We were up at 5am walking with a tub in our hands this morning. Bramble/blackberry season has just started here in Yorkshire. Luckily there were not too many ripe ones yet and so that should give me an extra week to make space in the freezer and preserve more harvests from the garden. We have glutts of beans and tomatoes at the moment. Brambles are my favourite fruit, and the main source of our compote during the winter. Late summer madness is upon us and it just feels like I am on a production line at the moment. I will thank my self in winter, though, when we can slow down and hibernate.
This is probably the busiest time of the year for me. It is hard work and tiring, but there is so much joy from harvesting things grown or foraged. It does feel like a job at times, but this late summer madness, when everything needs doing at once, only lasts about a month to 6 weeks. Life revolves around watering, feeding, slug checking, weeding, harvesting, and preserving.
It is also a busy time for foraging. Nettle seeds, hazlenuts, apples, pears, brambles, plums, bilberries, rosehips, wild raspberries and other things need to be picked during this small window of opportunity. Processing and preserving those then occurs. All those recycled jars and bottles, that I save and take up so much room in my cupboards, are finally going to be used.
Years gone by, I would try to make everything that we needed all at once to prevent buying products from the supermarket. Jams, chutneys, bottled tomatoes, rosehip syrup, sweet chilli sauce, were just a few things, for example. Now that I am more experienced, I will make things that last a couple of years, focus on what we use the most of, like passatta, and freeze harvests to process later. I regularly make jam in November as I want to make space in my freezer for discounted Christmas meat. Having a second freezer makes this possible. I have 4 different flavoured jams on my shelves but now only make two a year. They don’t go off if not opened, or are kept in the fridge if I have started them.
I also don’t try to forage everything every year. I have not bothered with bilberries this year as we have plenty of currants. I won’t pick rosehips this year as I have plenty left in the freezer from last year. We only have time and space to do so much and we are not trying to be perfect. Every little thing we do saves money, but we don’t want it to take over our lives and be fanatical about it.
4 or 5 years ago we picked loads of apples and made cider amongst other things. We are still drinking it now! We will just pick two massive bags of apples and use them, and store them for food this year, as we did last year. It is easy to go overboard when you see free wild food. That year we picked 5 bags and spent weeks and weeks processing them. Now we have more of an idea of what we need.
Sowing of winter crops happens soon. We purposely don’t grow many, though I do sow more chard, beetroot, pak choi, radishes, carrots, spinach and salad leaves soon. We tend to last on those, and our frozen crops, and then take advantage and store the discounted vegetables that the supermarkets use to lure people in at Christmas. We have never had a lot of success at growing cabbage or brocolli. I like to take winter off, and my garden which is steep and tiered, is often dangerous in winter.
As we haven’t picked many brambles today, I will just use them for a few pies (with foraged apples), and make my weekly cordial, if there is enough. I know lots of people don’t have enough time to forage and preserve to save money as I do. However any little bit helps. A few pies in the freezer, or a bag of berries, will be a welcome treat during the winter and help with nutrition and saving money. Just one day out or a 15 minute pick makes a difference.
Life takes over and I didn’t always make time to go bramble picking. Now I do even though I often don’t feel like walking to the place we pick them from, and hate getting stained hands, or prickled. We always thank ourselves later in March during the hunger gap when treats are few, though. I will take my grandson to an easy spot in a week as it is a great activity to do with children and I want to teach him about foraging. The trouble is that brambles often get picked over in obvious spots. I now have a map in my head of all the things to forage in my area, and a calendar of when to pick them. It won’t be long before I am picking conkers to make detergent and washing liquid 😊. The Universe certainly provides if we search for it. Below are some links to other things that we make with brambles.
Blackberry infused gin and vodka
Black Berry Balsamic Vinegar/glaze
I’m definitely going to make the blackberry glaze . So many good tips here x
Brilliant. Thanks x
Thanks Toni. I made ten jars of blackberry jam last week from two early picking sessions in east Yorkshire. I’ve more in the freezer and will make most into jam. I use any sugar on offer and foraged apples for pectin. The field I pick in doesn’t seem to have many visitors! I’m lucky as it’s very near. I may try cordial. :)
Brilliant. I bet that you will enjoy those in winter. The only downside to cordial is that it doesn’t keep for long and so I freeze it in little bottles. Thanks for sharing
Lots of good advice here, thank you. I’ve (tried) to grow peas this year but they have developed mildew. There are plenty of pods so I am picking what I can and suppose I will need to just pull the plants out.
Aww bless you. My peas haven’t had the best year, either. You can use the pods in stir fry if they haven’t fully developed.