One of the simplest and easiest ways to keep blackberries is to freeze them

I can still see my purple stained little fingers, with a tongue to match, when I was young. Then, like now, I loved picking them straight off the bush and savouring their juicy sweetness.

Seamus Heaney described them so well, “at first, just one, a glossy purple clot among others, red, green, hard as a knot. You ate the first one and its flesh was sweet like thickened wine”.

The great thing about these berries is that they’re free. When I’m picking them I think about the punnets of them, imported from Peru, that adorn the supermarket shelves. You can buy them for around £3 a go or you can grab a bowl and pick them for nothing.

Try and go off main roads when you’re picking but we’re blessed with less travelled country lanes in this country. Blackberries will deteriorate very quickly so use them straight away or preserve them for future use. My first recipe is for blackberry muffins – a simple treat perfect for breakfast or with a cup of tea.

The simplest way to keep them is by freezing them. There’s nothing as nice as finding a rogue bag of blackberries in the middle of February. Making jam is another option or place them in a clean bottle and cover with cider vinegar. You can use this for dressings or to add to roast duck or pork to pep up your gravy.

Blackberry vodka is just a matter of placing 500g of blackberries in a kilner jar, adding 250g sugar and a litre of vodka. Shake the jar a couple of times a day for the first fortnight then forget about it for a couple of months. Strain and serve over ice with soda or tonic.

Making ketchups were a traditional way of preserving fruits and vegetables that have found their way back into fashion. I’ve seen all manner of them on menus from black garlic to apple.

I’ve included a recipe for blackberry ketchup – it’s a simple mixture of blackberries, sugar for sweetness, vinegar for acidity, a bit of heat from smoked chilli and a toot of brown sauce for that extra wee kick. It’s served with roast, sliced pork belly and a beetroot salad. A vibrant, autumnal dish.

Blackberries are serendipitously in season now alongside plums and apples and the three find themselves whirled into a cake for another sweet recipe this week.

There’s a bit of work in this recipe as egg yolks are whisked with sugar, the whites whisked separately with more sugar and then brought together with a little melted butter and flour.

The cake is topped with slices of plum and apple and a scattering of blackberries. A perfect cake for the time of year.