A Handful of Blackberries

We planted a runner of a thornless blackberry from a friends garden and this year it has begun to fruit. The blackberries are much bigger than the wild brambles and seemingly much earlier.

I picked the first handful a few days ago and sat them in a pan with a spoonful of sugar just to encourage the juice to run. The next day I simmered the blackberries in their own juice and strained the syrup through a fine stainless steel sieve.  The amount of juice was tiny but very intense. I put it in the fridge and wondered how to make the best of such a tiny amount of juice. I wanted to celebrate these first fruit but realistically I should have waited for a larger crop.

I am trying to reduce the amount of added sugar as I feel it would be healthier and also a lot of sugar tends to reduce the flavour to a general sweetness. Then I had a brilliant idea, blackberry and cabernet sauvignon. I added a large wine glass of some Cabernet Sauvignon wine and another spoonful of sugar and a little applejuice and some water. It tasted like blackberry wine and I put it in the icecream machine. After half an hour it was still not set but beginning to be slushy so I transferred it to the freezer. Two hours later we had it at the end of a lovely summer lunch.

It all went, not surprisingly as there wasn't a lot but it was firm enough to spoon out into balls and although it melted quickly in the hot sun it was a definite success. Not too sweet and with a bit of a boozy buzz.