Blackberry Picking Time

The blackberry crop in Discovery Park seems picked clean this year. Either that, or I don't know where to look anymore. Denny and I spent an hour amongst the brambles and thorns yesterday and barely came away with enough berries for the large pan of blackberry cobbler I'm planning to make for next Saturday's picnic in the park. The big, juicy berries were few and far between, replaced by smaller, more tenaciously attached brothers and sisters. We managed to pluck enough though and today I prepared the base for the cobbler. I'll refrigerate it until Saturday morning and then put on the crumble topping and pop it in the oven. Yum; the taste of summer (in September....)

There are several other blackberry treats we crave this time of year in addition to cobbler. Today I tried picking at a site on Magnolia Boulevard where my Dad used to go back in the day. Mom always worried about him getting hit by a car picking in this area; the bushes butt up to the roadside in some areas. I steered clear of those places although the berries were lush and big on those vines hanging into the street.  I managed to score a large sized container full of berries in 45 minutes or so.

Back home the berries went into the juicer and now I've got the fixings for blackberry sorbet and for blackberry mojitos later on in the week. That juicer rarely gets used except for this purpose. If you want a  pure, seedless juice out of these little jewels, run them through this machine and a rich, dark syrup is all that remains.

I'm looking forward to Saturday's picnic in the park. Hopefully this glorious weather will hold. September is such a beautiful month in Seattle.