I love blackberry season. It’s great to see
the bushes alive with fruit and if you know where to pick them there’s an
abundance of ripe fruit for everyone. Luckily for me I know an ‘off the beaten
track’ nature reserve near to where I live that’s always flourishing with an
huge array of blackberries. For some reason it always seems really quiet and
remote but it’s literally just off the main street.
Back in Preston there are loads of places where you can pick fruit but in London you’ve got to know about them as they’re usually slightly hidden away. I’m not going to tell you the exact spot as you’d probably get to them before me, sorry. I want to keep them all for myself (smug grin). So I headed out to pick as many beautiful berries as I could carry. Unfortunately I forgot about how thorny the plants are and so having worn shorts and a t-shirt came back with bleading legs and hurting fingers but all was well as my prize was 3 large punnets of ripe blackberries!
Back in Preston there are loads of places where you can pick fruit but in London you’ve got to know about them as they’re usually slightly hidden away. I’m not going to tell you the exact spot as you’d probably get to them before me, sorry. I want to keep them all for myself (smug grin). So I headed out to pick as many beautiful berries as I could carry. Unfortunately I forgot about how thorny the plants are and so having worn shorts and a t-shirt came back with bleading legs and hurting fingers but all was well as my prize was 3 large punnets of ripe blackberries!
The plan was to make a glorious blackberry
tart but I got distracted with work and so here’s the other thing I use them
for – COCKTAILS! I used to be a bartender at Gaucho Grill in Manchester and so
I like to think I know a thing or two about cocktails and relish the opportunity to have a few
cheeky drinks in the sun whenever I can.
This was a recipe that I often used to win over customers and it's a really great one to learn as you can adapt it to use any spirit and fruit. The thing to remember about cocktails is that they’re actually pretty easy to make as long as you know the basics. With this recipe you can’t go wrong, go and pick yourself some blackberries, buy some lemons and bourbon and then your night has begun!
This was a recipe that I often used to win over customers and it's a really great one to learn as you can adapt it to use any spirit and fruit. The thing to remember about cocktails is that they’re actually pretty easy to make as long as you know the basics. With this recipe you can’t go wrong, go and pick yourself some blackberries, buy some lemons and bourbon and then your night has begun!
The blackberry tart recipe will be up in
the next few days so be sure to check back!
BLACKBERRY BOURBON SOURS
Ingredients:
½ lemon (cut into quarters)
5 or 6 blackberries
2 large teaspoons sugar
50ml bourbon
Method:
-
Put the lemon pieces,
blackberries and sugar in a glass and muddle together (You can use anything to
muddle, I often use the end of a rolling pin)
-
Fill the glass with ice and
then pour over the bourbon
-
Mix with a spoon making sure to
mix all the ingredients together thoroughly
-
Garnish with a blackberry and a
slice of lemon
2 Types of berries - the black ones and red ones! ; )
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This is why you should come to Bristol and visit us, LOADS of blackberries right next to our house. We picked about 2kg the other day and made blackberry loaf.
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