I’ve been meaning not to get a Blackberry and I haven’t. What I have got are bowls and bags of brambles freshly collected from as far afield as 200 metres from my front door. I’m neither a hunter nor much of a gatherer and I only noticed the clumps of ripe glossy berries, hanging like Bulgari pendant ear rings from Mother Nature’s spiky lobes, whilst trying to get a picture of sunflowers in the field beyond the brambles. The berries that I picked do not have the sculptural magnificence of the shop bought variety which look as though they might have been cast in acrylic as maquettes for a Jeff Koons fruity sculpture. The blackberries that I have, althoughI have been advised that they should be called brambles, are compact, varied in shape and size, bereft of cosmetic improvements and packed, with intense flavour making each one like a tiny pot of perfect jam. I crushed some with icing sugar and stirred in a gob of creme fraiche. This violet softness travels under the name of fool and I rushed in, pushing past the fearful angels as I went
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What beautiful, intense purple color that stands out with the white of the creme fraiche!
God, it tastes good too:)
Looks delicious. I have heard of a bramble bush, but not brambles. Blackberries are of course a favorite.
I with you on the definition. It’s that Jamie Oliver who suggested that brambles was the correct nomenclature in the new “Jamie” Magazine. I shouldn’t believe all I read:)
That sounds quite divine. I am surprised any got back into the kitchen, how many did you stuff into your mouth after the discovery?.. c
Greed will normally overcome all, but I have an inordinate fear that there maybe creatures living inside blackberries – weird, I know as they would add a crunchy protein edge to the whole experience:)
That looks fantastic and slightly reminiscent of a red cabbage
I also think I can see the Mummy emerging from the mixture:)
“Frying tonight!”, as Kenneth Williams would say
…amongst other things, Matron:)
Lovely Roger.
Thanks for that, Rosemary:)
So beautiful, Roger! The color is amazing.
You have to try it – so simple and so good:)
Brambles or blackberries – they are so much smarter regardless of the name !
Give a blackberry a bad name:)
Same goes for Orange……s…..
The photo is lush, IMHO one of the most attractive of your blog photos. Roger, you mention that you are not much of a hunter or gatherer. Let me say that in France, one should gather. Suzanne and I found the best brambles (your name, not mine) beside a road near Nuit St Georges (I can remember how good they were many years after) and the best ever frais des bois beside a pathway above Chamonix. We also hike the mountain trails with a comb for collecting blueberries in season. Suzanne’s blueberry liqueur is both lethal and delicious. And grapes from the grand cru vineyards in Burgundy are divine.
You might have noticed, James, that I try to limit my gathering to the 200metre exclusion zone around the house. I haven’t yet found the premier cru grapes but I have tasted the forbidden Noah and Othello grapes that produce as much methanol as is in absinthe – which is why they are forbidden:)
Your photo, Roger, is really quite striking. Yes, your brambles may not have the sheen nor size of their cousins in the grocery but what they lack in appearance, they make up for in taste. I’ll choose wild berries over cultivated every time. (The hard part is convincing someone else to do the picking.)
Just can’t get the staff:)
one word for your image: scrumptious! PS got rid of the Blackberry; I am much happier for it.
Glad to hear it:)
I wish I had this problem. Great shot!
Many thanks, Greg:)
Fools those who do not try, monsieur?!
Fools indeed:)
Oh, that looks glorious. Much better than the perfect, hard, SOUR blackberries we get in the grocery store over here.
Hard and sour is bad in a blackberry or, for that matter, a bramble:)
Gorgeous pgotographs, Roger, but it is the “Bulgari pendant ear rings from Mother Nature’s spiky lobes” that I will never forget
It’s the nearest we get to Bulgari:)
It surpasses Bulgari entirely. Man can only achieve cheap copies.
That’s certainly all I can afford these days!
photographs, even, apologies
What’s wrong with pgotographs?
I’m salivating and heading to the berry farm! Sent from my blackberry
Enjoy:)
Wow. That is amazing color.
Beautiful, isn’t it:)
simply stunning. so many of life’s best things are free…and the others usually affordable. what a marriage of the two you’ve got here. beautiful.
Many thanks, Antoinette:)