Blackberry Picking 2023
I have wonderful memories of picking blackberries as a child. Mostly with friends and their mums up on the track behind The Youngs Farm in the village and once with Grandma Pat on the path that led to school. I think I remember that one particularly because one, we didn’t see her very often, and two, we bought them straight home and made a blackberry and apple pie. I remember wondering at the time why it tasted so much better than any other pie. My first memory of learning how much better home-grown or foraged food tastes.
I also remember blackberry picking as the door to the beginning of autumn. It was done right at the start of the school year, just when the late summer sun is slipping away, before the colder mornings, crunchy leaves, and red hews that will be soon arriving.
In my experience, even people who don’t go out of their way to live seasonally, forage for blackberries, especially those with young children. The joy of spotting the early signs, watching them ripen, and then picking them, is an early rite of passage for most children and a tradition most adults are keen to pass on and experience with their own children.
As much as my childhood memories hold a dear place in my heart, creating new ones through the eyes of my children is something that makes my heart so full.
We have found a handful of places that we can collect from and enjoy nothing more than an hour spent wandering up and down the bushes, trying to collect the seasonal black gold without getting scratched, or losing it all to Brother Bear’s tummy! If there is anyone in our family likely to sabotage the mission it’s Jamie and his love of fruit.
For picking I always think you need two things, spare Tupperware pots to put the picked fruit in, and a damp cloth to clean up sticky purple fingers. The second is obviously optional, but helpful when you adore holding your children’s hands on walks.
These are the photos I got of this year’s blackberry-picking fun. I hope my children look back at these memories with love and joy equal to how we all felt creating them.
Happy Picking!
Livvy
