Has anyone started picking blackberries yet this summer?

[Netcurtainnelly]

Anyone picked blackberries yet?

Do you have a recipe? I have loads but no freezer so wondering what to do with them.

Yes, lots at our allotment already.

@DreamingOfGeneHunt I'm surprised! I have just googled it (I know, I should have done that before I asked the question) and the answer was that they are good to dehydrate and can be powdered very easily, so I'm going to have a bash as the blackberries are free...

I don't drink alcohol unfortunately so no blackberry infused alcohol for me.

Here in Surrey, we've got heaps at the neglected allotment near mine.

They always start in mid July and are especially sweet and juicy this year, despite having no rain for c40 days.

Really surprised to see so many posters being able to pick blackberries.

Where I am in East Midlands they just look small and shrivelled! Not sure if it no rain or what.

Other years me and DH have always picked loads and frozen them. We have 4 different good spots and no one here seems to ever go out picking.

We have some left from last year but will be disappointed if we don't get any this year

Plenty from the bramble that creeps over the fence from next door. We get lots but most are really high up and unaccessible. We feed the not so good ones to our chickens - queue a chicken pile-on.

Yeah there's some in the park. I ate a few the other week. There weren't that many ripe ones. They'll all be gone by now though.

All still green oop north.

Another recipe is blackberry, elderflower and lemon jam/preserve/sauce/syrup /whatever you want to call it.

Blackberries, sugar, slug of full sugar elderflower syrup, lemon zest. Depending upon how firm the set is if you let it boil, it's good for oats, toast or scones, ice cream, yoghurt or as a mix with fizzy water and ice. Adding a couple of sprigs of lemon thyme as you're heating it would also work, but either way, it needs the sharpness as well as the sweet and perfume of elderflower.

Yep! Loads in the Midlands. Garden is brimming with them and you see a lot around wilder bits of town, near the supermarket, next to busy roads etc. Fantastic for my toddler and wallet

they just look small and shrivelled!

Yeah, I'm baffled about mine. Other things in the garden are gasping with thirst. Meanwhile the ornamental & wild blackberry ramblers are fine. Weird!!

Golden Triangle today in Norwich: saw a chap on a ladder working down his (high) fence line with a 2 litre size, half-full container, collecting blackberries.

We hit ripeness about a week ago in the south west!

Yes - made a gorgeous blackberry and apple crumble last weekend. Picked loads where I live last Sunday (London/Surrey border).

Plenty in Manchester, my neighbour has some growing wild down the gap between their garage and our fence, I’ve been picking a handful a day and having them with yoghurt (and the other berries I grow in my garden).
Given the lack of rain they’re surprisingly sweet and juicy, they must have good roots.

Yes!!! Feeling very smug as DH and I picked over 1.5kg this morning and I have already turned them into four jars of bramble jelly and a bit of coulis for ice cream.

They are early this year but the drought means lots have shrivelled. The ones that have ripened near us are growing along ditches and streams, with a built in water source.

I would love to see chickens piling on for blackberries.

Loads here in North Herts. I haven’t picked any though.

Saw loads of unripe ones this week and made a note to go back with some containers in a couple of weeks.

South London have picked 4 boxes already. They are at peak this week it feels I wouldn’t be surprised if they are gone in the next 2 weeks

Loads in my garden (NW)

Hmmm I'll have to try again!

I've picked kilos already. First ones just over a week ago

My recipe is

500ml vodka
100g sugar
300g blackberries

I make mine in a Kilner jar. Just put everything in and shake gently until sugar has dissolved. Store in a cool dark place and upturn the jar every so often.

Strain into a clean bottle anytime after 2 months.

I tend to put the used berries on the compost heap. I have kept and used them in the past but all the best flavour is now in the vodka and it’s never really been worth the effort

Perfect, ta!

Yes, in my garden in London, for the past several weeks now.
I actually need to get a pair of gauntlets as there are loads going to waste because you can’t get to them without your hands and arms getting shredded.