It's been quite a good year for blackberries, despite the hot weather and very little rain, and I've picked around six pounds and they're being carefully fermented in the time-honoured way!
There is a downside to these 'profits a prendre', as on the first foray into a new area covered in brambles, I crashed my bike on the rough track, and received several cuts and bruises for my trouble, but the effort was worth it, and only the mental scars remain...
At the end of the season, the berries start to fade and drop off, and it's the time when my mum used to say, 'The Devil's got them'! So we're about there now!
"I crashed my bike on the rough track"
ReplyDeleteAnd that was BEFORE you made the brew. What's going to happen when it's up to strength?
Jannie’s right … can you survive a full blackberry season, Scrobs?
ReplyDeleteTheJ, it was a disaster! I'd often walked the dog along the track, and avoided the ruts which were huge, so should have taken more care!
ReplyDeleteAs it's electric, I thought I could just whizz up the middle of the rut, and then remembered that I shouldn't as it's about 8" deep, and bikes sway a little bit more these days...
I think the season has nearly finished, James, so the eighteen gallons of elderberry and blackberry might be the total of the 2022 vintage!
ReplyDeleteIt makes a fabulous red wine, and Senora O'Blene prefers it to most of the wines we have to buy when they're on offer at Tesco with 25% off six or more bottles!
Late in the season, my wfe's family would say 'the Devil's pissed on them.'
ReplyDeleteThat may well be the correct statement, Sackers!
ReplyDeletePity I can't ask her, but she would have been 108 a few weeks ago...
My mum hardly ever said a rude word, well, not to me at any rate!
If the Devil's got them, I know what he did with them, he fed them to the birds.
ReplyDeleteLucky you! not much sun up here this year so not much sugar in any fruit, my cooking apples are good though.
ReplyDeleteThose apples will just sing, after being cored and filled with a few sultanas, some brown sugar and spent twenty minutes in your pizza oven, Thud!
ReplyDeleteFunnily enough, AK, I've never noticed birds going after them unless they're on the ground, raspberries yes, but not blackberries!
ReplyDeleteLooking up the bit about the Devil, it seems that he also 'Spat on them'!