Dewberry season has arrived on the Gulf Coast! I get my dewberries along the CSX tracks but you can find them all over Mississippi right now. Here are a few dewberry facts and my super secret dewberry cobbler recipe! (Don't tell anyone)

Southern Dewberry

(Rubus Trivialis)
AKA: mûre de la haie (French), Ackerbeere (German), mora di rovo (Italian), zarzamora (Spanish), amora (Portuguese), korbær (Danish), blsbringbær (Norwegian), blshallon (Swedish), sinivatukka (Finnish), yezhevika (Russian), jezyna popielica (Polish), hamvas szeder (Hungarian)

Features/descriptions: Rounded stems, shiny leaves, leathery, evergreen on the Gulf Coast, 5 fan-compound, toothed leaflets, white flowers, and black fruit. Dewberries are among one of summer's food for all the birds. Mammals also eat the dewberry fruit, which is similar to the blackberry.

Uses: The fruit is commonly used for jellies, cold drinks, tea, and also salads.  

Medicinal Uses: Astringent; Febrifuge; Vermifuge. 
The plant has astringent properties. The juice of the plant has been used in the treatment of diarrhea and dysentery. An infusion of the fruits in warm water has been used as a vermifuge. An infusion of the roots has been used in the treatment of consumption, coughs and fevers.

Other Uses: The Biloxi Indians used the dewberry fruit to make purple to dull blue dyes.

Cultivation details: Easily grown in a good well-drained loamy soil in sun or semi-shade but it's most likely to be found along undeveloped roads or railroad tracks (where I get mine). The Southern Dewberry (Rubus trivialis) has biennial stems, it produces a number of new stems each year from the perennial rootstock, these stems fruit in their second year and then die. The plant produces apomictic flowers, these produce fruit and viable seed without fertilization, each seedling is a genetic copy of the parent. Dewberry plants are notably susceptible to honey fungus. 

Renick’s Super Duper Dewberry Cobbler Recipe
Serving Size: 8

Ingredients:
5 or so cups fresh dewberries
1 cup sugar, 4 tablespoons reserve sugar
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1 cup flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup milk (skim or soy ok)
1 cup butter (margarine or smart balance ok)
1 egg

Cook down the dewberries. In 2 quart saucepan place clean, drained dewberries ¾ way to top of pan. Hold back a few whole berries. Add lemon juice, cornstarch and 1 cup of the sugar. Over low to medium heat mash mixture so no dewberries are whole and mixture is liquid. Cook on medium-high heat to a slow rolling boil then simmer for 10 minutes.

At this point you could put the dewberries into a quart zip-lock bag and freeze them. I put up 12 quarts, one cobbler for each month.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Pour dewberries in ungreased casserole. Mix flour, baking powder, reserve sugar and salt in medium bowl. Stir in milk, margarine and egg. Beat until smooth.

This gets tricky. Pour batter evenly into dewberries. With a spoon stir two or so slow rotations so that some mixing occurs between the dewberries and batter. You can sprinkle the top with a few whole berries for effect. Bake 40-50 minutes or until the batter turns golden brown. Let stand 10 minutes to cool. It's best served warm with plain vanilla ice cream.

NOTE: My mother has reminded me to tell you to strain the seeds out of the dewberries. While I personally consider this a tragic waste of time, if you choose spend time pushing dewberry pulp through a screen you should know that you still need 4 cups of strained dewberry muck. Mom also says not to get it on your clothes.