There goes that sneaky time again, slipping by, invisible, but always seemingly picking up speed and surprising you with its rapid passage. July is gone and August is upon us. It is hard to believe it, but now is the time to start picking blueberries and blackberries.

So, berry lovers, scan the paper and find yourself a blueberry patch. I enjoy picking blueberries at Chapins up Rock Run. Great picking and inexpensive. This year the blueberries are good sized and most importantly, the bushes lack thorns. It is not painful at all and additionally, you don’t have to bend over like strawberries demand. If you plan to do your picking in the morning or late afternoon, you can even escape the sun and heat of the day.

When picking blueberries, it is important to look for the riper berries. They are much sweeter. Not every dark blue berry is necessarily sweet and here are a few tips I’ve discovered to lessen the number of tart berries you may pluck.

First, look for groups of dark berries with few of the small green berries surrounding them. If the majority of the berries are green, the odds are the berry is not fully ripened.

Second, riper berries are softer to the touch. A rock-hard berry will almost without exception be sour. So, develop a touch as you pick.

Third, the riper berries seem to develop a kind of white, dusty appearance, like a light coating of powder has been sprinkled on them. If there are a few berries appearing a touch shrunken, they are the sweetest of all. Berries on top of the bushes or more exposed to the sun ripen quickest.

I like to buy inexpensive plastic, quart food containers, pick the berries clean with no stems or leaves and simply put the lid on, popping them into the freezer when finished. No cleaning necessary. You can wash them, but the berries freeze together then instead of remaining separate.

Blackberries are one of my favorites, but require some scouting to find. The edges of roads, clear cuts, fields and power lines are excellent areas to find patches of these delectable berries, but alas, the patches only last a few years before trees and bushes crowd them out. You always seem to be on the hunt for new areas. Following are a few blackberry hints.

As mentioned before, blackberry bushes have thorns. I like to take a pair of gloves and just cut an inch or two off the fingers and thumb. This allows you to firmly grasp the berry while protecting fingers and hands.

Second, we always wear blue jeans or canvas pants to protect our legs as well as a long sleeve shirt. Every scratch you can dodge is a plus. Also, wear some type of boots on your feet. The footing is unsure, the thorns, holes, logs, rocks, etc, just waiting to strike. Protect your feet and ankles.

Third, pick your berries clean, no stems or leaves in your containers. This saves a ton of work at home when you are already tired, scratched and only wanting a refreshing shower.

Blackberry picking is best done with a gallon container with a bail or some type of handle. I use a metal gallon paint can with the rim cut out myself. My wife found a two gallon, aluminum jug, perhaps an old milk or cream container, at a garage sale with a handle. It is the most perfect container I have seen, but try and find another.

You need a handle for blackberries because you are constantly lifting up branches, bending over, standing on one leg, balancing on a log, stretching or twisting almost all the time. You don’t want to drop your container and spill those hard earned berries. Also, limbs and branches will be catching on your container as you pick and a handle really helps protect your pickings.

Since blackberries seem to accumulate more debris in the container than blueberries, we sort the debris out and freeze them in quart freezer bags. If you wish you can add a 1/2 cup of sugar to every quart to sweeten them up, just as you would strawberries. However, freezing the berries dry keeps them separate, not turning into a solid mass.

I can just about taste a delectable fresh blackberry pie as I write this or a delicious fresh blueberry cobbler. Any baker knows that crust is a lot of work and doesn’t always turn out as flakey and crisp as wished. A cobbler is essentially the pie filling put in a baking dish with a Bisquick top. Simple, easy to make and delicious. Supermarket crusts are good as well.

Well, grab your containers and get out there. Before you know it time will have slipped quietly by and you discover you have missed the season. Berry picking is a little work, but a great family tradition to establish if you haven’t already done so. I can remember Mom and Dad taking us berry picking from my earliest years. Sometimes we would build a fire and cook hamburgers or hotdogs in the woods which we, as kids, loved to do.

So, get away from the computer games, the TV and other distractions in life and get out and enjoy nature and the family; the fresh pie afterward isn’t bad either.