Blackberry Picking
Posted by Matt Wilkinson on February 17th, 2010
We all surely know the blackberry bush. They’re all over the countryside with their prickly stems that leave your hands and lips an elegant purple colour after picking and eating too many. The blackberry bush has been declared an introduced weed of significance – but hey, they taste awesome and if you pick them wild, they’re free!
Last weekend after visiting the producers day at The Lake House in Daylesford, it occurred to me that it is brambling season and after a conversation with friends they pointed me in the right direction of some safe blackberry bushes. But here’s the disclaimer, as a weed the majority of blackberry bushes around the countryside have been sprayed with weed killer. It’s a major problem under the label of ‘foraging’ for wild foods – is it safe to eat? This aside, if you have friends of the country folk type, call them and get out there quickly to find some of the finest wild food bounty we have on offer.
After an hour, scratched and purpled mouthed we collected our bounty and calculated around 4 kilo’s. Not bad pleasurable work. The next day at Circa a special dessert was made to utilise them of a vanilla macaroon, white chocolate mousse, blackberries and strawberry sorbet. Simple yet tasty that let the sweet, slightly earthy flavour to come through trumps.
What to do with the rest….i could make my aunty Betty’s blackberry jam recipe, which actually reminds me that it’s elderberry and crab apple season too, we used to pick them together along the old wagon roads of Yorkshire. What I think I shall do though is to freeze them down in small containers and make a smoothie each morning for breakfast until they’re used up. It’s a simple recipe:
Throw in a blender,
- organic rolled oats
- banana
- yoghurt
- the blackberries
- and a little apple
- a cup of full fat milk preferable timboon organic
And blitz it up!!!!!!!!!!
