I wonder if prehistoric men ever felt the thrill of foraging for food. Perhaps they, in that ancient manner of men viewed their hunting and gathering with purpose and nary a hint of frivolity: to sustain and to provide for themselves and family.
These days and modern times, we forage, not for sustenance but for the love of it. For the thrill of picking your own fruit or vegetables and transforming them into some delightful (or not so ) dish. We adore the essence of it, learning food history and gardening techniques. Discovering when to pick fruit and where, not by the road side where the skins are covered in soot, smog, dust and other unpalatable veneers but to go deep in the forest, walk alongside that deserted road and find your treasure.
I know how we love our back gardens, some smaller than others. I know the joy I feel that I no longer have to buy mint (at least in the summer) as my little patch is overrun. I know how I feel plucking pointy lemon verbena leaves for my tisanes a few times a week but most of all, it is the fact that these, by the very virtue of my laziness and nature’s providence…are organic. And while snipping herbs from window boxes have their place in fulfillment, no summer is complete without ‘foraging’ for berries even if this is the first summer I’ve done the afore-mentioned and availed myself of nature’s goodness.
Take a gorgeous summer’s day down a lonely quiet lane and pluck berries from brambly bushes till you heart and hands are scratched and washed with gorgeous red juices.
Long to get a ladder to climb to the top of the bushes, or a canoe or swimming trunks to wade in the waters were the plumpest, juiciest blackberries lie….just outside your reach.
Even your rake and pointy stick can’t help bring these berry-laden branches to you.
Step in the undergrowth and with your very sensible walking shoes, stamp off the army of ants, invading your hairy limbs.
Struggle hard to untangle your broderie anglaise dress from the prickly stems, each step and every stretch of the hand filling your large bowls. {BTW, that’s not me or my dress :-)}
Anyhow, pluck and pick berries till you have no room left in your head to conceive more recipes for blackberries. Like blackberry vinegar.
And crumbles with tart apples.
Attempt to make a jam – futilely….because I forgot that seeded blackberry jam is not the way to go. The seeds are hard, get stuck between your teeth and generally interrupt what could have been a pleasant dining experience.
Take them home and stare at them, mentally calculating just how much you ‘saved’ by not buying them at Albert Heijn or Tesco’s or Walmart- at least 10 or 20 euros or pounds or dollars. Then smile that smile of satisfaction and put them away. Wake up the next morning and panic not when you see your berries covered with tiny fruit worms. Though you may think disaster is at hand, shrug the thought away and rinse them in salt. {I soaked them in a mix of salt and water for a few minutes, rinsing well a couple of times and then checking each individual berry before plunking it my bowl to begin with the recipes I planned.}
On another note, I am thrilled with some recent news brought by my family (they are still here)- namely that temperate fruits such as strawberries and grapes and more can now be found across Nigeria, home grown in the cold, mountainous northern regions and sold down south, where we used to live – only one reason I’d love to go back home, now, to enjoy sun-kissed and blushed strawberries.
On offer this week, with my blackberries are:
Recipe #1
Blackberry Verbena vinegar, adapted from a 1900s raspberry vinegar recipe in Amanda Hesser’s recipe redux
Makes about 1 quart
Ingredients
Tips
- I was reluctant to use sugar but I thought about its preserving qualities and caved in
- When you leave the blackberries to macerate, put a lid on the pan. I was surprised to see and smell the strong pungent smell of vinegar every time I lifted the lid off. My girls said it was a ‘bad’ smell and I had to convince them otherwise
How to
In a nonreactive bowl, combine the vinegar, blackberries and lemon verbena leaves. Cover and let macerate for 3 days.
After 3 days, mash the blackberry mixture in the bowl, then strain the liquid through a fine-mesh sieve lined with cheesecloth. To every 1 cup of juice, add ½ pound of sugar (1¼ cups plus 1 tablespoon).
Combine the juice and sugar in a saucepan. Bring to a boil and simmer (gently!) for 15 minutes. Let cool, then bottle. Keep refrigerated for up to 3 months.
To serve, add 1 teaspoon raspberry vinegar to a tumbler filled with ice. Add water, sparkling water, rum, brandy or prosecco. There were other delightful recipes, namely a float and a dressing on a tart that I’m desperate to try!
I notice that my vinegar is slightly ‘gelled’ , though when you stir it together, it becomes liquid. Initial tasting sessions spell promise. Coming to you soon.
Recipe #2
Frozen Honey Yogurt with Blackberry Granita
Frozen Honey Yogurt
Ingredients, for 2 portions
How to
In a freezer safe bowl, whisk the yogurt and add your liquid sweetener of choice to sweeten. Freeze till hard.
Let soften 10/15 minutes before you serve.
Blackberry Granita
Ingredients, for 2 portions
How to
Simmer the blackberries, water and sweetener for 10 minutes.
When ready, press down pulpy bits through a sieve, reserving liquid {I used the leftover pulp in my vinegar recipe, rather than dispensing with it}.
Pour a thin layer of the liquid into a freezer safe baking dish {I used a brownie pan}. Freeze for a couple of hours, checking on it often and raking through it with a fork every time it looks like the liquid is freezing, maybe every half hour. You don’t want long shards of fruits, but small frozen flakes and crumbles, so keep an eye on it. In my case, regardless of how long it froze, because I used liquid sweetener, my granita resulted in a soft, somewhat slushy texture which was DELICIOUS. Obviously, sugar helps the frozen texture of the granita.
The combination of the frozen yogurt and the granita was heavenly. IT took me right back to my childhood, where most Sunday afternoons after church, the ice cream men would be waiting outside the gates, their mini coolers attached to bicycles would be full of packs of frozen yogurt called ‘Yogo’, which we lapped up. And when I had children, the tradition continued. My daughters would wait patiently till service came to an end and they would look up at us, large, excited eyes begging……..and I would cave in and buy some, for them and for us. These were memories I had completely forgotten about till one taste brought it all back.
I loved the freshness of the yogurt, even though mine had hardened considerably and ended up being the granita :-), so if you ever want to make a yogurt granita, there it is. It was perfect, the clean yogurt taste went with the extremely fruitiness of the blackberry granita. I’m thinking this may well replace my comfort food of yogurt and jam.
It is also perfect for a dinner party dessert when you have a large crowd at yours: essentially…assemble in pretty glasses. Which is why I’m sending this on the Meeta’s Monthly mingle hosted by Sara of Sara’s corner this month with a ‘Party Treats’ theme.
If you want tips on foraging for fruit or picking your own (black)berries, visit this website.
Here are some lovely recipes & photos from other bloggers celebrating (foraged) blackberries.:
Jeanne of Cooksister foraged fruit, including blackberries and two sorts of plums Megan of Feasting on Art and I were on the same wavelength – Blackberry and Honey frozen yogurt Krista of Rambling Tart enjoyed sun kissed blackberries Mowie’s Blackberry & Ginger Granita guest post on Souvlaki for the soul//
This is heading off to Weekend herb blogging #246, started by Kalyn , run by Haalo of Cook (almost) Anything at Least Once and this week hosted by Katie from Eat This!
Have you had your blackberries this season? What do you do with them? Let me know all and prettige weekend (Dutch for have a pleasant weekend!)
// [wpurp-searchable-recipe]Cooking with fruit: Blackberries – – – [/wpurp-searchable-recipe]
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