First blackberries

Following advertisement in the post at reference 1, the first blackberries of the season were collected this morning, near but not at the place advertised.

The place. Arena to the right

The left hand hedge has grown a bit in the eight years since Google went by.

The start of the first stand

The berries still on bushes in this snap look pretty red. But there were plenty of black ones too.

The end of the second stand

 

Berries rather smaller on the second stand, but there were still plenty of them. The whole pick took around half an hour.  Spread out to near three baking trays for the purposes of freezing - but that is in the BH department.

The end of the 2019 harvest

As it happened, BH thought it appropriate to finish off the 2019 harvest, by way of stewed apple and blackberry to follow today's potato pie. A very good pie as it happens, with very little left for grazing between meals. But not a very good snap; something wrong with the lighting.

Stewed apple and blackberry probably accounts for the vast majority of our blackberries, either by themselves or with a crumble topping. Too strong to eat neat, except perhaps in the form of jam, which we don't do. Have never done as far as I can remember. Maybe there would be a problem getting the stuff to set.

The first time, as I recall, that one season's blackberries lasted until the next season's started coming in. Usually about a month's interval between the two.

PS: I don't recall picking a lot of blackberries as a child. Maybe we had enough garden produce not to need hedgerow produce. But I do recall stories of my father's family picking blackberries in the lanes of Hemingford Grey and of BH's family doing the same in the grounds of what was the Exminster branch of the Exe Vale group of mental hospitals.

Reference 1: https://psmv4.blogspot.com/2020/07/car-booter.html.