blackberry picking

nodwah

heatherbelle wrote: »

I'm going to take the dogs for a walk into the country this week on my search for blackberries. However with being up near Glasgow I'm not sure they are going to be ready yet - anyone found any up here yet?

I don't know about the brambles but blaeberries are ready:D

notenoughcash

I'm in yorkshire and picked just under 1lb of blackberries earlier this evening which are now soaking in salt water ready to make a start on blackberry gin tomorrow (to give to family as christmas pressies as part of the free christmas challenge) There are still loads on the brambles just about to ripen so will be going again later in the week for another batch.

suzybloo

There are certainly none up here Heatherbelle, we are just outside Perth - probably another two weeks or so. Looking forward to making bramble and apple jelly, for the store cupboard. I also dont like the thought of the maggots - I pick over them two or three times.

skintscotslass

heatherbelle wrote: »

I'm going to take the dogs for a walk into the country this week on my search for blackberries. However with being up near Glasgow I'm not sure they are going to be ready yet - anyone found any up here yet?

I'm in Midlothian/Scottish Borders. Our raspberries are absolutely perfect at the moment. I dont expect brambles until September at the earliest.

gailey_2

I have spotted good cheap jards in ike that look perfect for £1 each so going to get them.

I got hubby to wash blackberries but now still bit worred he soaked them in boiling water with salt for 5mins then rinsed with cold water in colander is this not enough?

Should I soak for longer tommorow in hot salt water? I hate maggots.

Blackberry gin sounds intresting is therea recipie on another post?

2cats1kid

I don't know what the minimum time would be to get them out - I just know that I don't feel comfortable unless I leave them to soak for a while. I just do cold water though, rather than boiled - give them a chance to crawl out before I cook them LOL.

Gailey, someone on another thread was buying the cheapest possible jarred food and stashing the food in tubs and using the jars. When I looked at the Tesco website the cheapest I spotted was Tesco value pasta sauce at 23p. Would hold just under 1lb of jam, and you still get to use the sauce in something.

notenoughcash

Gailey, if you see second thread on this post it gives you a link to a blackberry gin recipe, or you can find more if you google it, but all pretty similar, basically just blackberries, sugar and gin. But you end up with about three times as much gin as you put in, so a big bottle of TV will make me 6 half bottles as christmas presents at a cost of just over £1 each.

lindadykes

paddy's_mum wrote: »

There is one simple reason for a good blackberry harvest, and the rule applies to all fruit trees, whether they be wild damsons, garden crab apples or orchard fruits. That reason is that there were no late frosts to damage the fertilised blossom. If you think about it, (certainly in this area) there were no real frosts after the end of April. Every hedgerow, orchard, wild rose bush, elderberry or bramble that I see this summer is groaning under the load of fruit it carries.

Having said that, and debunked a rural myth, what's the betting that we'll have a swine of a winter and then all the old hands will be able to say "told you so"!!

The blackberries aren't yet ripe here and tbh the harvest looks like it will be a poor one. I also checked out the sloe bushes today just so I could earmark the best areas for picking when the sloes ripen and most of the bushes had no sloes on!, in fact I only found one bush with just a few sloes on. We did however have a long winter here and in fact we still had snow falling in April and if I remember rightly there was a morning in late May when there was an overnight frost, so now I know why we seem to be looking forward to such a poor harvest. Still maybe it means we will have a mild winter!!

StressedSteph

Its weird, I live in Dorset and when I went to our local Bradfords building supplies their hedge next to the yard was plastered in ripe Blackberries. I did'nt like to pick them as I was worried about all the lorry fumes on them all the time :eek: . So I drove down the lanes near home and found quite a few blackberries but they are all still hard & green. Weird how the ones at the builders yard we ready and ones near my home are not?? Maybe the fumes ripen them. Hehe

There are also tonnes of Elderberries nearly ready near me. I missed them as Elderflowers, so will try to pick the berries and make a cordial for the kiddies.
Just got to get the timing right :beer:

Barneysmom

It is weird how some are ready and some still tight greens ones. It might be that some get full sun during the day?


I'm just going to start my jam - been soaking since yesterday afternoon, not a single grub, but hey all adds flavour :rotfl: :beer: