Has anyone started picking blackberries yet this summer?

[Netcurtainnelly]

Anyone picked blackberries yet?

Yes, south facing side of our midlands river are ripe, we ate them from kayaks yesterday.

North Tyneside here. Cultivated blackberries on a South facing wall and well watered - been picking for a week now.

We're in north lincs. Loads on loads in our garden. The ones in the shade are coming though first. We've had a sandcastle bucket full and we're not very efficient pickers, at least 50% gets eaten by the kids

The ones I've seen near me are a bit shrivelled looking but drove by a lady picking some off bushes near our heath and feeding her dog and they looked lush. Also saw a family out picking them. The usual ones I get near my friend's in Berkshire have been aggressively pruned back by the new neighbours but awaiting the sloes in the nature walks.

My daughter has in West Yorkshire, we have bunches around here.

I've not picked them because they are below dog weeing height, but there are some lovely looking ones in the hedge opposite. Keeping an eye on the higher up ones.

Edited to add I am in the South West

Saw several people blackberry picking when I was out for a walk today (south west). Have picked a few juicy ones myself this week.

I picked a bowlful of ripe ones last week in Kent.

We only "lost" the ones a previous owner planted in the front garden when we dug out the whole driveway to re-pave it.

We have huge shrubs behind the house, there is nothing we can do, short of dynamite. We trim it back to avoid it going over the roof of the garage/shed.
When builders cut it down 6 years ago to put up a new fence and roof on the shed, we had the shed broken in from the alley behind. So now we trim it back to avoid it going over the roof of the garage/shed but otherwise no burglar will be able to go through it, it's like a Sleeping Beauty hedge.

I made jam last night. The blackberries were very sweet so I didn't use loads of jam sugar. It was runny last night, but today it is set. Hooray.
Also, it tastes very nice.