A quick post this evening with two more substantial ones to come in the next couple of days. Times are moving quickly in the natural world and even a couple of weeks ago, upon my return from Africa there were things to get a hold of, though I wasn't particularly looking. After three hours sleep on our flights back, I decided a walk was in order and Levi and I wandered down some footpaths near my London home to Lower Sunbury which were chock a block with the first blackberries of the year. Picking a couple of handfuls, and finding a load of fresh windfall apples by our tree in our garden, I thought the weather was sufficiently rubbish and autumnal to warrant a blackberry and apple crumble.
The recipe I picked up off the BBC website and it worked out fabulously! Find it here: http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/778642/apple-and-blackberry-crumble
What is particularly good about it, is the fact that you pre cook the crumble bit so it doesn't go all mushy when topping the fruit section. Dad almost cried, that we had to chuck the last of it before heading to Ireland...
Anyhow, I'm writing this two weeks on and things are coming on quickly. The time to go and get blackberries is definitely now! Not next week, but the next few days. In Hampton there are loads on the Oldfield Road in front and the passage down the side of St Mary's Primary if you fancy finding them... Hawthorns coming on well too, elderberries already going and juniper berries getting nice and juicy. Most surprising is the millions of sloes and bullace (sloe cousins) that are sprouting everywhere. I can only put it down to the good summer and I've already put an early bottle of sloe gin down in my bedroom which I'll deal with in October when I head home for a few days. Though traditionally not ready for another few weeks and you usually wait until the first frost to pick them, they are very much ready now and some are even shrivelling away though September is not until tomorrow! I will post more on this soon, but for sloe gin fans near Hampton there are two massive heavily laden bushes down the Oldfield Road about halfway down. Will be posting again very soon about my adventures in the West of Ireland and the various jams I've been making this weekend after persuading Levi to come foraging with me. So stay tuned to find out why sloe jam is hell on earth to make (which is why it is why sane people make gin with it instead!!!).
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