It’s the hedgerows that have been the culinary larder today. The potager has had to take a back seat whilst I’ve headed off through the long grass and brambles to harvest blackberries.
I’ve been spying the bramble fruit for a few weeks now but today was the day that I could finally swoop in and take my pick.
Here’s a few snaps of the brambles with their berries coming to fruition. There is plenty in the hedgerows along all our favourite basset walks.
I’m rather selfishly hoping that other dog walkers don’t like blackberries quite like I do. I’ve taken to carrying a small container and my gardening gloves so I can maximise the chances of getting the best fruit.
Here are today’s pickings from Tunnel Gully. Hmm, they were very tasty on my breakfast cereal!
Here in New Zealand brambles are considered to be a pest and subject to weed control by the Department of Conservation. This is because of it’s invasive nature that threatens the native habitats around New Zealand. When you see the proliferation in the forests, back country lanes and recreational areas it’s easy to see why it’s a worry.
But since brambles are a fact of life I’m afraid I’m going to snatch as many blackberries as I can from nature’s larder. It’s a darn sight cheaper than a punnet from the supermarket that costs around$4. And, frankly I think that they look better than the cultivated kind.
It’s OK, you can call me cheap. I don’t mind.
I’ll never forget how black my hands were after taking a ramble through the Oxfordshire countryside and eating lunch in the brambles! Sad to say, blackberries can’t survive Minnesota winters, but we do plant red and black raspberries, which I heartily recommend for your potager, Julie!
I used to send MT to the bottom of Mere Lane down from the house to fetch a bowl of blackberries for a crumble or pie. There is nothing quite like it!
As children in Cornwall we used to be sent out onto the moors to pick blackberries for dessert and would come back with purple stained mouths denying having eaten any at all. Blackberries with soft brown sugar and Carnation evaporated milk, mmm a taste from my childhood. In London there was a big thicket of blackberries on Wanstead Flats where we walked the dogs and I always got enough to make jam. Down here the summers are often too wet for the blackberries to ripen. I like the sound of black raspberries, never heard of them before.
Aren’t the memories great!
My childhood was filled with memories of blackberry picking and it was a delight to take the girls along the Basingstoke Canel, in Hampshire, with my folks and pick them. We returned home with big buckets and made up some delicious crumbles. Yummmmy!