There’s been a bumper crop of big, juicy wild blackberries this summer. We had a 2-hour long session of picking last Sunday and returned home with around 3 kilos of fruit – not counting the half kilo that Fudge picked & ate on the spot. We were sure he was going to make himself sick!

We planted a few fruit bushes in our garden this spring – one each of blackcurrant, redcurrant, whitecurrant and raspberry.

They looked like beautiful little jewels drooping from the branches.

Our garden hauls weren’t great, but we put everything in the freezer with the view to using them later in the year.

We added them to the wild berries gathered on our dog walks and ended up with an interesting mix of berries.

I’d already made some wild raspberry jelly last month which was absolutely delicious – especially spread between sponge cake layers. Justin requested a mixed berry jelly rather than jam – neither of us care to get seeds stuck in our teeth! We got 6 nice jars of jelly which is enough to last the winter. We’ll gift a couple of jars and still have plenty left for cake making, fruit sauces, toast etc…

…and probably our favourite way to eat it – a lazy weekend breakfast with newspapers, strong coffee and fresh croissants!