Blackberries to me are a symbol that we are approaching the end of summer, and beginning of autumn, a time when fruits and nuts abound in the hedgerows and woodlands of the UK. The humble blackberry is one of our most recognisable fruits, found almost everywhere in the UK, from coastal pathways to inner cities and rarely left untouched by people walking past.
A lasting relationship
Humans have been eating blackberries for thousands of years, we know this because seeds were found in the stomach of a neolithic man excavated in Walton-in-the-Naze, this also shows just how long Brambles (the plant on which blackberries grow) have been in the UK. Our relationship with brambles is incredibly old, and their thorny nature has done nothing to deter generations from collecting the fruits to make jams, pies, sauces, vinegars and crowdie (a dish which involves toasted oats, cream, rum and blackberries).
What is a bramble?
Although blackberries have been termed as a gateway drug into foraging, they are probably the most fickle of fruits in terms of flavour. Reassuringly it isn’t a case of luck of the draw as to whether the berries you pick will be sweet and delicious or bitter and best given to the birds.
Blackberries are the fruit of the bramble plant, but the term bramble plant is misleading as this term is used to broadly describe an aggregation of microspecies and hybrids. There are over 400 different types of bramble in the UK alone, and these all have little quirks and differences which in some cases can be identified with ease, but in others may require a microscope or DNA test. We have various books about foraging and plant identification, one of which simply says of brambles “Its varieties are endless” and even now the Rubus genus (which includes brambles) is known as being one of the most difficult groups to identify. Thankfully all hope is not lost, as all brambles produce edible fruits and a plant which produces good blackberries will always do so unless weather patterns are particularly bad for fruit production.
My advice – make note of where you have the best, sweetest and most juicy berries and share this knowledge only with those you deem trustworthy.
Find the best blackberries
To enjoy the most flavoursome blackberries produced you need to be ready to go as soon as the fruits start to ripen, which is usually around the end of July-early August. The berries at the tips of bramble shoots ripen first and then a wave of ripe berries will sweep down towards the base of the stems, curiously the berries at the tips of the stems are the juiciest and sweetest. This is a lesson that I have learned the hard way when out collecting blackberries later on in the season after the first wave of ripe berries have long been taken by humans, birds and other animals. It’s also best to target blackberries as soon as they are ripening because over time they can develop mildew and fungi which add to the more bitter flavour.
For the most successful blackberry foraging trips I check on areas that I know produce good fruits from mid-July onwards; as soon as the berries are turning from red to black I will start taking tubs out with me to collect berries and be fussy about the ones I collect. Taking small tubs tends to work better than baskets because each tub can be lidded and the berries don’t get squashed under the weight of others as happens in bigger containers.
If you are interested in learning about individual bramble species there are local and nationwide groups dedicated to identification.
Every year Wild Food People run a calendar of foraging and wild food courses in North Wales.
From forests and meadows to seashore and coastal – all of our courses are focused on food, ecology and giving participants the confidence to go and find these foods for themselves.
We work with nature.
We deliver expert foraging and wild food training as part of our wider work managing habitats in North Wales.
Every single one of our courses and events feeds back into improving those habitats, helping to provide healthy ecosystems for our local wildlife and communities.