Blackberrying for Beginners

Yesterday we had one of those oh-so-rare sunny afternoons so I decided to take advantage of it with the kids by picking blackberries.  It's a great way to spend an hour or so - the kids LOVE it and you have the added bonus of a stash of fruit to freeze/eat/make jam with.

Be prepared though - they will be covered in purple stains by the time they're finished as they desperately try to eat as many berries as possible in as short a time as possible!  Old clothes all the way.  Give them each something to put the berries in too - it makes it slightly more likely that they will return with berries and not eat them all as they pick them.



Teach them to recognise ripe, fresh berries that are not inhabited by any little creepie crawlies, this isn't hard - even my 3 year old knows now to inspect the bottom of the berry and make sure the "green circle" is intact and there are no holes (she will tell me - "s'okay Mammy there's no buggie wuggies in this one").  I've posted a photo of what I mean as it can be hard to explain.  Similarly when pulling the fruit from the bush if it comes away too easily without any resistance it may be that the fruit is overripe, or if it won't come without taking the stem with it then it's probably not ripe enough. 

I'm going to make yummy blackberry jam with some of them using this very simple recipe:


1 kg, Blackberries
1 kg. Jam making Sugar
Juice of 1/2 Lemon

• Put the blackberries into the pan with the sugar and lemon juice.
• Put it on the heat and then bring it to a rolling boil.
• Once it is boiling time it accurately and let it boil for exactly 4 minutes.
• Have ready 4 X 1lb. Jam pots which you have washed well and dried in a hot oven to sterilize.
• Once the 4 minutes are up take the jam off the heat and ladle it into the jam jars and cover in the usual way.   (Some people prefer to sieve the jam first to remove the "bits" but it's not necessary.)