Ingredient: Blackberries
Category: Fruit- Soft
Season: June to August:
The blackberries (singular, blackberry; genus Rubus, subgenus Eubatus; also called bramble or occasionally "bramble raspberry") are a widespread and well known group of several hundred species, a number of which are closely related apomictic microspecies, native throughout the temperate Northern Hemisphere.
The fruit, in botanical terminology, is not a berry, but an aggregate fruit of numerous drupelets ripening to a black or dark purple fruit, the "blackberry".
The soft fruit is popular for use in desserts, jams, seedless jellies and sometimes wine.
Wild brambles or blackberries have a character and flavour that the cultivated ones have never captured.
It’s tricky, though, because if we have a wet summer they will be plump, fleshy and juicy, if we have a dry summer they will be very small and seedy. So, given the vagaries of wild blackberries, the cultivated kind is better than none.
Blackberries are absolutely brilliant mixed with apples in a one crust pie, or why not try them instead of apple in a crumble. |