• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • About
  • Recipes
  • Lifestyle

All Kitchen Colours logo

menu icon
go to homepage
  • About
  • Recipes
  • Lifestyle
search icon
Homepage link
  • About
  • Recipes
  • Lifestyle
×

Home » Lifestyle

Updated: Nov 16, 2022 by Lea

Autumn Foraging for Blackberries with Kids

Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links. As an amazon associate, we earn commission at no additional cost to you if you click through and make a purchase. Read our disclosure for more information.

Boys with dirty faces from eating blackberries
A hand holding freshly picked blackberries
Boys with dirty faces from eating blackberries

Countryside walks are so rewarding in the pleasant autumn sun. Leaves are starting to turn red, orange and yellow, and bushes are full of all sorts of berries. It is easy to find some blackberries alongside countryside lanes and roads. Blackberry hedges are hardy and invasive plants. They easily take over nice sunny spots when they are not regulated and often grow in large quantities. If looking for blackberries, try hillsides, countryside lanes, wood borders and hedgerows.

The end of summer throughout September is the best time to pick blackberries. It's when this fruit is at its peak in most of the UK. We always collect only dark-coloured berries that pull off easily from the branch. Those are the sweetest. Any under-ripe, red-coloured fruit will taste very sour/tart and put the kids from eating them.

The ripe berries are soft and juicy and easily stain fingers and clothes. Moreover, blackberry plants are thorny dense bushes growing untidy and tangled. It's easy for kids to get scratched by trying to reach the best-looking berries. Therefore, I prefer when my children wear clothes with long trousers and sleeves that can get dirty.

learn how to recognise a blackberry bush

Make sure your children (especially young ones) know what the blackberry hedge looks like, and don't mistake blackberry for any other dark-coloured berries. Point out how the plant grows, its leaves' shape and the berries' colour. Spot each berry's different stages before it becomes juicy, dark purple/black fruit. Red-coloured berries might look inviting, but their taste will disappoint. It's easy to find all the berry stages (from green and red to dark black) on the same bush as it produces fruit continuously.

blackberry picking
A hand picking blackberries from a hedge

talk about interesting facts

Together try to think about what kind of animals enjoy eating blackberries.

Hint: These juicy berries are popular with all sorts of birds and insects and animals like squirrels, mice, hedgehogs, foxes and even deer.

Animals help to spread the plant seeds far from the parent plant. They can be carried on the feet of birds or animal fur. Another way how the seeds are dispersed is in animal droppings.

You can discuss with children how our ancestors used to preserve fruit to enjoy it past their season and benefit from its vitamins.

Hint: You kids might be surprised that people have to learn to preserve food without a fridge/freezer.

The easiest way was to sun dry the berries.

Recipes for the first jam date back to ancient Greece. Sailors and pirates alike use to take jam on their sailing adventures as fresh fruit didn’t last long, and jam provided the sailors with important vitamin C.

But sugar was an expensive commodity, so medieval people often sealed the fruit in more affordable honey.

The method of preserving the fruit by boiling it in an airtight jar was discovered during the Napoleonic wars (early 19th century) when it was necessary to feed a large number of soldiers and provide them with important vitamins to keep them strong.

And while you are foraging for blackberries, don’t forget to enjoy the outdoors. Let your kids run around and release some steam. Give them all the freedom so they can appreciate the countryside and fresh air. It will give you a little bit of time to unwind too.

Blackberry harvest on the table

Here is an idea for a simple blackberry snack that kids can prepare by themself using sugar and yoghurt.

Dusting blackberries with sugar
Print Recipe
5 from 1 vote

Simple Blackberry Snack

Super easy dessert kids can prepare in a few minutes. A tasty combination of sugar dusted blackberries, smooth Greek style yoghurt with a pinch of cinnamon and desiccated coconut.
Prep Time15 mins
Total Time15 mins
Course: Snack
Servings: 4
Author: Lea

Ingredients

  • Blackberries
  • Icing sugar
  • Greek style yoghurt
  • Cinnamon
  • Desiccated coconut

Instructions 

  • Rinse blackberries under cold water. For Wild blackberries it's better to leave them submerged in cold water for 2 - 3 minutes to get rid off all uninvited insects.
  • Let the blackberries dry a bit.
  • Generously coat them with icing sugar.
  • Spoon greek style yoghurt into a bowl.
  • Lay blackberries over the yoghurt.
  • Sprinkle them with a pinch of cinnamon and designated coconut.
  • Dust them with more icing sugar if still very sour.
« Low-fat Sponge Cake in a Remoska
Oven Slow-Cooked Pulled Pork »

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recipe Rating




Primary Sidebar

About Us

Lea & Chris

Welcome to our family food blog Allkitchencolours.com. We love cooking and we cook a lot. Instead of using a traditional recipe book that would sit in our kitchen dresser we have decided to make our family recipe book digital. Hopefully, it means that now we won’t forget any of our tasty recipes ever again and it’s easy to share them with others. This website is all about our love for cooking and tasty food, as well as our enthusiasm for improving our home and lifestyle. More about us.

Leftover Recipes

  • Butter Bean Curry with Coconut
    Tomato Coconut Curry with Butter Beans
  • Leftover pork shoulder roast recipe
    Leftover Pork Shoulder Stew
  • Leftover Chicken Enchiladas with Flour Tortillas
    Leftover Chicken Enchiladas with Leek and Sour Cream
  • How to make nachos in the oven
    Nachos with Cheese and Leftover Bolognese Sauce

Food Categories

  • Main Meals
  • Desserts and Sweets
  • Breakfast
  • Soups and Stews
  • Web Stories

IMAGE SHARING

All images and text on this site are our property. If you’d like to share, feel free to use an image from the article and link back to that post. Pinning is always welcome and appreciated.

For questions about the blog, please contact us at [email protected]

Footer

↑ back to top

allkitchencolours logo, mobile - 400x140

About

Allkitchencolours.com is a participant in the Amazon EU Associates Programme.  As an Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases. 

Info

  • Privacy Policy
  • Disclosure
  • Contact
  • Subscribe

Copyright © 2022 ALL KITCHEN COLOURS

0 shares
  • English