09-08-2014, 04:04 PM
6
Re: blackberries
The blackberries are very early this year, I noticed the first a couple of weeks ago when I took the little ones for a walk.I am not a fan of blackberries preferring something more sour, but they are ok with apples like the first bramleys which will be available soon.
When little we children picked buckets full of blackberries to make jam and blackberry vinegar which we had in hot water to help fight colds.
09-08-2014, 04:25 PM
7
Re: blackberries
No where as nimble as I was but still manage to collect a few blackberries but in my younger days up to my early retirement days this was a typical autumn for us.My darling wife was alive then happier days, happier times.
"Last week we noticed that blackberries seemed to have ripened much earlier this year and on Sunday we collected enough to make four pounds of bramble jelly. This got us thinking what else might be ripe. This morning we went to investigate and collected a large bin bag full of bullaces (enough to make 96lbs of jam) and noticed that the sloes were nearly ripe as well. A lady even older than ourselves stopped to tell us that there was a hedge full of hazel nuts on the nearby village common. She lamented that less than two decades ago all the hedgerow fruit and nuts would be collected by the villagers but now with all the incomers and week-end cottagers they were just left to rot. This afternoon we went back and directed by the good lady harvested another bin bag full of hazel nuts. The bullaces will make a delicious jam and keep us, and my wife’s W.I., going for most of the coming year and if we can get more jam jars there’s plenty more fruit where that lot came from. As to the hazel nuts Cadburys wont be the only one covering them with chocolate, some of the rest will be used to embellish home made chocolate cakes and to make tasty praline. Beth the younger of my grand-daughters and is staying with us and has a recipe for ground hazel nuts in fudge and this she is doing as I type with the sound of hazel nuts in a large polythene bag being bashed with a steak hammer in the kitchen.
Just the sloes for sloe gin remain to be gathered in a few weeks time and chestnuts later in the autumn.
It’s sad to see the decline in these natural rhythms of country life. Are people too busy or too idle to bother or is it that the culture of the supermarket shop followed by an evening of soap operas on the box has taken over.
It makes me sad."
09-08-2014, 05:32 PM
10
Re: blackberries
Originally Posted by Victors Mate
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country life. Are people too busy or too idle to bother or is it that the culture of the supermarket shop followed by an evening of soap operas on the box has taken over.It makes me sad."
Blackberry picking is alive and well here in Worcestershire and very shortly a small army will be heading to the fields adjoining my house to brave the sheep poo and pick blackberries .The WI weekly stalls in Malvern and Ledbury will be awash with bramble jam and jelly.
The hazel nuts are not yet ready, when they are we will be fighting the squirrels for our share.
The bullaces and sloes are also prized and in much demand around these parts also crabapples for jelly .
Some of us are teaching a next generation about the delights of the countryside and they are eager to learn
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