Celebrate blackberries

British summers are synonymous with hedgerows heavy with wild blackberries, and there's nothing more gratifying than picking – and cooking – your own. Their not-too-sweet, not-too-tart flavour is sublime, and they add texture to cocktails.

A bit about blackberries

Blackberry seasons runs from August-November in the UK and as the seasons change so do the culinary uses for this fruit. In summer, blackberries go well on their own, sprinkled lightly with sugar or added to cream, in berry compotes, summer puddings or muddled into cocktails; in autumn they bring comfort in the form of steaming hot pies and custard-friendly puds.

Blackberries can be found across the globe in countries with cooler, temperate climates, but no-one loves them more than the British and Northern Europeans – archelogical digs have confirmed that Europeans were eating them as long ago as 8,000 B.C.

This bramble grows quickly and adapts to its environment well, even growing in poor soil, and so is commonly found on wasteland as well as in hedgerows and woodland.

Nutritional content and health benefits

Blackberries are very high in antioxidants and vitamin C which may protect against cancer. Their seeds contain fibre and omega-3 and omega-6 fats

Choosing and freezing blackberries

If you can, pick your own – even citydwellers will find them growing on canal paths, the wild areas of parks and on scrubland. Try not to pick any by the roadside, however, as these can absorb pollution, and go for berries above waist height, especially on paths, for the simple reason that a animal could have cocked their leg on what could soon be your lunch. Expect the fruit from each blackberry bush to vary in sweetness.

Otherwise, try local farmers' markets or a Pick Your Own farm. The blackberries you pick should be plump, dark and somewhere between squishy and firm. If they stain your container, they're probably too soft.

Once picked, they need to be eaten or cooked within a day or two. Keep them cool and wash throughly before use. They can be frozen too; spread evenly on a tray, freeze, then pop into air-tight plastic bags and keep in the freezer.

Blackberry facts

In WWI children in England were told to collect blackberries to make a vitamin-rich juice for soldiers.

One superstition claims that blackberries shouldn't be picked after mid-October because this was when the devil was cast out from heaven and, in a fit of pique after falling into a prickly blackberry bush, urinated on them, leaving a stain on the leaves. A possible explanation is that as the weather grows wetter and colder the fruit can become infected by molds and frosts.