11 tips for painless blackberry picking!

11 tips for painless blackberry picking!

1) Wear long sleeves & trousers - them bushes aren't half prickly so if you want to dive in there for the best ones you'll need some protection!

2) Check for nettles first – if you’re like me you’ll be so absorbed in the picking you won’t notice how close you're creeping towards them. You can always stamp the nettles back or pull the branch away from the nettles. If you do get stung though, doc leaves are easily found and often work better than cream!

3) Don’t grab too many at once! Unless you have massive hands you can only hold a few without dropping them, and you don't want to lose the hard earned fruits of your labor!

4) Be strategic! Some bushes are smothered in nettles or on a steep hill - leave these till later as a last resort, you'll probably find some better ones in the meantime.

5) Check out the waste ground! You can often find loads of bushes on waste ground or by the road. You may worry about the pollution from car exhausts but if you've ever seen the pesticides sprayed on them berries you buy in the supermarket, you'll appreciate these roadside beauties.

6) Get a different perspective – if you can't see any more on the bush then bend or lift a branch and look from a different perspective - blackberries are very good at hiding just under the leaves!

7) Tub time! The best tubs have a lid with a hole in so even if you drop it the berries stay in. If you don't have one of these then take a larger tub with a lid to tip your berries into now and then.

8) Don't be too picky! If you’re making jam or cooking with the berries you can also pick all the slightly under-ripe or over-ripe ones as this adds to the texture. You can also sieve out any hard bits too.

9) Plan ahead. When you're walking around your stomping ground, keep your eyes open for good picking spots throughout the year. If you can't recognize the plants then look in July/August when you can spot the baby green/red blackberries.

10) Don't ping! With too much bouncing around all those lovely ripe berries can fall off the branch, so pick the ripest first and try not to ping the branches around, any that are a bit stuck can be twisted off. 

11) Enjoy it! Lap up that good feeling of being amongst nature and feeding yourself for free!