... 11, 12, 13, 14 , 15.
That's 15 plum stones sat by the side of me that Ive just counted and that's not including the ones that have been stuffed deep into my pockets in an opportunist moment when walking past a heavily abundantly fruited plum trees. I'm not fussy on variety's, its just an insatiable habit of mine that when i see a perfectly soft as a plump pillow plum I'm unable to walk past an leave it to rot away, Its too much of a waste to see these voluptuous stoned fruits get harvested upon by a swarm of wasps, who have become that intoxicated by the juices of the plums that they are too feeble to attempt an attack and barely even notice when you step into their boundries to try and save some of the fruits for yourselves.
Although my stomach may now be strongly hardened off to the effects of eating copious amounts of fruit, i think its now time to call it a day on the eating of plums. Its become more of a habit than an actual pleasure i can just about remember the life awakening moment when i took a tempting taste into my first plum of the season, with all its natural sweetness and feelings of sunshine in my mouth i would of found it difficult to believe that i could become so bored with the likes of the Victoria's and the damsons.
Ive now decided its time to begin foraging for some other natural beauties that lay in wait for natures masses of supermarket shoppers to take their pickings and store them away for the horrid and brutal winter months to come.
My first stop is an overwhelming amount of neglected apple trees, this may not be true foraging by finding them in someones back garden, but no money has exchanged hands, they don't come with a sticker stating their breed and they have been harvested by my own hands, so in my book that still counts as foraging.
Next , id been promised last week by R that he had stumbled upon the biggest bounty of deeply violet coloured blackberries that he had ever laid his eyes upon, knowing Rs slight affection to romanticising the truth at times i was pretty convinced that there may well be a good sandwich bag worth of berries to pick, but surely not the biggest harvest we've ever seen.
After a short journey, which consisted of me hanging off the side of the tractor, firmly trying to get my grasp on the wet handles, jumping off every 2 minutes to open and shut gates while R and the two dogs sat comfortably in the cab. Reaching our destination i could clearly see that we had struck blackberry gold , hundreds and hundreds of small indigo berries each with a generous covering of tiny little black pearls, the only problem was that there was that many of them they were intertwined amongst themselves and without a padded suit it was going to be near impossible to pick them.
With R just in his shorts, he picked the ones on the outside whilst i shut my eyes and waded in amongst the brambles and the nettles, whats a few scratches compared to a generous supply of blackberries?
Only a few stings and some deep thorn incisions later , i emerged with an ample supply to pack into our freezer, making sure i had left plenty of the berries for all of Mother Natures other creatures to come and enjoy, as with all gluts of a certain fruit or vegetable i always start of with the most suspected recipes i.e - A mass of tomatoes = Tomato Sauce, Hundreds of courgettes = Courgette soup - you get my picture, its only down the line when you get fed up of the usual recipes that you try and conjour up something new and less predictable.
The first thing to come to mind was Apple and Blackberry Pie. Crisp shortcrust pastry with soft, slightly tart oozing fruits inside. You can use any type of preferred shortcrust pastry you like , handmade, ready made, sweet dessert pastry, you could even top these mini pies with puff pastry or a home made crumble, just don't forget to really get that sweet homely feeling that so lovingly wraps around your body you must serve this dish with lashings and lashings of custard, cream or ice cream - its the law.
Apple and Blackberry Pies
450g ready made shortcrust pastry
3 large bramley apples
1 large handful of washed blackberries
2/3 Tbls of caster sugar
1 Free range egg beaten.
Grease 6 dariole moulds ( or if making a large pie, grease a 9 inch oven proof dish )
Roll out the pastry with a rolling pin and cut circles large enough to line the base and sides of the moulds ( if making a large pie cut one large disc) .
Place in the fridge for 10 - 20 Min's.
Peel and core your apples then finely slice and place in a bowl of cold water that has had a generous squeeze of lemon juice in it.
Pre - heat the oven to 180oc and take the moulds out of the fridge.
Carefully fill up the pie cases with the slices of apple ( taking care to give them a bit of a dry first getting rid of any excess water)
As you are filling the cases add a few blackberries and a generous sprinkling of sugar.
Once filled roll out the remaining pastry and cut circles big enough to make a lid to cover the pies.
Place the lids on top of the pies and carefully crimp and pinch around the edges to seal well.
Make a small air hole in the middle of the pies and brush the lids with the beaten egg.
Cook in the oven for around 25 minutes, until the tops are golden brown
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