Blackberrying

I used to make sloe gin every year but there haven’t been any decent sloes for a long time in our lanes. There’s some evidence that this year might be different, but in the meantime I’m relying on SipSmith!

The blackberries have ripened early here in South Yorkshire. We picked 2.5kg this week and made 12 jars of jam. We usually pick them in September.

I've been picking some beauties so sweet and full of juice. I have them on a merginue nest with some fresh cream.....delicious 😋 👌

DH loved them, but I must be the only person in the world who doesn’t like blackberries.
greyduster, if you can get them, damsons make a good substitute for sloes in gin.

Mattie there used to be a largish damson tree in a hedgerow bordering the main road here but the council chopped it down. I suppose all the fallen fruit constituted a pedestrian hazard. Shame though; it would have been dripping about now.

GrandMattie, I don't like them either! Mum's bramble jelly was lovely, I'm assured by recipients of it, but I never ate it.
That didn't get me out of picking the blooming things when I was younger

BlackBerry and apple pie or crumble with custard - lovely and takes me back to my childhood and my time as a young Mum. I can’t remember the last time I made a pie as DH is type 2 diabetic and suffers from acid reflux and pastry is a no no for him.

We were out yesterday evening picking, and now its jam making today.

I'm on south coast. Just been out to buy some cooking apples to go with the blackberries I picked this morning

The blackberries around us have been fantastic this year, in one particular very long hedgerow there have been so many it's been easy picking. What has surprised me though is that dh and I seem to be the only ones taking them. Makes us feel like the eccentric old folk of the village! (Oh hang on, I think that's probably been the case for a while...) I like them with greek yoghurt and I've frozen loads of them as well.

There are enough locally to ferment a whole cellar full of wine

We used to make a very good blackberry wine. I was telling a friend yesterday that I discovered, in my garage last week, a demijohn of elderberry wine that had come with us when we moved house - thirteen years ago, and we stopped making wine some time before that. I can’t remember why DH didn’t bottle it and thought he had tipped it down the drain, but it seems not, and the removal men, on emptying the last garage merely brought it along and put it in this one where it has stayed since. My friend said I shouldn’t open it and drink some! It is coated with a thick layer of dust like something out of the cellar of an ancient chateau so maybe I should send it to be auctioned off at Sotheby’s! If that doesn’t work, I’ll pour it down the drain😂! I don’t think she had me down as the faint hearted type!

Have you not been tempted to even sniff it? 😅

Er, no!

I remember us disposing of some vintage ancient homemade wine in our backyard, cautiously equipped with goggles and thick rubber gloves as we were sure it would explode everywhere when we took the corks out.

It did.

The best ones are over here, West London.The ones on the brambles now are mostly small and dry looking . The sloes are dropping from the trees as are the damsons. It seems to get earlier every year.

I've just picked a load in Berkshire. Gorgeous and sweet. Also got given a load of damsons so made crumbles & froze the left overs. I can't find Bramley apples in the supermarkets round west London so used Granny Smiths. I've got a bottle of blackberry gin given as a present, it's very nice, potent!

Maggiemaybe

I remember us disposing of some vintage ancient homemade wine in our backyard, cautiously equipped with goggles and thick rubber gloves as we were sure it would explode everywhere when we took the corks out.

It did.

We have some home-made elderberry wine in the garage- must be over 25 years old!

No-one dares try it.

My mum used to send us out for the day, armed with Tupperware boxes and a picnic, and pay us sixpence for each box. I’m sure she just wanted some peace!

When I was a child, we lived next door to a big field with brambles at the bottom. Our mother just used to send us out to pick our supper: blackberries and milk. with some rock buns if we were lucky, bread and marge otherwise.

Allira

Maggiemaybe

I remember us disposing of some vintage ancient homemade wine in our backyard, cautiously equipped with goggles and thick rubber gloves as we were sure it would explode everywhere when we took the corks out.

It did.

We have some home-made elderberry wine in the garage- must be over 25 years old!

No-one dares try it.

Ah, but dare you open it, Allira?

I've got an awful feeling there's more of the stuff lurking at the back of the coal cellar. It's unlabelled, so goodness only knows what went into it.

I rest my case!😂

Maggiemaybe

Allira

Maggiemaybe

I remember us disposing of some vintage ancient homemade wine in our backyard, cautiously equipped with goggles and thick rubber gloves as we were sure it would explode everywhere when we took the corks out.

It did.

We have some home-made elderberry wine in the garage- must be over 25 years old!

No-one dares try it.

Ah, but dare you open it, Allira?

I've got an awful feeling there's more of the stuff lurking at the back of the coal cellar. It's unlabelled, so goodness only knows what went into it.

Not me!

DH opened one about ten years ago, I had a sip, it was like sherry. He shared it with a neighbour, I went to bed and could hear them laughing away in the garden!

I used to pick pounds of them in London but having recently moved to the outskirts of Leighton Buzzard I've yet to locate any nearby on my walks 😥

I love them, MrJ not bothered, daughter found a maggot one year picking, so won’t touch them.
Blackberry vodka it is then!