blackberry picking

thriftlady_2

Ah yes I'd forgotten about all that hot dry weather in July (very short memory:o ) I wonder if it's affected my quinces too, they look OK but last year they had brown spots inside them.

Numptie

Strange that the blackberries are not ready down south as I have seen loads on my lunchtime walk along a cycle path in Edinburgh.

Ted_Hutchinson

Zziggi wrote:

I keep trying to give them away and nobody will take them!!! Nobody seems to want to peel and cook them I wish you MSEr lived closer - they'd be gone in a flash...

Yet another evening sat in front of the TV peeling apples with DH!!

I put a box outside with FREE PLEASE TAKE on the side and they disappear. When I came back from holiday my chicken sitters hadn't coped with the courgette glut but the large marrows soon disappeared when left in the box.

I do hope others will adopt the practice of giving away surplus fruit and veg. It's a shame to waste it and must really cut down on "Food Miles"

Why waste time peeling apples? You just need to wash and slice. It's not only much quicker but if the apples are home grown you know there isn't any pesticide/fungicide to worry about. You will also see from the research quoted below that many of the health benefits obtained from eating apples comes from eating the peel as well. So it isn't just time saving but health promoting.

apple nutrition research
The compounds most commonly found in apple peels consist of the procyanidins, catechin, epicatechin, chlorogenic acid, phloridzin, and the quercetin conjugates. In the apple flesh, there is some catechin, procyanidin, epicatechin, and phloridzin, but these compounds are found in much lower concentrations than in the peels. Quercetin conjugates are found exclusively in the peel of the apples. Chlorogenic acid tends to be higher in the flesh than in the peel URL="http://www.nutritionj.com/content/3/1/5#B47"]47[/URL.
Because the apple peels contain more antioxidant compounds, especially quercetin, apple peels may have higher antioxidant activity and higher bioactivity than the apple flesh. Research showed that apples without the peels had less antioxidant activity than apples with the peels. Apples with the peels were also better able to inhibit cancer cell proliferation when compared to apples without the peels URL="http://www.nutritionj.com/content/3/1/5#B32"]32[/URL. More recent work has shown that apple peels contain anywhere from two to six times (depending on the variety) more phenolic compounds than in the flesh, and two to three times more flavonoids in the peels when compared to the flesh. The antioxidant activity of these peels was also much greater, ranging from two to six times greater in the peels when compared to the flesh, depending on the variety of the apple URL="http://www.nutritionj.com/content/3/1/5#B31"]31[/URL. This work is supported by Leontowicz et al URL="http://www.nutritionj.com/content/3/1/5#B48"]48[/URL who found that rats consuming apple peels showed greater inhibition of lipid peroxidation and greater plasma antioxidant capacity when compared to rats fed apple flesh.

MoJo

We have an Old People's Home in the village and they let (somehow that sounds wrong to me, but...) the 'old folk' do some cooking (still sounds wrong, as if they were at school?)
are you still with me?
Well, they fell over themselves last year when I took some apples down and asked if they could use them - they even asked if I had any blackberries! I love old folk and I can't wait until I'm old enough to ask questions like that

(as an aside) I have this weird thing about Old Peoples Homes - I can't wait for the day when you pass one and hear Heavy Metal blasting out of the windows.....or maybe I'll be on the inside by then! :rotfl:

MIRRY_2

your pastry will be fine if when you place it in your dish, !!!!! the pastry all over and then place in the opven for about 10 mins.
then take out of the oven and place your stewed apples and blackberries in it and return to the oven.

---

Im in the south and weve had loads of blackberries by me ???

Debt_Free_Chick

MIRRY wrote:

!!!!! the pastry all over

Translation: stab the pastry with a fork

MoJo

Debt_Free_Chick wrote:

Translation: stab the pastry with a fork

:rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:

Thanks - I was wondering which swear word was supposed to go in there!

Snow_Angel

Pink-winged wrote:

Hi,

I'm making an apple and blackberry pie......but I have some raspberries to use up. Does anyone know if it would it ruin the taste of the pie if I threw them in too?

Pink

No way will it! ...... it'll be delicious I used to make crumble in my ski chalet for my guests and I always made it with apples and a bag of frozen mixed summer berries (fresh ones are a bit hard to come by in the Austrian mountains in January! :rotfl: )

MrsTinks

Ok so what do you do with blackberries when you have grown tired of eating them with cream on

I pick them almost compulsary when I walk the dog now they are ripening here where I live... they are nicely away from the roads so un-poluted.

The easier the better and the longer lasting without using my freezer (tiny) the better

or does someone near Bicester wanna do some swapsies with say apples and some veg :rotfl:

Coupon-mad

Here's one of several recent threads about blackberries. I also saw another good one the other week, with more recipes, you may find it if you search the forum for 'blackberries'.

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=247753

HTH