Blackberries (and Stinging Nettle)

First of the season

I drove to Discovery Park yesterday afternoon to check out the blackberry situation. From year to year the peak of the season varies anywhere from early August to early September. I think we're in for a late harvest this year. Slim pickins yesterday although I only made one stop. The best place to pick involved a hike and I wasn't quite up for that.  Here's what I did gather. Still a bit tart, waiting for the sun to kiss them with sweetness.

I can't wait for the offical taste-of-summer, the blackberry cobbler with a dollop of whipped cream. Ahhhhh.

Denny requests  blackberry sorbet which involves running the berries through the juicer to get the seeds out, leaving behind pure blackberry juice, perfect for ice cream or sorbet. We'll enjoy that taste as well. when the berries proliferate.

Blackberry bushes challenge even the best pickers to steer clear of their thorns when reaching deep into the depths of the green to pluck off the ripe fruit. Yesterday, my strategy was superior until the underside of my right forearm grazed against none other than a lurking stinging nettle bush hidden in amongst the blackberry vines. In all my years of picking, that's never happened. Go figure.

The stinging nettle may be great for specific medicinal and culinary purposes, but the leaves pack a punch characterized by annoying and persistent burning invoked by even an insignifiant encounter.  Seems the best cure is time; several days of tingling pain and it should be over. I'll need to mind the nettles from now on, especially in the area I was picking yesterday.

Blackberries: get your sweet on! I want my cobbler!