“Call them blackberries if you like, but there is something
special about the word ‘bramble’, covering the as it does both the fruit itself
and the act of gathering them. To
bramble is to ramble and search, to take on the thicket, sleeves resolutely
rolled down, and to cover yourself in scratches . . . You can buy blackberries or grow them in the
garden, but it is not only the experience that will be missed: wild
blackberries have a complexity of flavour that is completely lacking in the
cultivated types, a wild, woodsy, homely taste, nostalgia in berry form.”
As a child I enjoyed picking blackberries from the hedgerows
when spending holidays in the countryside with various relatives in the
Lulsgate and Redhill areas of North Somerset.
You can also find blackberries in the city, although you have to be
careful where you pick them due to possible pollution by exhaust fumes from
road traffic. One year, about twelve
years ago when living in Bristol, I picked enough blackberries in the Malago
Valley for my wife to make a couple of dozen jars of excellent home-made
jam.
Blackberries are an admirable source of vitamin-C and
contain a good amount of minerals such as potassium, manganese, copper and
magnesium. So, when my wife and I enjoy a
cup of tea and a jam sandwich it’s not only a tasty treat but a nutritious one
as well!
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| Blackberries in a South Somerset hedgerow. |
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