Cash and Carried in the City

Yesterday we got outside and enjoyed a lovely day picking blackberries. It isn't the most glorious river walk we've seen or experienced, but having it in our back yard seems to be a definite plus. We came across the Wandle River a couple of weeks ago and noticed a lot of blackberry bushes on a couple of stretches of the path. Honestly we weren't 100% sure they were blackberries, but after trying them out we definitely knew they were not ready to pick either. Since Matt had today off we decided to go back and check to see if they had ripened. I looked online and many had said that this was prime picking time and had great stories about the experience of it all. Anyway, we came across some very bare plants and then a few more down the way scavenging for as many as we could find. Of course by the end of it we had sticky, purple, scratched, and bitten hands but well worth the trip!

It was a really neat experience considering we live smack in the city and have found this little treat! We ventured further down about a 1/4 of a mile, hopped on a bus back home, stopped at our local convenient store for some additional ingredients to make some apple & blackberry crumble. Of course after all was said and done we had a lovely little treat, spent little money, and had something interesting to tell. Now if we could find other places to pick seasonal fruit...or vegetables...maybe we'll consider doing some preserves!! Second option is to find a farmer's market with local goods...