B is for berries.

Blackberries - in July?  

We normally pick from the middle of August through September and even maybe into October - we remember adding them to a batch of either black fig or black grapes during wine making - and there's certainly neither of them ready yet.
There are quite a lot of them growing along the side of the path and around the fuente,  some are still small and hard and red maybe because they are in a shadier and drier place than the others,  but the ones closest to the fuente are juicy and ripe.  I picked a handful a day or so ago which we have eaten,  tomorrow I must remember to take a bag with me on our morning walk,  much less messy!

Not too good these photos of the blackberries,  they hadn't quite caught the morning sun,  they are growing amongst wild honeysuckle and clematis.

We had a bowl of mixed fruits after lunch today,   blackberries, our strawberries and pears from next doors tree,  only got a dozen or so this year,  the rest have dropped onto the ground and rotted. 

The strawberry glut is well and truly over,  we are getting about 200 grams twice a week at the moment which is enough to eat without thinking   'oh, no not strawberries again!'  We started picking April 27th,  a kilo that day,  but by May 19th we were up to the biggest day - 5.6 kilos.  Then back down to a manageable amount.

So far we've picked 39.5 kilos!!

What do we do with them all?  Eat lots,  we dried a couple of kilos to eat with cereals and maybe to add to this Christmas's boozy mincemeat recipe that I found,  gave some away,  took some to our Fiesta to share,  and made 44 litres of wine.

The other berry that I was going to mention isn't worth a mention really.  We were given a raspberry cane a few years back,  it produced a handful of berries that autumn, next year there were 13 little canes but only a handful of fruit again,  this year only 3 canes have survived and they are just sitting there in the ground looking pathetic.  No flowers,  no growth - unless you call 3 inches of raspberry cane growth - which we don't.  So sad, but thank goodness for the strawberries.