Saturday 12 June 2010

Ripe Blackberries....


We've been in The Larches for almost a year. Walking the hedges, I'm excited to see the blackberries forming. If I manage to pick even a percentage of them, I'll need a new freezer!

Our life has completely changed since last I picked blackberries...[imagine harp music up and down the scales and your vision blurred into wiggly lines....yes, it's a flashback!]

....2009..Blackberry picking time in Oxfordshire:

Our cottage garden was productive, with a veg plot, herbaceous borders and a tiny pond. We only had room for a few soft fruits; raspberries and blueberries and our big old walnut tree precluded us from fruit trees.

Blackberry season was a time for foraging; my secret location was a park and ride car park just outside Oxford City. Hundreds of people parked and passed by the largest juiciest fruits every day. They kindly left them for me to pick and I picked tons. Now some might say, that these blackberries may have been tainted with the fumes from the cars. They may have been, but they were the best I could find and it would have been a shame to ignore them....free food indeed.

One day I was merrily picking, my third visit that week, when I noticed a burly security guard ambling toward me. I presumed I was infringing some rule about the park and ride car park, i.e. that I was supposed to park and then ride, not park and pick!

'Sorry,' I called, before he'd quite reached me. 'I'm picking all your blackberries.'

He stood beside me as I continued to pick.

'I saw you on the cameras,' he said. 'You've been here before.'

He was about 35yo, his accent possibly from London. He stared at the black fruits I was picking as I popped them into my pot. Some were so ripe they burst, sweet juice staining my fingers. His face screwed up, into the kind of face you get if you suck a lemon.....

'How d'ya know if they're ripe?'

Gosh.

'Well, they're black.' I said. 'And really sweet...Here taste one.'

He recoiled.

'Urghhh, no thanks. I only eat stuff from a supermarket me! And I only like it washed and wrapped in plastic, then I know it's clean.'

Good point!

He left me to forage....clearly thinking I was deranged. Still, more for me! I didn't have to share my crop.

It worries me that we are ignoring readily available produce. My garden is filled with ground elder, cow parsley, nettles, jack-by-the-hedge. All plants we've forgotten how to cook. I've got a new book: Food for Free a Collins gem. I'm determined to eat my way through the garden and hedgerows...safely!

This year my family can be sure of fume free blackberries, apples, pears, sloes, damsons, cherries.....and so much more. I count my blessings and my vitamins...not a cellophane wrapper in sight.

20 comments:

  1. Forraging is a dying art, we are lucky to have a walk down to the woods where we live and we take the boys and they love blackberrying. You are so lucky to live at the Larches

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  2. Can you really eat ground elder? A friend of mine is plagued by the stuff in her garden and I'm sure would appreciate finding something useful to do with the stuff.

    Just wish I could find a use for horsetail...either that or I need to introduce a few dinosaurs to the allotment :)

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  3. Lucky you with so many plump juicy blackberries. How could that many not resist them??? Enjoy your crop and all the lovely pies and jams I'm sure you'll be making.

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  4. I really enjoy how you tell a story. Around these parts berry picking is very popular. It's about impossible for a ripe patch to last more than a day.

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  5. TheMadHouse: At a PYO strawberry farm, the lady farmer laughed and asked to weigh my toddlers; red from head to toe. I threw their t-shirts away at the end of THAT season!

    Big Mamma Frog: Honest, p.79 'Harvest/pick when flowers are out and leaves have reached their max size. Cooked like spinach for 5 mins, it makes an unusual vegetable.' That's hippy-speak for revolting.... You go first and let me know. If you don't contact me soon, I won't pick any!!!

    Victoria @ Hibiscus Bloem: Blackberry vodka more like! Hic!

    James: Thank you for your kindness. I'm sure my country contemporaries will be just as competitive as the pickers in your neck of the woods. I may have to guard my hedges!

    Kat: Oh yes, scrum-diddly-umptious!

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  6. It's Elder Flower time too, get picking. Then grab the berries in the end of the summer for jam. I'm hoping it will help the hay fever sufferers in my house for next Spring if I make it and store it properly.

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  7. I am insanely jealous of your house! Wowie! That's what I call a pile. That's a never'have-to-move again house. Beautiful.

    What a shame he doesn't eat the local offerings. Still, all the more for you!

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  8. Mother Hen: Oh yes time to make Champagne. Yipee... Never before have I attempted this...any advice? Will read Hugh Fearnly-Watisname!

    Deer Baby: Thanks, the rats and I love living here!! So glad he didn't like real food, like you say, more for me.

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  9. We are surrounded by ignorants... oh well, more for us! yey!

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  10. We tried growing blackberries for a few years. We got a handful the first year. The robins got them all the second year. The third year I put a bird net over the bush and the Japanese beetles sucked all the berries dry. That was the last time - unless I can figure out how to keep everything but us away from the berries.

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  12. Sorry spelling was dreadful in 1st reply!!!!

    Technodoll: Yeah, I agree! I like having ignorants around, makes me look good ... ermmm actually please don't read my previous post, where I prove I am a twit too!

    Brenda: That's bloody bad luck! Best fruit I've ever tasted is a mulberry - I've ordered a tree for November. YUMMY!

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  13. So now I am DEFINITELY coming to yours, post-Apocalypse. Feasting on blackberry crumble while everyone else is eating human flesh. Yum...

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  14. notwavingbutironing: Thanks for that, I'd just managed to forget about my 'Shaun of the Dead' dream ..... Zombie crumble anyone?

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  15. Security guard is hilarious, although 'I saw you on the cameras' sounds a bit sinister. Yay for blackberry picking, blackberry and apple pie, yum. I'm loving the calming soothing music on your blog. I know I should know it...beethoven's piano sonatas? Oh god, now you're rolling your eyes and groaning whilst saying, 'it's Mendelsshon (sp?) you fool!'
    Pigx

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  16. I would never comment.... as I never know who wrote what, can't even remember an author's name when I'm reading a book!

    The music is by Chopin... lovely innit?

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  17. Wow, they look fab! Please send pie in the post! I've tagged you over at my blog - come have a looksee!

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  18. Thanks so much for the comment on my blog! I love yours - is that REALLY your house on the top? Ohmagoodness. We have blackberries out in the back acre - but they seem to shrivel up before they ever ripen. : (

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  19. Jayme: You should try mulberries (a small tree will serve you well) delicious!

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The Archers at The Larches

Lou - Chicken whisperer....

Lou - Chicken whisperer....

Snowy and Moon

Snowy and Moon