The evenings might well be drawing in but there is an abundance of wild food around

These thoughts from the mid 1800s are just as pertinent today.

The evenings might be drawing in but there is an abundance of wild food around at the moment. The sight of plump, purple, blackberries appearing at the side of narrow roads always gladdens my heart. With lashings of rain and bursts of sunshine, ripe ones are popping up on bushes now. Blackberries, like rowan berries, elderflowers and elderberries, sloes,certain mushrooms and wild raspberries are wild and free. Grab a bucket and pick to your heart’s content. You might get a few scrapes along the way but that’s just part of the joy.

There’s nothing as fulfilling as picking a kilo of these ripe berries and then transferring them into wine, vinegar or chutney to enjoy throughout the winter.

We live in a society where instant gratification is the norm. In food terms this can mean ready washed and peeled vegetables or even already cooked.

May Byron had issues with this too: “The harvesting of blackberries from fields and commons is in itself a pleasure: which the greengrocer’s blackberries, at the unconscionable price of four pence to eight pence a pound, I can never give!”

In the here and now, why would you pay £3 a punnet for something you can pick for free?

While filling the freezer with bags of these prized fruits is an easy way of preserving them, there’s a lot more fun and value to be added to capturing their essence. You could make a simple blackberry vinegar by infusing blackberries in red wine vinegar for a couple of days and then straining into clean bottles.

Blackberry vodka can be made in the same way as sloe gin – mix 500g of berries with a litre of vodka and 250g of sugar in a kilner jar. Seal and shake twice a day for a week and then leave to infuse for a month. Strain and bottle.

The liquor soaked blackberries are great added to the juices when you roast a duck or with venison.

The first recipe this week uses the classic combination of blackberries and apples in a gluten free cake. Polenta is used instead of flour and is available in health food shops or delis.

The fruit is poked into the cake batter and baked.

The blackberries weep into the cake rippling it and the apples.

Serve it warm from the oven with cream or custard or enjoy cool with a cup of tea.

The sloe crop has been really good this year.

Sloe berries are the fruit of the blackthorn.

These dusky purple orbs are famously used to make sloe gin – use the same recipe for blackberry vodka but substitute sloes for the blackberries and gin for the vodka. Firstly either prick each sloe with a pin a few times or freeze them overnight – the most practical solution is the latter.

Try and keep the gin for a few months – it will be perfect by Christmas and is lovely with tonic or serve it hot with local apple juice and a toot of honey. Another way of using the sloe and gin combination is with apples in a jelly. A friend gifted me some crab apples last week and you could substitute them instead of the cooking apples. Sloes, crab apples and cooking apples all have an astringent, sharp taste and making them into a jelly with a good amount of sugar really cuts through that.

The gin adds a little juniper laden spiciness but you could make it without the alcohol.

The finished jellies are lovely on a warm buttered bread or scones, for finishing off pork or game gravies, or as an accompaniment to cheeses, charcuterie or cooked meats.

Before Covid I travelled a lot and would rarely have found the time to make jams or jellies. This year the house is like an apothecary with shiny jars of jelly, pickles, chutneys and jams everywhere.

Take it from me that nothing calms the soul like a bit of jam making…..