Blackberries

Text and photography by Michael O’Meara

Blackberries

The blackberry is a fruit which holds a great deal of nostalgia and happy memories for many of us. Out picking wild blackberries during a fresh Autumn evening, taking your haul home, hands purple from the juice of the berries and making some of the finest jam imaginable, bliss. Although the bramble is considered to be worse than a weed by many, it really gives up what is probably the most accessible and tasty of all the wild foods. Now finding a good spot to pick your blackberries is important, away from the road side and anything else which might contaminate the fruit. Picking the fruit is simple and oddly relaxing, and a couple of kilo of fruit can easily be gathered in no time at all. Just looking at a bucket of freshly picked blackberries certainly gets the old culinary juices running. They have so many uses ranging from the best duck sauce ever to a base for countless desserts. Even the leafs make a fine tea reputed to aid indigestion.
There are said to be over 2000 varieties of blackberries and the berry is a close relative of the raspberry. A common cross between a blackberry and raspberry is the loganberry. Additionally it is said that a blackberry should not be picked after September 29 as the Devil is said to spit on them. Although there is a degree of sense to this as after this date the blackberry rapidly deteriorates and becomes prone to insect infestation.

One great use for blackberries is jam and it’s easily made.

Use 175ml of water for each kg of fruit and allow soak for 14 hours. Place fruit and water into a deep and thick based pan add the juice of one lemon for each kg of fruit. Bring to a gentle simmer, then add 900gram of sugar per kg of fruit. Allow simmer for a further 20 minutes, skim and pot as you would any other jam.

Another simple, tasty and economical recipe is rice pudding finished with your fresh blackberry jam.

One cup short grain or pearl rice.
Three cups of whole milk
50 gram sugar
10 gram vanilla extract
Allow the milk come to a gentle simmer with the vanilla in a pot; add the sugar and then the rice. Allow cook gently stirring regularly until the rice is completely cooked. You can get a bit decadent and finish with a drop of cream also it may be necessary to add a little more milk as the rice cooks.

Serve in a bowl with a generous dollop of blackberry jam and enjoy.