If you see it, pick it - it might not be there tomorrow!
I've been admiring the heavily-laden blackberry bushes in our area for a few weeks now, but what with the weather and looking after the baby, have only managed two forages this month: last week for elderberries and this week, for blackberries. I had this idea of making a Bank Holiday Bramble jelly, using blackberries and our windfall apples, but unfortunately when I went out yesterday I found sodden bushes (we've had a lot of rain) either completely divested of fruit or with lots of rotting berries. It took me two excursions around a number of the best sites to scrape up a mere 500g.
Still combined with a kilo of apples from the garden it made one litre of juice, so it wasn't all bad news! It's going to be another preserving weekend (with an extra day to do it all in, thank goodness), as our plums are almost all ripe, the raspberries are prolific this year and we've a lot of apples too. I'm planning to make my bramble jelly, a second batch of plum and raspberry jelly (for which I'll post a quick tutorial), some plum chutney (to be squirreled away until Christmas), plum and apple mincemeat (ditto), and the elderberry liqueur I mentioned last week. Phew! Better get started!
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