Fruit
Blackberry
MoraMóraRubus ulmifolius
Summer's freest fruit, if you don't mind a few scratches. You'll know you've been blackberrying by your purple fingers and your T-shirt, which is beyond saving.
When
Around: Aug–Sept · At its best: Aug–Sept
Around: Aug–Sept · At its best: Aug–Sept
Around: Feb–Mar · At its best: Feb–Mar
Around here
In Catalonia brambles grow along every field edge, stream bed and farm track, and going blackberrying in August and September is a walk as old as the hills. Pick them away from roads and from field edges or verges that get sprayed, and only from the higher branches, out of reach of dogs. You'll see few at the market: cultivated ones, bigger and less sharp, are easier to find.
At the market
- Fully black, glossy and coming away at a touch: if you have to tug, they're not ripe.
- Leave the red or purple ones: they won't ripen once picked.
- Avoid any with grey mould, squashed ones or ones with little creatures inside.
- Wild ones only from away from roads and sprayed verges; in a punnet, check the bottom: if it's stained, there are squashed berries.
At home
- They're very delicate: carry them in a rigid, half-full container, not a bag.
- In the fridge, unwashed, spread out on a plate lined with paper: one or two days.
- Wash them just before eating, gently in a colander, and dry them on a tea towel.
If you have too much
- Blackberry jam: the September classic. If the pips bother you, put it through a food mill.
- Freeze them spread out on a tray, then bag them: they don't stick and come out one by one.
- Blackberry liqueur or vinegar: in a jar with eau de vie and sugar, or with wine vinegar, a few weeks in the dark.
- Coulis: blitzed with a little sugar and sieved, in jars or in the freezer.
In the kitchen
- Straight from the bramble into your mouth: that's what you went for.
- Blackberry and apple crumble, with oats and butter.
- With yoghurt or ricotta and a little honey, for breakfast.
- In a tart with peach or with figs.
- Blackberry sauce with a splash of wine, for duck or pork.
What it brings
Per 100 g, raw.
- Energy
- 43 kcal
- Water
- 88% water
- Carbs
- 9.6 g
- Sugars
- 4.9 g
- Fibre
- 5.3 g
- Protein
- 1.4 g
Stands out for
- Source of vitamin K19.8 µg · 26% of what you need in a day
- Source of vitamin C21 mg · 26% of what you need in a day
- Source of fibre5.3 g
Data from the USDA (FoodData Central). See the full table ↗ · How we decide what stands out
Goes with
- AppleAug–FebIt's harvested in late summer and autumn, but cold stores keep it on sale all year. In season, freshly picked, it crunches differently.
- PeachJun–OctPeach, nectarine and flat peach are the same species: a nectarine is a peach without fuzz, and the flat peach a squashed one. The one you can peel with your hands, dripping down to your elbow, is the one that was perfect.
- FigJun · Aug–SeptFig trees crop twice: brebas (early figs) at the start of summer, on last year's wood, and the true figs at the end. That's why figs take a break in July.
- RaspberryJun–SeptIt's hollow inside, which is why it squashes if you so much as look at it. In return it smells so good that a handful perfumes a whole pudding.