Hedgerow Harvest – Blackberry season

 

Hedgerows are extremely important for wildlife and the environment.

They support a huge range of wildlife as shelter and food and we can benefit too from these plants at this time of the year.

Blackberries must be high on the list of the most foraged plants.  For me (and probably many others) they were the first fruits that I ever went out picking.  Foraging, as a term, wasn’t used when I went out blackberry picking with my mum.  Armed with our plastic containers we would go out for hours until they were full up. We usually ended up sunburned, scratched by the thorns with our hands stained purple.   Mum would make runny blackberry jelly with our haul and be extremely proud of it and rightly so.

A blackberry bush is a blackberry bush right? Wrong! There are many varieties of blackberry bushes in Europe, over 300 in fact.   Though the differences, botanically are minute. I’m sure there are different varieties growing in my garden, some produce bigger tastier berries than the others.

Worth noting that brambles are super flowers for pollinators.

Bramble is a nuisance to some, but it is tenacious and successful because the thorns protect it from predation. The thorns help some animals to seek refuge beneath the branches. These include small mammals including hedgehogs and field and harvest mice, who like these areas in the hedgerows. However, its success is also its downfall in domestic gardens, due to the problem of thorns and its rapid spread. Some garden centres have thornless varieties available.

A blackberry is a free and abundant fruit that is packed with vitamin C, and with packets in the supermarkets costing around £2.50 we really should see more people out picking them.  Blackberries grow abundantly normally, but don’t forget to forage responsibly and leave some for wildlife. They are eaten by birds and even foxes.

If you haven’t already tried, making jam is very easy. All you need is sugar with added pectin (a natural ingredient used to help set it, as blackberries have little of its own pectin), jars and a thick bottomed pan.  There are lots of recipes you can use, here is one https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/blackberry-jam

Julia Stofa

#Hedgerows

#seafordonthevergehedgerows

#hedgerowplants

#Blackberries #rosaceaefamily

#spotlightonblackberries

 

Many thanks Julia, a brilliant reminder to get out in the hedgerows while you can!

We asked the On the Verge team for some more blackberry tips!

• My mum always made lovely blackberry and apple jam! – look out for windfalls or surplus apples outside houses
• You don’t need to buy pectin sugar as free sour apple windfalls or crab apples will set the jelly/jam. 1/3 apple to 2/3 berries. (Jane Grigson). Use it instead of sugar in a winter apple pie.
• We have picked berries from the valley path which begins at the coastguard cottages. Sweetness varies with sunshine in all fruit but blackberries vary according to their micro climate.
• My favourite place is actually the river down from High and Over. The two golf courses are good, and another good place is the twitten between Princes Drive and Firle Road.
• Avoid picking by fields which are sprayed by chemicals, or roadsides which may be contaminated.
• Bramble is the first plant to colonise a new hedgerow on a boundary. It is spread by birds perching on the posts so it doesn’t need to be planted! Even Dave Goulson refers to it as a thug which will take over but in July/August it is a primary source of nectar in the countryside. It does need managing in thickets by trees for birds which nest low such as chiff-chaff, dunnock and robin but if it is given free reign other plants and hedges are smothered and biodiversity goes down.
• Be kind to your neighbours and don’t plant one on a boundary. Keep it manageable on a post and remove the old fruit stems at ground level every year
• Meadow browns and Gatekeeper butterflies may feed on them, also Silver Washed Fritillary in sunny glades, White Letter Hairstreak near the Elm trees and Comma love the overripe fruit. There are also numerous galls of gall wasps etc which attract more predatory or parasitic insects.

• My granny told me not to pick the blackberries below my waist in case a dog had visited them and left their mark!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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