It's a truth universally acknowledged that the smaller the thing the better the taste. And oh my goodness these blackberries are huge!
I'm guilty of jumping the gun again. These monstrosities are from Guatemala. I grabbed them at the grocery store thinking they were local. To make my morning muffins I had to quarter them like new potatoes! The purple batter didn't rise, and the berries had a terrible, acrid taste.
I'm going to try again. This time with local berries. I know they're around because I saw some tiny wild ones growing by the side of the road, where the fiddleheads and lily of the valley were this spring.
I clicked on the eat local link on my taskbar, found a farm that has pick your own blackberries, grabbed my younger daughter and picking partner, and off we went.
This place was so cute and laid back. You grab a bucket and you can wander anywhere on the farm and pick what you want, unless it has orange tape across it which means KEEP OUT it isn't ready.
We quickly realized that all the blackberry bushes had orange tape across them.
No wonder the berries in the store were from Guatemala. The nice farmer said it will be two weeks before these turn black.
Mother Nature came through for us, though. In the very next row we discovered black raspberries! And they were ripe!
So exciting!
But it was slow going; these berries are tiny and the bushes are thorny. Really thorny.
Then, our foraging bear instincts took over (I didn't watch all those Yogi Bear cartoons for nothing) and we wandered behind the orange tape in the blackberry section. Guess what? Some of them they were ripe!
I know these look a lot like their Guatemalan cousins, but believe me they didn't taste the same. It was almost surreal how our berries scented the car on the way home
My daughter went into Boston to visit friends for the weekend, leaving me with the whole berry stash. Decisions, decisions...
So exciting!
Hello Sue:
ReplyDeleteWe have been eating Hungarian blackberries for a little while now and they are delicious. Large and black just like the Guatamalan relatives you show here but none of the airmiles.
Our housekeeper makes the most wonderful blackberry soup, with a base of yoghurt and the addition of orange peel. Cold fruit soups are a summer tradition in Hungary and this version is absolutely fabulous. Terrific colour too!
I love blackberries! Some of those are huge! And I do have an easy recipe using blackberries ;) http://www.confessionsofachocoholic.com/chocolate/mini-blackberry-fudge-squares
ReplyDeletelove the stained fingers. Great photos.
ReplyDeleteJ and L---the soup sounds fantastic, can you post the recipe? Or email me. I can just imagine the color, it must be gorgeous. I don't have any experience with fruit soups, I'd love to try.
ReplyDeleteBianca---I actually did see your recipe and I was fascinated by it. I really do need to expand my horizons, and I love both of those things, so why not together!
ReplyDeleteCathy---between the stained hands and the scratches all up and down our arms, we looked pretty frightening.
ReplyDeleteHi Sue, our black raspberry bush has yielded a bumper crop this year. We are just finishing the last of the berries. There really is nothing better than berries picked fresh off the bush and eaten straight away or with a bowl of vanilla ice cream.
ReplyDeleteWhen you get the blackberry soup recipe from the Hattatts, would you mind sharing it? It sounds delicious and very unusual! (I have had blueberry soup and rosehip soup but never blackberries.)
fantastic photos...sad to hear about the muffins...but i am sure they will work out with the littler guys!! we picked a good couple of cups of raspberries from the hedgerow the other weekend...PYO is the best (and even better if freeeee!!! )
ReplyDeleteSue, Thanks for visiting my blog and for your very nice comment! Your berries are beautiful...I think a pie might be in your future!
ReplyDeleteHello Sue:
ReplyDeleteWe have only the vaguest idea of how the soup is made as Timea makes it, but we shall try and extract a receipt out of her. This may take a while....