I think possibly my favourite thing about eating seasonally, is the way that, when you haven't eaten a particular food for 11 months, it tastes absolutely amazing. About a month ago, when we had our first taste of blackberries for this season, we were exclaiming over their deliciousness, trying to decide if it was because they actually were particularly delicious this year, or if it was just because we hadn't eaten any for so long. I'm pretty sure it's the latter.
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| They are like beautiful, sun-kissed jewels |
For the last month or so we've been picking (and eating!) to our hearts' content. This suits me - I'm absolutely a summer fruits devotee - stone fruits and berries all the way. So an almost daily pilgrimage to our beautiful blackberry glen has been absolutely fine by me.
And fine by the kids too (OK - not fine when they get a leech, which happens...), who have amazing adventures involving cubbies in the blackberry brambles and wild and exciting tree-climbing fantasies involving their trusty 'hunting dog', Bell.
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| Blackberry gully. The bright green to the left is a sea of wild watercress. mmmmm... |
We've been stockpiling them in our freezer, til we had enough to make all the things we have planned - wine, jam, and blackberries in syrup - all the while munching away and enjoying them in all kinds of scrumptious things like baked yoghurt custard and blackberry pancakes. The trick, we've found, with the blackberry pancake, is to drop the berries on before you flip them over. Of course, the purple pancake that results from mixing the berries into the batter is a beauty all of it's own, but this way's pretty gorgeous too.
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| Blackberry pancakes with fresh ricotta, local honey and pear, eaten in the sunshiny sunshine. |
Today Pearl started the blackberry wine (not ready for 3-4 months), which I'm very excited about, and last night we stacked our precious jars of jam and blackberries in syrup up on the shelves, feeling happy at the prospects of some sweet sweet summertime goodness to take us through the winter months.
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| Blackberries in a light sugar syrup |
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| The ol' slide-the-jam-down-a-saucer-to-see-if-it's-set trick |
It's a pretty great feeling. And while our days of eating fresh, sun-warmed blackberries fresh from the bush are very nearly over, we have the knowledge that when we taste them next, in 11 months time, we won't be able to decide if they're extra delicious, or if we just missed them.
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| Who knew that a kelpie's favourite food in the world would be blackberries?? |
such a lovely post - so good to see summer still thriving up there in the valley - down here in the city it feels like it has slipped from our finger tips. Our pup loves watermelon - they're funny things huh :-)
ReplyDeleteThey are funny indeed. Thanks for reading Lily. Looking forward to your move to the valley x
DeleteMy husband and I just pulled our Blackberry stash out of the freezer and made jam last night! We figured we better utilize them before our season is in. We will need the room for this year's bounty. The taste of summer. I love how you are settling in to summer as we are at the tail end of winter. What an amazing world we live in!
ReplyDeleteOh hello Kate, indeed it is an amazing world. I hope your jam turned out to be delicious and I hope your blackberry season is one of abundance. Thanks for reading. I can't wait to peruse your blog.
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