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Black mulberry · Black raspberry · Black walnut · Sassafras
🗓 Season: June · July · August · September · October
🔍 When is it ripe?
Black mulberry: Deep purple-black when ripe; intensely flavoured and juicy. Spread a tarp and shake the tree — ripe fruits fall immediately. Stains everything permanently — wear old clothes. Do not pick unripe red berries (mildly hallucinogenic).
Black raspberry: Deep purple-black, duller than blackberries. Separates from the hollow core like a red raspberry. Richer, more intense flavour than red raspberry. Short season — harvest daily.
Black walnut: Harvest when the green husk turns yellow-green and the nut falls naturally or can be shaken loose. Wear gloves — the husk stains permanently. Remove husk immediately, then cure nuts in a cool, airy place for 2–3 weeks before cracking. Intensely flavoured.
Sassafras: Dark blue-black berries on red stalks. Edible but rarely used. The bark and roots (root beer flavour) contain safrole — regulated. Young leaves can be dried and ground as filé powder for gumbo.
The best spot to pick is actually on the property of a self-storage facility (A-Storage Depot), along the fence on the west side.
Ask the staff at the self-storage facility if they'll allow you to access the raspberry bushes, black walnut tree and mulberry tree from their side of the fence. There's also a sassafras tree tucked away on the canal side of the fence near the open field on the back of the self-storage facility's property.
It's much easier to access the fruit from inside the self-storage facility's property. If not, access is tricky with a steep slope, lots of undergrowth, and uneven ground. If you have to access from the canal side of the fence, be sure to wear good boots and gloves, and protect yourself from the poison ivy. There is debris from careless people as well on the canal side of the fence.
Also, mid-June you can enjoy the amazing fragrance of wisteria and honeysuckle blooming at the same time.
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