Blackberries

Moorhen

Today I have foraged my first crop of blackberries for the year. They were growing on a disused railway line that is my route home from work.
I usually freeze them and turn them into blackberry and apple crumbles during the year but I wondered if any of you have any other ideas for me.
Also, isn't it a bit early for blackberries?:)

[Deleted User]

We have two thornless bushes that span the 45ft width of our back fence and I've been picking for weeks now, it looks like being a bumper year too and we've been eating them as they are with yoghurt, popping some into the freezer and giving lots away and still the bushes are covered.

I make muffins, the American cake type with blackberries and chopped apple in them and they are very nice as are blackberry and white chocolate muffins. I also have a dehydrator and have very successfully dried whole blackberries to go into home made muesli in the winter, works really well. I tried blackberry chutney which was 'odd' to say the least because of all the pips but the taste was fine, not something I'd do again. Favourite is spiced blackberry and apple jelly which I make using windfalls from our cooker tree and we always open a jar on Christmas morning to remind ourselves that summer is coming again, yummy!

Petethespider

No blackberries here but a huge abundance of raspberries. Bumper crops this year

silver-oldie

BLACKBERRY CORDIAL

•750g ripe blackberries
•zest and juice of 1 lime, plus slices to serve
•350g granulated sugar


1
Place the blackberries and lime zest in a medium saucepan with 100ml water and cook over a very low heat for 10-12 minutes, stirring regularly, until the fruit collapses. Strain through a fine-mesh sieve into a jug, pushing gently to extract all the juice. Transfer the juice to a medium saucepan and add the sugar – you should have about 500ml juice, but if you have significantly more or less, bear in mind that you'll need 350g sugar for every 500ml of juice, so just adjust the quantities accordingly. Discard any seedy pulp left in the sieve (or keep it and sweeten it up with a little honey before stirring through a bowl of yogurt for breakfast).


2
Gently stir the blackberry juice and sugar mixture over a low heat until the sugar has completely dissolved, then increase the heat and bring just to the boil. Once it boils, immediately remove from the heat, then stir in the lime juice and pour the cordial in sterilised bottles.

3
To serve, dilute 1 part cordial with 5 parts chilled water in a jug. Pour over crushed ice with a slice of lime.

If you want your cordial to be clear, instead of sieving, let the fruit drip overnight through a jelly bag or muslin – don't push it through or it will become cloudy.

silver-oldie

[QUOTE=MrsLurcherwalker;72894667
I also have a dehydrator and have very successfully dried whole blackberries to go into home made muesli in the winter, works really well. QUOTE]

Have thought about buying a dehydrator but know nothing about them.
Wondered if you could recommend any?

DH is always eating the fruit out of the muesli and granola

We have an abundance of fruit and veg from the garden, I had been thinking of buying another freezer.

SIRENS

MrsLurcherwalker wrote: »

I make muffins, the American cake type with blackberries and chopped apple in them and they are very nice as are blackberry and white chocolate muffins. I also have a dehydrator and have very successfully dried whole blackberries to go into home made muesli in the winter, works really well. I tried blackberry chutney which was 'odd' to say the least because of all the pips but the taste was fine, not something I'd do again. Favourite is spiced blackberry and apple jelly which I make using windfalls from our cooker tree and we always open a jar on Christmas morning to remind ourselves that summer is coming again, yummy!

Oooh Mrs Lurcherwalker could you please point me in the direction of spiced blackberry and apple jelly it's sounds lovely. We are also inundated by blackberries although sadly not thornless bushes and they are putting up a fight!

[Deleted User]

SILVER OLDIE I have an EXCALIBUR 9 tray dehydrator, the girls clubbed together and got it for my combined Christmas and birthday present a few years ago, it's excellent and does a really efficient job of the dehydration, expensive but we grow enough to warrant having it. It replaced a 5 tray I'd had for a few years with iffy success in dehydrating various things which eventually melted!

SIRENS it's really simple to make the blackberry and apple jelly, put equal quantities of chopped apple (no need to peel or core, just wash and chop) and blackberries into a preserving pan/large saucepan with about 1 pint of water, add a cinnamon stick, half a dozen cloves and half a dozen allspice berries (for a large batch add 9 cloves and allspice berries) bring to the simmer, the berries will give lots of juice, and simmer until the apple is soft and all is cooked. Drip through a jelly bag overnight into a large bowl. In the morning measure the amount of juice you have and put that back into the preserving pan and bring it up to the simmer, add 1lb of sugar (granulated is fine) for each pint of juice you have in the pan and stir (keep stirring until the sugar has completely dissolved) and bring the pan up to the boil and simmer for between 15/25 minutes until you reach the setting point. I put a metal plate in the fridge and at 15 minutes take out a teaspoon of the preserve and pour it onto the plate then back into the fridge to cool, when the cooled jelly 'wrinkles' and forms a thin skin on top of the teaspoonful your jelly will set. Pot it up into hot jar, pop on the lids or waxed discs and cellophane covers and leave to cool. Will keep a good year until next season. Some people like to put in the juice of a couple of lemons to aid setting but I find that the apple peel has enough natural pectin in to set the jelly perfectly well.

Shropshirelass

I can also recommend blackberry and apple jelly as above.

We have lots of green blackberries here, just waiting for them to ripen.

coffeehound

Can you make wine from Blackberries?

[Deleted User]

Oh yes you can but make sure they're really properly ripe or you won't have the sugar content to make the alcohol, it's a lovely rich red!

elsien

If you do a search, I'm sure this question has come up before.

ETA - here's one. There are others.
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5644989