A few days ago a farmstay guest here at Struan Farm returned from a kayak on the Mangaotaki with some lovely fresh blackberries she'd found on the side of the river.
As a sheep farm we work assiduously to rid the property of blackberry bushes, since sheep can get entangled in them and die. John spends many hours on hillsides with spray tanks of poison, doing what he can to contain and control it. As his father did so before him.
So it was more than a little ironic that John and I decided to go off foraging for wild blackberries, searching the neighbours' boundary areas for blackberry bushes. Neither one seems to be quite as concerned about weed or animal pests as we are, having larger properties that are commercial farms and running different types of stock. There were blackberry bushes everywhere.
One needs to tread carefully, it's a prickly business. Blackberry tends to reach out for you. But we managed to come home with a good bit of fruit.
I improvised a blackberry galette for dessert that night, and we shared the rest with the farmstay guests.
I might need to venture back if time permits.....I'm thinking jam, or maybe even paste.
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