eat them at the lake, poke a few little holes in your plastic bag or cup and fill with water (don’t use lake water) and let the water drain out as you gently swirl the berries. On a hot day we like to take a handful of blackberries to use as a topping on ice cream or frozen yogurt. Our two favorite spots are on Mendocino Avenue close to the Santa Rosa College and High School. Rendez Vous Cafe is an interesting little shop that serves organic ice cream, located at 1810 Mendocino Avenue. Yogurt Farms is a very cute little shop that serves quite a variety of soft serve frozen yogurt; it is locate at 1223 Mendocino Avenue (see the map below for store locations).
For an easy baking project to share with your children, get ready-made puff pastry dough or circular sheets of pie crust dough - no rolling needed. You can get these at just about any store. In some stores it will be in the frozen section and in others it will be in the ready-made cookie dough refrigerated section.
With the puff pastry, cut sheets into squares a little over one inch wide. Next, brush with egg whites and plant a blackberry in the center. after baking for prescribed amount of time on the package, as your blackberry puffs are cooling, sprinkle with confectioner’s sugar.
For a pie or galette put one sheet of the circular pie dough sheets on a cookie sheet or in a pie tin. In the center, place your rinse, drained berries. If you do not have enough blackberries from your pickings, you can pull some blueberries out of the freezer and add those to your mix. Wild blackberries are loaded with antioxidants and even just a handful will add super powers to your galette or pie. I find the wild blackberries to be very sweet so I add very little sugar if any to the berries. After you have placed about 2 cups of berries in the center of the pie crust dough, fold the edges over one another as shown in the picture and bake as directed on the pie crust package. It takes about 25 minutes once you have the berries rinsed to the point of taking it out of the oven. It is especially delicious served warm with vanilla ice cream.
I was so anxious for berry season to start that I checked the vines often on my lake walks. The vines are beautiful in the early summer when they are covered with blossoms and young fruit. I shot lots of reference shots for possible paintings. the painting “Blackberry Pie Promise” is on 12 x 12 canvas. You can see this painting and more of my art for sale at HeideHibbard.com From October 17th through November 18th 2009 my painting will be part of a show “Imagine California” at the Kevin Milligan Gallery in Danville
Print out these maps to help you find your way for your berry picking day 
