One evening this summer, after dinner, we decided to pick some wineberries from the bushes in our backyard. This year was probably the best yield that we have seen. There were not a lot of wineberries where we grew up and we were much more accustomed to other berry crops. After moving to New Jersey, where wineberries are quite abundant, at least in this area, we soon began enjoying them.

The best tasting wineberries are fresh from the canes. Even after sitting over night, you notice a difference in taste. Don't worry about the odd looking insects crawling over them, the strange looking spots on them, the poison ivy that tends to grow in the same area, or the occasional snake sleeping under the plants. Just pick 'em and enjoy 'em.

Are wineberries a visual manifestation of the Lord's love for his children? You don't plant them, you don't cultivate them, you don't fertilize them, you don't water them. This wonderful gift is just there for you. All that is required is that you look for the gift and you will receive it.

For the record: Wineberries (Rubus phoenicolasius) are sticky sweet-sour members of the raspberry family. Shiny, unlike the opaque look of other raspberry varieties, they are rich in vitamin C, with electrolytes, perfect for keeping the body cool in hot weather and for avoiding heat related ailments. But, we eat them because they taste good! Wineberries came to America from Japan and China via the English colonists who cultivated them. Birds carried the seeds from their well-tended gardens and the bushes now run rampant in various areas. As the seed is cast across the countryside, can we call them, gifts from heaven?

Does anyone have some good recipes for using wineberries?

Contributed by Rosemary and Joseph
Published Sunday September 7, 2008
Week 41 of Liturgical Year A
Sunday Gospel reading: Lectionary 23 (Proper 18)
Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost