Blackberries | Gourmandistan

Blackberry bounty brings some beautiful blackberry bars

July 25, 2017 by Steve

It has been a banner year for wild blackberries in Gourmandistan. We had enough for several batches of blackberry jam plus some blackberry cobblers (including several cups frozen for a future cobbler at Michelle’s mother’s request). Even after Steve spent many mornings gleaning the patch, there are still more berries available should he feel like hiking out to get them. (He will most likely hike out to get them.) With this sort of surplus available, Steve has been urging Michelle to make […]

Categories: Baking, Blackberries, Cookies, Desserts & Sweets, Food, Fruit Desserts, Jams & Preserves, Recipes

Wild blackberry curd and buttercream make a lovely wedding (cake)

July 23, 2015 by Michelle

The wedding that eventually led to Gourmandistan happened many years ago, and it has been quite a while since we’ve attended anyone else’s. However, a combination of Michelle’s imagination and Steve’s perspiration recently led to one of the best wedding cakes either of us has ever eaten—and we didn’t have to get dressed up to do it. This year’s wild blackberry harvest was not that wonderful. February’s ice and snow smashed many canes flat; the oddly cool temperatures and torrential rains that followed didn’t […]

Categories: Blackberries, Cake, Chocolate, Cooking, Desserts & Sweets, Food, Fruit Desserts, Recipes, Vegetarian

Blackberry chocolate chip ice cream makes you beg for a briar patch.

July 29, 2013 by Steve

Blackberries, it seems, would prefer you not pick them. That must be why in addition to hundreds of tiny sharp thorns ready to embed themselves in your skin, blackberry bushes arm themselves with an array of other nasty surprises. Poison ivy, snakes, spiders, hornets and wasps are only some of the things your fingers may brush while reaching for that plump purple berry. One taste of this ice cream, however, and you’ll be championing the return of Br’er Rabbit. (Hopefully this time […]

Categories: Blackberries, Cooking, Food, Fruit Desserts, Ice cream, Recipes, Vegetarian

Bee suits, bittersweet, brambles and blackberry jam

July 27, 2013 by Steve

We are having a wonderful year for wild blackberries. Steve, determined to make the most of it, has been tramping out to a patch every morning for a couple of weeks. It’s a lovely spot, surrounded by sugar maple, tulip poplar and sassafras trees, and Steve doesn’t mind the hike through our (and, to be honest, our absentee neighbors’) overgrown old farm fields to get to them. He doesn’t mind spending an hour or so shuffling around a tangle of […]

Categories: Blackberries, Cooking, Food, Jams & Preserves, Recipes, Vegetarian

Potato Salad and Patriotism (with a bit of Blackberry Cobbler)

July 4, 2012 by Steve

It’s the 4th of July, a day many Americans celebrate with beer, bizarre outfits and bloviating about “the greatest best country God has ever given man on the face of the earth.” Gourmandistan takes a slightly different path to celebrate the Fourth, a bit quieter than the usual American practice of blowing stuff up real good. Unfortunately, to the sort of people who desperately want to believe they live in “Real America,” being different is a dangerous thing. These people […]

Categories: Blackberries, Cooking, Food, Fruit Desserts, Independence Day, Old cookbooks, Pies & Tarts, Potatoes, Recipes, Salad, Vegetarian