After an exhaustive search of my own backyard for blackberries, my take consisted of a small handful of berries from
some low-growing vines that I discovered had wended their way among the blueberry bushes. These I ate before I even made it into the house.
My friend took pity on me. She invited me over to her house to pick some blackberries, so on Sunday, my daughter and I headed over. Well, I found out pretty quick why I only had a handful at my house…it’s because Susan has them all at her house! It seemed like millions of them. My hour and half (give or take) of picking did not even make a dent in the bounty of the blackberries.
Now. What the heck does one do with a gallon of blackberries?
Here’s a dozen ideas, ranging from easier to harder:
- Eat them as is. No washing them off first; that’s for wimps.
- Stir them into your yogurt.
- Freeze them for use later on. You may have read advice about how you should place them on a cookie sheet in the freezer until they are frozen, the place them in a bag to prevent clumping, etc. I never do that; my freezer will not accommodate that on a good day (like, on the day before the food shopping). I just dump ’em all into a ziploc-type freezer bag and hope for the best. (It’s not ever a problem).
- Throw a handful into your (garden) salad. Really.
- Add some to pancake batter.
- Add some to a smoothie.
- Got a favorite blueberry muffin recipe? Try adding blackberries to the batter instead.
- Make a cobbler. Cobblers are pretty novice-baker-friendly. The Pioneer Woman Cooks has 2 versions of blackberry cobbler on her website.
- Make blackberry sauce for your pancakes, waffles, or other food of choice. This recipe has only 2 ingredients (one of which is the blackberries!).
- Blackberry pie would be great. If you use prepackaged pie crust, it’s even easier. Here’s a blackberry pie recipe from Mario Batali.
- Make a blackberry quick bread.
- Make blackberry ice cream. Okay, this is the most labor intensive, and you need (pricey) special equipment. Feel free to just look at the pictures of this one. 🙂
That’s it. That’s my top 12 list. I have done #1-4 so far (so many blackberries; so little time)…and I still have plenty left for other things on the list. And if I run out? Well, I know where to get more…heh heh heh…
Karen Creamer Author, Coach, Speaker 
We once lived somewhere where we had an entire backyard filled with blackberry bushes. I miss not having any here where we live now. Blackberry jelly was always the family favorite.
I have to admit that I tried to make (rhubarb) jam once and was very disappointed with the results, so it sort of scared me off of it. 😦 It’s good to know there is someone out there making good jam!
If I didn’t get home so late from work last night I would have made the blackberry bread. Don’t forget to buy vanilla ice cream for your cobbler!
Karen,
you are welcome to come by and pick anytime! I’m going to try one of the cobbler recipe’s you posted! Going to the store now for ingrediants.
Susan