Foraging for Blackberries in Late Summer Hedgerows

Why late summer hedgerows are worth the scratches

By mid-August, the brambles along field edges, country lanes and woodland rides are hanging heavy, and there are few better ways to spend an hour than filling a tub for nothing. Blackberries are the fruit of the bramble, Rubus fruticosus aggregate — a sprawling group of hundreds of microspecies in Britain, which is why one hedge can yield fat, sweet fruit while the next gives you small, sharp ones. Part of the pleasure is working out which is which.

The season runs roughly from the second week of August through to early October, with the best fruit usually appearing in the first fortnight of September. A warm, wet summer followed by a sunny spell produces a glut. Go early in the morning if you can: the fruit is cool and firm, and the wasps are still sluggish.

Identifying and judging a ripe blackberry

Brambles are unmistakable — arching, thorny canes, leaves usually in threes or fives with serrated edges, and white or pale pink flowers from June onwards. The fruit is an aggregate of many small drupelets, and that structure is your best ripeness guide.

• Ready: fully black right to the core, with a soft grey-blue bloom, and it drops into your hand with the gentlest of tugs. It should taste sweet with a little tartness behind it.
• Not ready: red, purple or hard to pull. Leave it and come back in a week.
• Past it: dull, leaking juice, or squashy under the thumb. These will taste of nothing and mould within a day.

Take a shallow tub or a rigid punnet rather than a plastic bag. Blackberries crush under their own weight, and a bag turns a morning's work into jam whether you wanted jam or not. A bent stick or a walking pole is genuinely useful for drawing high canes down towards you without shredding your forearms.

Where to pick — and where to walk on by

Hedgerows, woodland edges, old lanes, railway path verges that are legally accessible, and the sunny side of a scrubby field boundary are all classic spots. Brambles fruit best in full sun, so the south-facing side of a hedge almost always ripens first.

Some places are best left alone, for reasons of safety and taste alike:

• Busy roads. Fruit on the verge of an A-road collects dust, spray and exhaust, and you will be picking with your back to fast traffic. Not worth it.
• Field margins that may be sprayed. If the hedge borders arable land, keep to the top and outer edge, away from anything that could have caught drift.
• Railway land and motorway embankments. Trespass, and genuinely dangerous.
• Nature reserves with their own rules. Many allow picking fruit for personal use, some do not. Look for a notice at the entrance, or simply ask.

The waist-height rule and other good habits

Pick only above waist height. Below that, you are competing with foxes, badgers and dogs, and it is not a competition you want to win. Fruit higher up is also cleaner, drier and less likely to be splashed with anything unpleasant from the ground.

A few other habits worth keeping:

• Wear long sleeves and thin gloves for the deep pick, but bare hands at the top so you can feel whether the fruit releases easily.
• Watch for wasps, which are bad-tempered and numerous in late summer, and for nettles and thorns hiding under the canopy.
• Check yourself for ticks afterwards if you have been through long grass or bracken.
• Leave gates as you find them, keep dogs under control around livestock, and carry everything home with you.

In England and Wales, the Theft Act 1968 allows you to pick wild fruit growing on land you are lawfully on, for your own use — but not to uproot plants or to pick for commercial gain. In Scotland, access rights include picking wild fruit for personal consumption. Never dig up a bramble, and never strip a hedge.

Picking well, leaving plenty behind

Blackberries are one of the great wildlife foods of the British autumn. Blackbirds, song thrushes, redwings and fieldfares depend on them, hazel dormice eat them, and foxes and badgers take the fallen fruit. Bramble flowers earlier in the year are a lifeline for bees, hoverflies and butterflies, and the leaves feed a long list of moth caterpillars.

Take a third of what you find on any one bush and move on. Work along, not into — a few berries from many plants rather than everything from one. Leave the low-hanging and the awkwardly placed fruit; that is where the birds feed most safely.

From hedgerow to kitchen

If you have picked into a tub on a dry day, you can often use the fruit straight away. Otherwise, tip them into cold water with a teaspoon of salt for ten minutes — this draws out any fruit fly larvae — then drain and pat dry. Spread them on a tray and freeze flat before bagging, and you will have loose berries all winter rather than a solid lump.

Roughly equal weights of fruit and sugar, with a squeeze of lemon, gives a reliable jam that sets well. Beyond that: crumbles, cordials, vinegar, fruit leather, or a bottle of gin left in a cool cupboard until Christmas. Whatever you make, the pleasure is largely in the picking — a scratched forearm and a stained fingernail are the honest badges of a good afternoon in the hedgerow.