I grabbed my wellies, and Lizzie and I took a drive out to the country to my dad's house. He kindly showed us the directions to the best berry location in his neck of the woods. We set off to explore and to fill our tubs full of goodness.
The perfect time for this activity was probably a couple of weeks ago, as it's getting a little past the season for fruit picking, but there was still a few bushes with ripened blackberries to be had.
The best ones were up quite high, so we got to work with our walking sticks, knocking the branches about and collecting in the tubs below. Lizzie was much better than I.
There was quite a lot of ditches and thorns to conquer, but we worked well as a team to make the most of the fruit available to us.
Amongst the blackberries we spotted some sloe berries too - ideal for making a few decanters worth of sloe gin I reckon! So we picked an abundance of those too.
By the time we reached the end of the field our tubs were full to the brim and quite heavy, so we trampled on back to the house to wash and separate them.
It couldn't be more simple - put the plug in the sink and fill with cold water. Empty your berries into the sink and swish about. Get a big colander and rest on the side whilst picking out the berries by hand, getting rid of all the thorns, leaves and smushed up berries that are no good.
Grab some tubs and separate the fruits. Now you are ready to make into pies, berry infused alcohol, or just sit down and munch away all afternoon!
We even had some time left over to enjoy my dad's garden... well, Lizzie did!
I'm looking forward to next year, being more prepared and picking some strawberries and raspberries. I've actually just bought myself a dwarf raspberry plant, perfect for a patio container, so hopefully I won't even have to venture as far as the fields next year!
If you have any other recipes or great ideas for my blackberries and sloeberries, get in touch and let me know!
xo
Love this one Karen, you certainly got a big haul of berries.
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