Here's the thing about blackberries that the recipes always skip past: the best part isn't the crumble (well, it is and it isn't). It's the hour before it, working your way along a hedge, sleeves snagging, fingers going purple, half the haul eaten straight off the bramble before it ever sees a bit of tupperware.
You don't need to go anywhere special for this. A footpath edge, a railway embankment, the scrubby bit behind a car park nobody's tidied in years, blackberries don't care where they grow, which is exactly why they're the easiest foraging there is. No permission needed (unless its private land), no rare habitat to track down, just a hedge or two and a free afternoon.
So consider this an excuse first, a recipe list second. Go and get scratched up finding them. What follows is just what to do once you're home with more than you can eat straight from the bush.
A couple of rules, if you're the sort of person who doesn't walk under ladders
Blackberrying comes with more folklore attached than most hedgerow fruit, and it's worth knowing even if you're not the superstitious type.
"Never pick the first blackberries of the season, tradition says, since those belong to the fairies. And never pick after Michaelmas Day, the 29th of September, because after that the devil is said to have spoiled them."
There's a less supernatural explanation for the Michaelmas rule, if you want one: by late September, blackberries left on the bush have usually gone soft, mouldy or fly-blown from weeks of exposure (and at this point of writing this, record-breaking temperatures), so "the devil's spat on them" was probably just an old, colourful way of saying don't eat the ones that have been hanging around too long. Good advice either way.
Red ones aren't ripe yet, whatever your instinct tells you. Only the black ones count, and if you're trying to wrestle them off, they aren't ready yet.
What to actually do with them
Beyond jam and crumble, which need no introduction (and I'm not exaggerating here, but there's a gazillion recipes online), here are five ways to use a bag of blackberries that go slightly further off the well-trodden path.
1. Blackberry and Rocket Salad
Serves 2- 80g baby rocket
- 100g blackberries
- 50g crumbled blue cheese or gorgonzola
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1 tsp lemon juice
- Pinch of salt
Whisk the olive oil, lemon juice and salt together for the dressing.
Toss the rocket, blackberries and cheese together, then dress just before serving.
Takes ten minutes. Looks brilliant. Tastes like you tried much harder than you did.
2. Scandinavian-Style Pickled Blackberries
Fills a 500ml jar- 350g blackberries (firm ones, soft ones spoil quicker)
- 270ml cider vinegar
- 8 juniper berries
- 8 black peppercorns
- 1 bay leaf
- ½ orange rind
- 60g granulated sugar
- 1 tsp Sea Salt
Put the vinegar, sugar, salt, juniper berries, peppercorns, bay leaf and orange rind in a pan and warm gently until the sugar and salt have dissolved. Take off the heat and leave to cool completely.
Rinse the blackberries and leave them to drain for a few minutes.
Pack them into a sterilised jar and pour the cooled, spiced liquor over the top, spices and all, pressing down gently with a spoon so they're fully submerged.
Leave in the fridge for a week before eating. Keeps refrigerated for up to four weeks.
Good alongside cured or smoked fish, or cheese, sharper and stranger than you'd expect.
3. Blackberry Shrub (a drinking vinegar, not the garden kind)
Makes about 500ml- 500g blackberries
- 300g sugar
- 250ml cider vinegar
Muddle the berries with the sugar and leave overnight.
Add the vinegar and leave for a further 24 hours.
Strain through muslin, stir to combine, and bottle.
Splash into dressings, drizzle over veg, or top with sparkling water for something that isn't quite a drink and isn't quite a condiment. I'll definitely be making this because it sounds so weird.
4. Blackberry and Yoghurt Lollies
Makes about 6- 200g blackberries
- 300g Greek yoghurt
- 2 tbsp honey
Mash the berries, then mix through the yoghurt and honey.
Pour into moulds and freeze for at least 4 hours.
Delicious. Homemade and about as close to a reward as standing in an angry hedge gets.
5. Blackberry Leaf Tea
Per cup- A small handful of fresh leaves (or 1 tsp dried)
Steep the leaves in freshly boiled water for 5 minutes.
The bit everyone leaves on the bush. Traditionally used for sore throats. At minimum, it's free tea.
A few things worth knowing
- Pick above knee height. Lower berries are more exposed to dogs, foxes and passing traffic if you're near a road.
- Definitely wash before eating, especially anything picked near a road or field edge that might have been sprayed.
- Leave plenty for the birds. Blackberries are a genuinely important late-summer food source, especially for migrating birds fuelling up for the off.
- Only take from public land or with permission. Most footpath and hedgerow picking is fine, but private gardens and farmland aren't.
Find your nearest hedge this week. Bring a bag you don't mind staining, and go slowly, the best ones are always just slightly out of reach.
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