Friday 2 September 2022

Old Nick on the grasp...


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!



 

10 comments:

The Jannie said...

"I crashed my bike on the rough track"
And that was BEFORE you made the brew. What's going to happen when it's up to strength?

James Higham said...

Jannie’s right … can you survive a full blackberry season, Scrobs?

Sen. C.R.O'Blene said...

TheJ, 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!

As 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...


Sen. C.R.O'Blene said...

I think the season has nearly finished, James, so the eighteen gallons of elderberry and blackberry might be the total of the 2022 vintage!

It 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!

Sackerson said...

Late in the season, my wfe's family would say 'the Devil's pissed on them.'

Scrobs. said...

That may well be the correct statement, Sackers!

Pity 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!

A K Haart said...

If the Devil's got them, I know what he did with them, he fed them to the birds.

Thud said...

Lucky you! not much sun up here this year so not much sugar in any fruit, my cooking apples are good though.

Scrobs. said...

Those 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!

Scrobs. said...

Funnily enough, AK, I've never noticed birds going after them unless they're on the ground, raspberries yes, but not blackberries!

Looking up the bit about the Devil, it seems that he also 'Spat on them'!