In our kitchen, we treat blackberries like precious gems. We dream of living near wild bramble bushes, from which we might gather bucketsful of blackberries to make copious amounts of jam and pies. Until that day, we treasure the little, and unfortunately rather expensive, cartons of blackberries we find at the farmers' market from mid-summer to early fall. They are an indulgence, and we savor each berry as we eat them individually or add them as accents to crumbles and cobblers, shortcakes, and beverages.
Seasonal Spotlight: Blackberries
There are hundreds of species of wild blackberries, many of which grow along the Pacific coast of North America. Blackberries have also been cultivated and hybridized, producing varieties such as loganberries, youngberries, marionberries, olallieberries, and chehalem blackberries.
Raw blackberries tend to be sour, but when cooked, they turn sweet and jammy. They are particularly delicious in combination with peaches, apples, and other berries. Cream, honey, or lemon also complement blackberries well.
The soft, dark berries are quite fragile, so when shopping look for fruits that are whole and plump. Avoid shriveled berries and look carefully for mold. Store berries in the refrigerator and eat them within a day or two.
How do you like to eat blackberries?
Recipes from The Kitchn:
• Apple-Blackberry Pie with Ginger
• Blackberry Buttermilk Ice Cream
• Blackberry Elderflower Spritzer with Mint
• Long Island Margarita
• Phyllo Napoleons with Blackberry Sauce and Vanilla Cream
• Recipe Roundup: Summertime Semifreddi
And a few more from around the Web:
• Blackberry-Bay Leaf Jam from Martha Stewart
• Blackberry Cornmeal Cake from Everyday Food
• Blackberry Limeade from 101 Cookbooks
• Plums & Blackberries in Rosemary Syrup from Good Food
Related: Seasonal Spotlight: Mulberries
(Image: Flickr member threelayercake licensed under Creative Commons)
Comments (11)
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I love picking wild blackberries and just eating them one by one.
view Hannah - Honey & Jam's profile
Just got back from WA, where I went blackberry picking. Blogged about picking here and the ensuing pie- and jam-making here. We pick only the trailing wild blackberries (rubus ursinus) that are so tart and delicious. It's the most wonderful taste there is. Period!
- Amelia of Gradually Greener
view GreenCayennes's profile
lol, they're considered an invasive species in some parts of california and are occasionally removed by park service people.
view juice's profile
Come on up here to Victoria for a visit, they're considered a weed and grow everywhere. Each spring, we spend a week or so digging new shoots out of the garden! In the next couple of weeks, they will be ripening EVERYWHERE, almost every ditch and roadside has clumps of them. Bring your heavy duty gardening gloves though, as they have really sharp thorns!
view janice m's profile
I love blackberries. They were what “sealed the deal” for me when we bought our house. We bought the house for a great price, but it was a mess. No insulation, no 220 wiring, lots of termites etc. etc. etc... but it had blackberries vines in the back yard.
This morning I made multigrain morning muffins with blackberries. The recipe is here: myrecessionkitchen.com
view myrecessionkitchen.com's profile
My grandparents live in Olympia, WA, and have a blackberry bramble in their backyard. My grandma makes blackberry cobbler that's so delicious, we eat it with breakfast, lunch, and dinner. I believe she uses Bisquick for the biscuits on the cobbler and she serves it with Kirkland vanilla bean ice cream from Costco. I live in CT, so I don't get it often, which has given it near-religious status in my heart and tastebuds. I'm even getting a bit teary just typing this because I won't get to see her or eat cobbler this summer.
view Emily G.'s profile
Oh life is not fair. I really dislike blackberries. (Love all other berries, except mulberries, which I also dislike and think taste a lot like blackberries.) All through my upstate childhood, we kids were sent out to the brambles with buckets to attack the roadside weeds, the backyard tangle, etc. Free, superabundant, and no one in my family likes them. We harvested them in hopes of slowing their relentless spread and made ourselves popular gifting great heaps of them to others who loved them and somehow didn't have any of the ferocious bushes growing on/near their property.
view cmcinnyc's profile
I made Gourmet's buttermilk cake with blackberries last night and it was excellent, but right now I'm eating a fruit salad of watermelon and blackberries and the combination is stunning!
margaux of Kitchen Graffiti
view kitchengraffiti's profile
I'm looking forward to this year's blackberry harvest--last year's was disappointing because it was such a cold summer, but this year has been hot and sunny and as I recall, that makes for bountiful berry picking.
Powell River, BC, has a Blackberry Festival at the end of August; everywhere you turn in town, there are blackberry bushes...
view muse2323's profile
my eleven month old opens his mouth and begs every time he spies a blackberry bramble on our walks.
view crystalj's profile
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