The readership of this blog seems to be packed with keen pickers of blackberries. I like the idea that you too have dark-stained fingers having come back from a visit to the hedgerows.
This weekend is moving towards the end of the blackberry picking season and the weather forecast isn’t great. I think that a combination of attending Chris Packham’s pop-up event at Euston Station tomorrow and family events on Sunday probably mean that our freezer won’t be further filled (although there isn’t much room anyway).
Here are some of the comments you made about picking blackberries:
[registration_form]Blackberry and apple pie plus cream (half-fat crème fraîche nowadays sadly) was one of the highlights of our annual holiday in Minehead when I was a boy some 65yr. back. Picked on North Hill by us and cooked by our lovely landlady!
My dogs used to enjoy blackberrying, though they were the low ones that most people avoid, above waist height I was advised by a golfer. Even the dog which was blind had no difficulty picking them off.
I think it’s a fantastic thing to do. I take my daughter every year, just as I was taken every year at her age. It’s a great way to get her outside and then get her in the kitchen cooking! The sad thing is I’ve had people stop us and ask what were doing and why we would do that. Yet another way people have lost touch with nature and the process of food ending up on a plate!
As a family we go blackberrying every year, usually several times, and use the blackberries to make jam, compote etc. My wife, who is Italian has a passion for foraging. I did this with my family as a child and remember it with great affection. I was pleased to see quite a few other people picking this year, more than I’ve noticed for some years, don’t know why. Pure chance I expect. As a family we get out quite a lot but more widely its a great and simple way way for people to connect with nature and the seasons and long may it continue.
I am surrounded by brambles, on our land and on the track. Some are enormous this year. My freezer is full of them. Blackberry crumble Christmas day and the dessert for any visitors. I picked blackberries with my grandma and I do the same with my grandsons. I also pick them for my hens as treats.
Nowt better than a blackberry and apple crumble – the taste of early autumn!
Blackberrying is part of my childhood. Except being Scottish we called it Brambling, with the fruit as well as the plant called brambles. Now in France, we still pick, as do others, though my impression is that even in a country where the ramassage is strong, brambles are lower in the picking order.
Always have empty container in car at this of year
They’re like little gems glistening in the autumn sunshine, nature’s bounty and a delicious Apple and Blackberry Tart.
I grow them myself and use them at breakfast or in a crumble for a sweet.
I have trained some wild blackberries from the hedge along the boundary of my veg garden, so I do not have to share them!! These days very few people seem to bother, but they have better flavour than the cultivated varieties I grow as well
It was finding insect larvae in them that put me off!
I think there are more wild fruits and nuts this year.
I seem to remember in Peter Clarke’s days there being notices up at Holme Bird Observatory to the effect that “The Blackberries are for the Birds”. In other words, “Leave them alone”!
Always enjoyable. One of the few activities which both we and our dog can participate in simutaneously. He loves them!