Grow blackberries with the help of the pros

Whether you are growing blackberries in your own home garden or you are launching a berry farm, trusted blackberry suppliers can help you with high quality blackberry plants for sale. Blackberry plants can take a couple of years before they produce fruit so a wise investment on the front end can save you time. If words like aeration, drainage and the names of dozens of varieties of blackberries have you scratching your head, local blackberry growers from an agricultural extension can help you keep it simple and find out what will grow best in your area.

I recommend: Doyle's Thornless Blackberry, an Indiana blackberry grower, has many thornless varieties of blackberries to buy. Their site is also loaded with additional products and advice about what to do now that you've got your plants at home. United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) has an interactive application that will help you find a university extension office close to you. Most not only have a wide variety of step-by-step printed materials to help with your project, but they also often have master gardeners willing to  help.

Let a local blackberry grower do the work for you

In the past you and your family may have just headed out toward the country to pick berries, buy blackberries or find a pumpkin farm. But the recently revamped and renamed "agrotourism" can be a booming business and they are ready to sell their wares. If you don't want to hit the city limits and buying blackberries at your grocery store is out of the question, turn to a farmer's market.

I recommend: PickYourOwn.org is a site that promotes agrotourism for people who just want to pick their own blackberries, and also provides insight for people who want to start their own berry picking enterprise. Professional chefs started Chef 2 Chef, a website of the best and brightest farmer's markets in the nation.

Get out of a blackberry jam

When it comes to recipes with blackberries you don't have to resort to making jam or just sticking the berries in a dish with ice cream. Let your fingers do the clicking to open up a world of ideas for your blackberries. If you are a chef looking to expand your repertoire, there are dozens of ideas for you.

I recommend: 101 Cookbooks combines a talented photographer's work with her love of all recipes. 101 Cookbooks blackberry Rombauer Jam Cake recipe will take your blackberries to a new level. When life hands you a bag of mixed blackberries, from the ripe to the not-so-ripe, salvage your stash with a blackberry buckle from the Washington Times. Another collection from Oregon Fruit has everything from blackberry mojitos to blackberry and cream cheese empanadas.