Tag: blackberry

August 10th – A remarkable season, and now the fruiting begins in earnest. The wind was gusting hard, and the threat of rain not far away, but I slid out mid afternoon in defiance of Hurricane Bertha (spit). I let the wind blow me along the wet canal to the cyclway over the common – on the way, I noticed what I think are cherries growing ripe on a tree by the Pier Street Bridge. They look rather fat and large to be such gems in Brownhills. Can anyone help there?

There’s also been a remarkably prodigious crop of hazelnuts from the hedge thicket opposite the Watermead estate – but what wasn’t already squirrelled was blown down in the wind; the towpath is thick with nobbled and wind-fallen nuts.

On the cycleway, a similarly bountiful crop of blackberries, and the elderberries too are ripening to a beautiful black-crimson gloss.

Summer coming to an end is always sad, but how can one remain so in the face of such wonderful fruits?

August 5th – Another saying my Grandfather used to use a lot was ‘It’s always a good year for something.’ On this, the old man – who lived life much more connected to nature than I – was bang on. Every year, every season, is detrimental to something and benificial to something else.

This year we have an absolute wealth of early blackberries. They, sycamore,  horse chestnut and beech appear to have done very well indeed. Oak and fruit seem to have had a very bad year. This is the first acorn I’ve seen – last year, the boughs were heavy with crab apples, damsons, cherries and acorns. This year, very few. Rowan, Hawthorn and cotoneaster seem to be doing reasonably well, though.

I guess it’s just how the weather falls. One late frost and the fruit crops are ruined…

September 6th – The rains came today, but not too much. Skipping out weary in the afternoon, I rode the canal towpaths which were quiet, and fast. There was that lovely fresh earth, post rain smell, and the landscape looked clean and fresh. What impressed me most, though was the huge variety of flowers and plants still showing well along the towpath. This selection were all spotted between the Pier Street Bridge and Coopers Bridge, just by the Watermead.

August 16th – I know I keep banging on about this, but I’ve never seen such a fine and large crop of bramble fruits as this year. Here, on the farm track beside the canal at Tamhorn, near Hopwas, the fruit was heavy on the bushes, and smelled divine. 

My Grandfather used to say that bountiful crops indicated a harsh winter to come. I’m not so sure of that, but the birds and squirrels will have a ball.

August 12th – The dewberries are always earlier than the blackberries, but many folk don’t know there’s a difference. Dewberies are hairier, and consist of fewer, larger globes than their sweeter, finer counterparts. It seems to have been a good year for the bramble fruits this year, and hedgerows are spattered red and black with ripening fruits. A positive bounty for birds, squirrels and pie-makers alike. 

September 11th – On cue, a couple of weeks later than the fatter, looser dewberries, the blackberries around Stonnall are ripening and being picked by foragers and birds alike. Blackberries are smaller, sweeter and stronger tasting; a more dense fruit, the individual ‘buds’ that make up the fruit (called ‘drupelets’) are smaller. Blackberies are also more whiskery than dewberries.

All are good to eat, and are adding to the tapestry of fruits and seeds smattering the hedgerows and thickets right now, along with hips, haws and seeds.

August 11th – Oh my, the Autumnal signals are coming thick and fast now. Just as Home Farm are harvesting their wheat crop at Sandhills, I notice the hedgerow laden with brambles, both blackberry and dewberry. The dewberries, like those above, tend to come first – their fruit is slightly larger, less firm and has less globes than the smaller, sweeter blackberry. Soon this hedgerow will be laden with black fruit, a feast for birds, foxes and me, too. I do like a blackberry and apple pie…

June 23rd – I braved a very windswept Brownhills Common today, and tore around it. It’s ages since I’ve been up there, and it was fun to throw the bike around the muddy tracks. The plant life is gorgeous there at the moment. So many species, just begging for your attention. This remarkably complex flower is a common bramble. I’m not sure if this is blackberry, or dewberry, and won’t be until it fruits. Brambles like this are incredibly important, as many types of butterfly and moth feed from them. So beautiful, so often overlooked.