Thursday 4 August 2016

First blackberries

Welcome to another new follower.

Picked the first autumn raspberries today- not sure why one cane is so much more advanced than the other 10.   In the box are some large luscious blackberries. Before you rush to Norfolk to find such lovely ones in the wild - these are cultivated ones.


I have just netted these to make sure I get the best ones before the birds!  We put this cultivated thornless blackberry about 18 months ago and is doing very well - sending out strong branches.



I was not sure I had enough blackberries to go with apple for crumble, so I decided to go blackberrying!  First of all I had to tread a path through the grass and weeds at the end of the garden and find "bridge" over the dyke.  Its a ridge of earth over a pipe, no protecting rails, not marked, just an informal earth path somewhere down in the undergrowth.


Then I had to wade through the shoulder high grass along the edge of the barley crop. This is actually a public footpath but no one has walked along it or maintained it in months.


Eventually I reached the length of old hedge row where the path was better used (nearer the other end of the village).  There were only a few blackberries ready despite their wonderful southern aspect.  I will go back in a few weeks.  One of my grand daughter's calls this our "secret path" it certainly felt like it today!


The apple and blackberry crumble was delicious!

6 comments:

  1. My husband has 4-5 huge plants behind his works. They cut them back each autumn and they're more like cultivated ones now. The fruits are large and juicy but he has a fight on his hands to get them before anyone else.

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    1. And he is only going to be working two days a week too! Can he sneak in at night????

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  2. I really want to go blackberry picking, they are a bit late around here though, I shall have to go for a walk and see what I can find x

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    1. It is still early. found a better patch down from the pub at Denver Sluice today. As we had only had main course at lunch we decided the few early ones we found were definitely our pudding treat! Posh coupe walking the other way looked a bit disapproving.

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  3. I picked a whole lot near my allotment a couple of weeks ago and made some jam. I love foraging for free food. I found some wild raspberries whilst on a walk in Wales. They came just at the right time, as I was feeling really tired and hungry and they helped sustain me.

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  4. I picked a whole lot near my allotment a couple of weeks ago and made some jam. I love foraging for free food. I found some wild raspberries whilst on a walk in Wales. They came just at the right time, as I was feeling really tired and hungry and they helped sustain me.

    ReplyDelete