The blackberry harvest

ceridwen

sweetserendipity wrote: »

I'm in the North East of England & we have bramble bushes near to us but when I went to get some the other day (having seen that they were ready a couple of days beforehand), most of them had already gone

Oh well.....I'm not the only one then wondering why others have taken "my share" - as well as their "own". Annoying - aint it?:cool:

sweetserendipity

ceridwen wrote: »

Oh well.....I'm not the only one then wondering why others have taken "my share" - as well as their "own". Annoying - aint it?:cool:

Yep, it is. To be fair, 'my' brambles are on a well-used dog-walking path (don't worry, I only pick brambles above a certain height!!) so lots of people will have seen them but they could have left some for me!! I managed to pick a crumble's worth of them so it wasn't a total disaster!!
Just have to keep a sneaky eye on those greengages now!!

sweetserendipity

MRSMCAWBER wrote: »

Afternoon all

we have just been back to our trusty bush (that no-one else seems to be interested in :j) and gathered another 2lb in minutes -so thats 5.5lb frozen in 1/2lb bags and the 20 portions of blackberry grater cake -and Im reckoning there will be more to be had by Monday -when hubby has to go on camp anyway

I'm not jealous!! I'm not jealous!!

Btw, what is blackberry grater cake?? I'm intrigued (& hungry!!)

Patchwork_Quilt

PinkPeach wrote: »

Shame my crumble topping never seems to work out properly though :rolleyes:

I use butter, rather than marge, and rub 2 oz into 4 oz flour. When it's got to the breadcrumb stage, add a tablespoon or two of sugar, depending on taste, and a handful of oats. Stir in. Spread loosely over the top of the fruit and bake in a fairly hot oven (Gas 5 or 170 C fan) until golden brown

Patchwork_Quilt

wanna-save-more wrote: »

I've just got back from blackberry picking...there were loads:j
ummm ,,,,,,now what to do with them all??

I only ever make blackberry & apple crumble :rolleyes:
Would love to try something different and be more adventurous

Any other tried and tested recipes out there? chutneys,jams,etc

Blackberry jam - wash fruit and put in a deep pan. Warm very gently until the juice comes out and the fruit begins to stew. Stir in the same amount of sugar and a knob of butter to prevent foaming. Put a plate in the fridge. Bring the jam to a rolling boil ie one that cannot be stirred down. This is why you need a deep pan. Every so often, get the plate out of the fridge and put a small drop of jam on it. As it cools, the jam will either remain liquid or will become wrinkly when you push your finger against it. This is the setting point. Take jam off the heat and pot into sterilised jars. A jam funnel is useful for this as jam is extremely dangerous when hot. However, you usually don't have to boil too long as blackberries have a decent amount of pectin in them.

Why not try with just 1 lb of fruit at first?

Good luck

TravellingAbuela

BLACKBERRY CHUTNEY

3 lb Blackberries
1 1/2 lb Cooking Apples
12 oz onions
1 pint White Vinegar
2 tsp Ground Ginger
1 tsp Ground Mace
1 tsp Dry Mustard
1 lb Sugar
1 tbs Salt

Put blackberries, chopped apples and chopped onion in a large pan with the vinegar and spices. Bring to the boil and simmer gently until the onion is really soft, stirring occasionally. Add the sugar and salt and stir until dissolved. Return to the boil and cook gently until thick, stirring occasionally. Pot into warm jars and cover.

Makes a good 4 lb - delicious with fish and poultry.

dizzybuff

Just wondering if any one is in the stockport area , and if anyone knows of any good piccking places.

Bangerchick

We have quite a lot of blackberries in our garden and hubby and the kids pick them. Last year we made jam, this year we're going to grab the (unwanted) pears from next years tree and make blackberry & pear jam or jelly - not sure which one yet.

I'd agree that the crop is very good this year, with some massive juicy blackberries amongst the more naormal sized ones.

MRSMCAWBER

Here you go Sweetserendipity

I posted the grater cake recipe on here :- post 497
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1845003&page=25

the thing with "leaving enough for others" is that blackberries seem to have a very fine line between where they are ripe and lovely and where they are mushy and explode when you pick them (ask hubby he gets lovely purple fingers:rotfl:) -so even if you deliberately leave some on for others -chances are they will drop off or be over ripe by the time the next person appears
I think we are the only ones bothered with the bush we have found on camp .. we get some strange looks as we pick them -but we don't care:D

thepearce

Just back from Langstone Harbour (Portsmouth). Don't know the weight...just happy there was something there. I'm attempting to freeze them as Mrs thepearce is in charge of eating them.