Blackberry-picking with kids

It's raining, it's pouring, all the evening... And what a glorious morning we had, it was sunny but not too hot, just a perfect day to go blackberry-picking. If we walk the longer way into town, via the flood fields, it is a pure haven of lush grass and bushes. It is also a wonderful area for foraging, with a lot of blackberries, hawthorn berries, wild apples and sloes. I will be picking the apples and sloes for jams later in the year.

But now it's the blackberry season, when the berries are at their sweetest. There were four of us: my Mum, niece Sasha, younger son Eddie and I.

We quickly filled several punnets, enough to make a crumble for today's dinner, and put some in the freezer.

Some of our picked berries

Eddie tried his best to fill his punnet, as he wanted to be the first one to finish his task, and be the winner.

As we were walking and picking the blackberries, we found a lot of sloes, which will be great later in the year. I am not a gin drinker, so won't be making any sloe gin, but will try to make some pickled sloes or sloe jelly.

We also discovered a mystery berry, which looked similar to the blackberry, but it was trailing low on the ground, and tasted like a mix between the blackberry and raspberry. As my clever friends on Facebook pointed out, it happened to be a berry called dewberry. I confess I never noticed it before locally.

Dewberry

Apple and blackberry crumble
Ingredients:
2 big apples
500g blackberries
75g demerara sugar
1tsp cinnamon
for the crumble:
75g demerara sugar
60g softened butter+ more for the tray
60g plain flour
60g oats

Prepare the crumble by rubbing together the sugar, softened butter, flour and oats. Don't overwork the crumble, as it might get too heavy.
You can make more of a crumble topping, I prefer it as a lighter layer rather than a thick lid of crumbs.
Slice the apples and arrange them on the buttered deep tray or dish. Place the berries. Top up with the sugar and cinnamon, then add a crumble topping. Bake in the oven preheated to 180C for 40-45 minutes, until the crumbs are golden brown and the fruit is bubbling.
Serve hot with the ice cream.