Vancouver may be the urban wild blackberry capital of the world. If we’ve had a hot, dry August (always our best month), the berries produced by this thorny coastal creeper are large, succulent, and plentiful — and, best of all, they’re free.
Straight from the vine, they can be tart. Fully sun-ripened and liter¬ally falling off the vine, they’re usually sweet. With good dollops of sugar, they’re indisputably delicious in jams, pies, or blackberry crumble.
You can find blackberries for the picking in a variety of places in Kitsilano, Westside, and South Vancouver. Look for them under the south end of the Burrard Street Bridge, near Vanier Park; west of English Bay along the Stanley Park seawall; and on the railway right¬of-way that runs beside Lamey’s Mill Road, directly south of Granville Island (watch out for the heritage streetcar). There are also bushes along the walking path just above the foreshore west of Kits Beach, reachable from the foot of Balsam Street or Trafalgar Street, though they may be picked over by the time you arrive.
The native blackberry (trailing blackberry, Rubus ursinus) loves logged areas, so you’ll find it growing on the higher slopes, often draped and twined over logs and rocks.
But blackberries also gravitate to the Fraser River. Everett Crowley Park (off Kerr Road above Southeast Marine Drive), in the southeast of the city, is apparently so overwhelmed by blackberry bushes that naturalists intent on reclaiming some space for other native species are tearing them out as fast as they can.
While we’re onto berries, you might look out for the ubiquitous dwarf huckleberry, a tart-yet-sweet pinkish-red berry that children, particularly on the North Shore, eat in copious quantities. And the dwarf blueberry (blame the latitude) also produces a sweet berry, par¬ticularly at the higher altitudes. Modest warning: all these sweets are equally appreciated by brown and black bears.
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