Hey Everyone! Hope you’re having a good summer. In the last upload, I wrote about my mountain hike in Portugal. Now that I’m back in the UK I can start writing about more British things like…picking blackberries.
Since it’s still August – August is one of the best times to pick them – I thought I’d go out blackberry picking to see how many I could find. It’s quite a change of scenery. I went from climbing down a mountain to handpicking berries. But I wanted this to be a more chilled post.
Before heading out, I shoved a container-type box in my backpack. It’s a glass one with a wooden lid. I thought I’d do my part in going plastic-free. Also it looks cooler.
I was all set and ready to go. It was around 3 PM. when I went inside the woods; I waited until 6 PM to pick. That’s when the sun would start to set. This is for a little photography hack I’ll tell you about later.
With three whole hours of waiting, I thought looking at the pond would help me pass the time. The pond was the shallowest I’ve ever seen it. I could sit beyond the bank, where there used to be water touching it. This was a big pond too. At least 10 meters wide. And they say climate change doesn’t exist.
But I did get to watch emperor dragonflies (Anax imperator) flying around and fighting each other. Silver linings.
August is peak dragonfly breeding season, so the males are ferociously guarding their territories like my housemates guard their booze. If the males spot any intruders, they’ll face off in these ‘dogfights’ mid-air like mini fighter jets.
Emperors are the biggest dragonfly species we have here in the UK (with wings up to four inches across). They’re also one of the balliest. When they weren’t flying around, they were hovering inches away from my face.
After being stared down like 17 times, it was time for me to move on to a different part of the woods. Fast forward to an hour and the picking began.
The berries were looking extra juicy that day. The ripe ones anyway. Pro tip: always pick the berries grown at above your waist height. That way you’ll know none of them have been pissed on by a deer or dog. And that’s why I picked mine on the top of the bramble bushes (Rubus fruticosus).
If you live in the UK and don’t know what bramble looks like, I have one question: have you ever gone outside? But if you don’t live here, don’t worry. IDing bramble is really easy.
Bramble stems tend to grow in arches and are covered in thorns sharper than a one-star customer service review. When they’re young, they’re green and thin; they grow thicker and turn reddish-brown as they mature.
The leaves grow in bunches of three or five per stem. They’re dark green on the topside, but pale green with tiny spines lined along the underside. The leaf edges are serrated like a bread knife.
When flowering, bramble blossom these small white (or pink) flowers that normally have five petals. After they finish flowering, they start producing their fruit: the blackberries.
One of the best things about blackberries is how you can see their different stages of ripeness.
This photo perfectly shows those stages:
Green ones are unripe, red ones are halfway there; they sort of look like raspberries, but don’t eat them. They’ll taste too tart. The bigger, black ones are fully ripe: a sentence I never thought I’d say.
If you want clean, juice-free hands then just gently pinch each berry, slowly twist, and pull. You grab one too hard and it’ll burst all over your fingers instead of in your mouth. All it takes is a little finesse.
So I was there casually picking up the berries while getting stabbed by thorns. Fun times. If you don’t feel like getting stabbed, I recommend a long curved stick to push or pull any pesky bramble stems out the way. I didn’t bother looking for one because I’m an idiot who apparently loves pain.
I got a decent boxful of berries; I didn’t wanna to take too many so that there’d still be plenty left for the critters in the woods.
Here’s where that photography hack comes in. If you want to photograph your blackberries, I’d try foraging in the early morning or evening, and in a shaded area. Why is that? Blackberries are black. Big surprise. But they’re so glossy that if any light touches them, it’ll make them shine brighter than my degree’s job prospects.
I had to stand underneath an oak tree so it could give me and my berries some cover. Afterwards I came home, dipped them in bowl of cold water so they don’t bruise while I wash them, and enjoyed the fruits of my labour. Literally.
One difference you notice between wild and store-bought blackberries is their size. The store-bought ones look like they’re taking gym juice. You can tell they’ve been genetically modified.
I bought a punnet of blackberries from Tesco and as I was munching them, they tasted like they were mostly just water. They weren’t very sweet but still had that sour, slightly citrusy aftertaste. Kind of like a lime.
The wild ones were so much sweeter though. And they smelt sweeter. Whenever I walked past the bramble bushes, the air smelt like a freshly opened jar of jam. Incredible.
Speaking of which, I was planning on making jam. But maybe that’s something I’ll do next summer when I go blackberry picking again.
In short, the dragonfly dogfights were intense; the bramble hurt like a b****, but the blackberries were worth the blood.
Just to let you all know, there won’t be a Fishing Fridays post for this month. I’m sorry about the bad news, but I haven’t been able to go to the bigger ponds and streams since I’ve been babysitting my brother.
I hope you guys liked the post. Remember to share it or I’ll fill your pillowcase with bramble. Stay straying!