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15:40, 4th Jan 2012
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Find out how to store apples
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Making Apricot Jam
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A recipe for harissa paste with ingredients you can grow yourself
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Grow Your Own Chilli Peppers
Find out how to grow your own chilli peppers
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Make Lavender Biscuits
Find out how to make delicious fragrant lavender biscuits
foraging
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Picking Wild Blackberries
Go picking blackberries in hedgerows in August and September
Picking Wild Blackberries
foraging | fruits
Although hundreds of thousands of miles of Britain's hedgerows have been cut down during the last fifty years, it is still not difficult to find plenty of wild blackberries in August and September. Although wild grown blackberries are usually smaller than those grown commercially and sold in supermarkets, the wild variety are usually more delicious and can be picked when they are perfectly ripe and eaten when they are completely fresh.
Blackberries
Blackberries grow on brambles - typically found in woodland, hedges, waste ground, and shrub ground. Brambles are seen by many as weeds, and they can rapidly tangle around other plants and suffocate them. However, in the late summer, they make up for their negatives with a delicious crop of blackberries.
Tips for Picking Blackberries
When you go out to pick blackberries there are some useful tips to remember. Blackberry juice will stain hands and clothing, and the brambles are covered in many sharp thorns. Therefore wear something old and sturdy (trousers not shorts, and a long sleeved shirt), and give small children gloves.
The most flavoursome blackberries are those which have grown on plants in direct sunlight. Often the best blackberries will be found in difficult to reach positions where they have had the chance to fully ripen without being eaten by birds.
If picking berries on verges, only pick berries above knee height which will not have been splashed by rain hitting the ground, or urinated on by dogs and other animals. Pick only the fully black blackberries (not red or purple) as under-ripe berries will not ripen further once picked. Good blackberries will come of the plant with just a light tug.
When you get your blackberries home, soak them for a good half hour in water just before you intend to use them, and then rinse them well before eating or using them in recipes. If you do not intend to use the berries for a few days, refrigerate them unwashed so they do not spoil, or wash them and pack them into an air tight bag or container for immedite freezing.
Article Published: 07:34, 22nd May 2010
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