The juiciest forage

Areader tells us that he has already made his blackberry jam. It’s a metaphor ready in a jar for this remarkable summer. Blackberries are usually to be gathered at the same time as apples in order to make blackberry and apple pie. It’s part of the year’s round for the family to brave the thorns to reach out for the juiciest specimens, and to come home stained with the plunder. It was what occupied Flopsy, Mopsy and Cotton-tail (who were good little bunnies), while the errant Peter Rabbit was almost made into a pie himself. So for us who live in these temperate islands, blackberries are a sort of distilled sunshine. An early crop goes with the early wheat harvest, which is welcome even where yields this year are down. The golden fields are our bread and butter and the blackberries are a bonus for those who want jam on it.