BlackBerry picking summary
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The speaker, looking back in time, describes a period in late August when, if there was enough heavy rain and sunshine, blackberries would ripen over a single one-week period. One would ripen first, before the others, resembling a shiny purple clump, contrasting with those that weren't yet ripe and still remained red, green, and very firm. The speaker addresses "you" (this could be the reader, the speaker, or an unspecified individual from the speaker's life). This "you" ate that first blackberry and it was sweet like wine that has started to ferment and thicken. The blackberry juice was like the essence of summer. The dark juice left stains on the tongues of those who ate the berries and the taste inspired a strong urge to pick more berries. The previously unripe red berries then also became ripe, gaining a dark color like ink.
The blackberry pickers, eager for more, went outside with their various containers for picking and into the prickly blackberry bushes, which scratched them while the wet grass left marks on their boots. The pickers crossed hayfields, cornfields, and potato drills (shallow ditches for growing potatoes). Throughout this journey, they picked berries until their containers were full and the bottom of each can, which made a tinkling sound when the blackberries dropped into it at first, was covered. They first picked the green, unripe blackberries, which sat at the bottom, and then the darker, riper berries. These darker ones remained on top and the speaker compares them to a plate of staring eyes. When they were done, the blackberry pickers' hands would be sprinkled with pricks of thorns from the blackberry bush
briars and their palms would be sticky with blackberry juice. The speaker compares their sticky hands to those of Bluebeard (a fictional character known for murdering his wives).
The pickers stockpiled and saved the fresh berries in a barn, inside a bathtub, which they filled to the brim with berries. But then they discovered fuzzy gray mold taking over their valuable collection of blackberries. The blackberry juice would stink with the odor of fermentation and rot. After they had been picked, the berries would spoil and become sour. The loss of the berries always made the speaker want to cry, because it seemed unfair that the containers full of juicy, ripe berries ended up stinking and rotting. Every year, the speaker hoped the blackberries would stay fresh, even though they knew this was not possible.
Answer:
Mark Arna as BRAINLIST ☜ (↼_↼)
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