a great year for blackberries

Noted! ?

Greyduster, I have just tried the loaf and am rather disappointed. The orange zest overpowers everything else and doesn't seem to 'go' with A and B. I shall leave it out another time, although I must admit it was a large orange. Perhaps lemon would have been better.

shysal I will try your blackberry and apple loaf. We have had a good haul of blackberries so far this year. Talking of not picking them in certain locations, when we lived in Belgium, there was a lane going to a nearby village that had the biggest blackberries I have ever seen, but always covered in a film of grey dust, which I found out later drifted from the nearby cement works. I was told by a local lady that during the war, the Germans fitted filters to combat the dust problem. After the war, the Belgians took them off - because the Germans had fitted them! They had never troubled to put anything in their place unfortunately. We never ate the blackberries.

A neighbour brought me yet more blackberries and apples yesterday, so for a change I have a B & A loaf in the oven, which I shall share with her. I think it will be nice and moist, and I froze the berries first to prevent bleeding into the mixture.
www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/1967/blackberry-and-apple-loaf

I will swap Bramleys for plums and damsons - what's the postage on 10lbs of apples?

I forgot to say that I use the juice of a couple of lemons to cook the blackberries in before straining the juice.
Sorry if anyone made it and it wouldn't set.
M0nica's crab apple juice sounds like a good idea though if only I could find crab apples.

We planted just one blackberry bush a few years ago specifically to make apple and blackberry crumble which is DH's favourite. Its loaded with berries this year and the apple tree (only a dwarf one) is laden too. I think I might get sick of B & A crumble over the winter.

A good idea, blackberries need a few apples mixed in with them for a pie.I will send a few pounds of them through the post to you.?

Could we swap some of your apples for some of my blackberries and wimberries lemon?

Yes, apples are just the same!We were in the garden a few days ago, DH collecting apples, Bramleys which can get massive, and I kept pointing to this one huge one a bit higher up, saying 'that's the one I want!' I felt like Eve in the Garden Of Eden.?
He managed to get it for me, and thankfully no serpent appeared.Nor were we cast out.

Why are the biggest, juiciest berries always that little bit out of reach though? Just when you think you've gathered them all, you see that beautiful big bunch hanging just beyond your reach!

Ah, so it wasn't you that I saw Monica ?

I use crab apples as a basis for my bramble jelly.

The blackberries I gather do not come from beside a busy road, but they do come from beside a busy railway

Saw a woman gathering blackberries yesterday, a big basket full of them, but right by the side of a very busy road.I wouldn't fancy eating them at all.

I know it's a type of jam but I found that bramble jelly was much nicer than the jam with pips. Cook the blackberries in very little water, strain overnight through muslin (or a clean tea towel or pillowcase) then make as for jam using 1 lb of sugar for 1 pint of juice.
I know sugar is not supposed to be good for you but you don't need much of the jelly on toast and it is delicious.

Blackberry gin? I also mix blackberry with apple.

I have never seen so many blackberries so early this year. The blackberry season usually starts slowly at the beginning of August, builds up to a climax in September and tails off in early October.

I usually spend 10 or 14 minutes picking blackberries on my morning walk. I would have expected to have 4 or 5 lbs by now. In fact I have already got 12lbs in the freezer and will need to stop picking soon, but it is so hard to walk past a bush dripping with ripe blackberries and leave them all there.

What about a coulis or compote to go with a vanilla cheesecake or a chocolate torte? I am guessing you could just substitute the same weight of blackberries for other fruit.