Blackberry Picking
We’ve found several places within 5 minutes walk of the City
Farm where blackberries can be found.
August is when they start ripening, and we have already seen some really
large juicy ones!
A small group of us
walked into Victoria Park and turned right towards Bedminster station. There are some really large bramble bushes
thriving along the railway fence, with plenty of fruit in easy reach. We used a long stick to hold back the prickly branches and nettles where necessary so we could pick the darkest fruits.
Past the station entrance and moving onto the start of the
Malago Walkway we found so many bushes, we filled up our bags and containers
really quickly!
We have frozen some to
use on the next Jam-making session on Wed 26th September (book
online at www.freewebstore.org/windmillhillcityfarm/index.aspx?pageid=1212375
). Blackberries are also great in pies and crumbles, especially mixed with apples.
We also found this unusual Umbrella Tree – a useful find
given the wet summer we have been having!
Plums on the Bath Road
Some of you may have noticed the colourful mess of plums spreading
across the pavement on the Bath Road near the Three Lamps junction.
Initial inspection suggests there is some type of purple plum and two less well known fruits – the Mirabelle plum (which
has small, rounded yellow fruit that is popular in France for jam-making) and
the cherry plum. Cherry plums have small, round,
red-coloured fruit which are the size of a large cherry but with a plum stone
inside and the crease typical of a plum on the outside.
This is a good example of why the Fruitfulness project was
set up as we can’t bear to see this lovely fruit going to waste! If you’d like to share in gathering this free
harvest – before all the fruit falls and turns to mush – contact the City Farm to volunteer. If you’d like to get
involved with other fruit harvesting and
foraging walks in the Bedminster area, keep an eye on the Events page.
