Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, July 27, 1994 TAG: 9408180004
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: SARAH COX SPECIAL TO THE ROANOKE TIMES & WORLD-NEWS
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Thus it is for the blackberry picker. Swathed in long pants, long-sleeved shirts, socks pulled up over cuffs, hands a mess: nuts in 90-degree heat. A hard-won reward, a tale of triumph and bitter losses, of lessons learned and desserts of royalty.
Picking blackberries has been the making of my son; some claim he was a momma's boy. But when he stuck his twiggy legs out at the end of a hot afternoon, showed me crisscrossed angry scratches from ankle to thigh, and smiled his blackberry smile, I knew he'd gone through those rites of passage and known only joy.
And you, too, can pick blackberries. They grow abundantly in the wild, all over the United States. Our Southeastern region has the upright, thorny bushes, unless they are cultivated hybrids whose berries are larger and thornless. The wild ones are small, sweet, heavily seeded, heavily protected by thorns.
Or you can saunter down to your local farmer's market, and buy by the pint and quart, either the hybrid variety, tarter with a shorter growing season, or the wild kind.
Depending on the weather, blackberries always arrive when the summer sky is unmerciful and the air is thick. The raspberries and strawberries are only sweet memories; the blueberries and sour cherries twinkles in the orchards' eyes. July is blackberry summer.
For about $1.50 per pint during season, more for the first week, you can experience lavender ice-cream, deep violet jelly, tart with a nut crust, outright purple muffins, or a bowl of only berries, which is just about the finest way to start a day.
None of this is too hard, particularly if you buy the berries. The one cardinal rule, passed along by my mother, is to never wash them before you use them. Rinse gently in a cold water bath and let them drain in a colander. This way, you'll lose less juice.
To make a batch of jelly, you'll need about 10 cups, or five pints of berries. The best and easiest way to extract the berry juice is to use a Foley's Mill, which mashes, and sieves the paltry from the plunder. You may need to resieve once more, using a finer mesh, if you want seedless jelly rather than "jemmy." After that, simply follow - very carefully - the directions that come with the boxes of powdered fruit pectin, such as Sure-Jell, that can be found in most grocery stores.
In addition to the berries and pectin, you'll need sugar, sterile, unchipped canning jars, and rings and lids. It takes about one and one-half hours to boil the jars, extract juice, make jelly, pour and process. You'll have about six cups of jelly. Jam yields more, with less berries, but there are a ton of seeds, and it doesn't set up as well.
Or you can make tart, preferably with a nut crust. Maybe add orange zest. Sprinkle black currant liqueur or cognac. This is what I'd do: puree 10 ounces of nuts - almonds, hazelnuts, or walnuts - in the food processor; add 2 sticks butter, cut up; 1/3 cup sugar; 3 cups all-purpose flour; 1 egg; 1 teaspoon vanilla extract; and if you are so inclined, a couple teaspoons of that orange zest. Mix this until a ball of pastry forms. Divide in half; press one half into a 9-inch tart pan and chill this and the rest of the dough, which will be wrapped in plastic.
Sprinkle 4 cups of berries with 1 tablespoon of a libation, if desired. In a separate bowl, stir together 1/2 cup sugar, 2 tablespoons flour, a dash of cinnamon and nutmeg, and a tiny pinch of salt. Add this to the berries and gently, oh so gently, toss. Pile this into your tart, and take out the rest of the chilled pastry. Roll it out, and either cover your tart's top, or cut into strips and alternately lay them across the top, sealing the edges in either case. Place in a 425-degree oven for 10 minutes, and then reduce heat to 350 degrees for about 25 minutes or until the crust is brown. Keep a sharp eye on it.
This past winter, day eight of being house-bound, surrounded on all sides by a five-inch sea of ice, I took a quart of frozen blackberries, made that tart, and dreamed of blackberry summer.
BLACKBERRY FLAN
BLACKBERRY SAUCE
CHICKEN WITH BLACKBERRIES, LIMES and FRESH HERBS
SEARED PORK LOIN WITH CARAMELIZED ONIONS AND BLACKBERRIES
BLACKBERRY JAM
BLACKBERRY ROLYPOLY
BAKING POWDER BISCUITS
BERRIES WITH LIQUEUR
BLACKBERRY SHERBET
\ see microfilm for recipes
by CNB