People often ask me when I started my foraging career. I always
say it was with my first blackberry when I was a child, like
everyone else. For most of us the blackberry (or bramble as it
is often called) is the one wild food we have always known and,
despite a fear of wild berries inculcated in us from childhood,
the one berry we will pick without hesitation. Blackberry
expeditions are notoriously uncomfortable affairs. Flies,
nettles and the vicious backward pointing thorns of the bramble
itself conspire to make things as difficult as possible. I wear
a thick shirt and trousers and one leather glove to hold the
stem while I pick the berries. While most wild foods come in
small quantities the blackberry comes by the ton so several
baskets will be needed. You may have noticed how variable
blackberries are. Sometimes the fruit is small and sharp,
sometimes large, sweet and juicy, some early fruiting, some late
fruiting. This is partly down to climate and soil, but there is
also a more fundamental reason – the