by Niamh Cooper, Melissa Byrne & Gillian Hegarty
West Cork’s hedgerows are full of blackberries at the moment, ripening away in that seemingly endless sunshine we’ve just had. If you haven’t been out yet to pick them, grab your nearest bowl or bucket and head down the quiet country lanes. You should still find loads!
Blackberry-picking has been a rite of late summer for generations, and it inspired one of Ireland’s most famous poems, Seamus Heaney’s ‘Blackberry-Picking’. The poem captures that particular thrill of filling a container with fruit, and the small disappointment days later when the haul doesn’t keep as well as you’d hoped. It’s well worth reading if you haven’t come across it, especially when you’re out blackberry-picking yourself.
Turning your pickings into jam or compôte is how people have solved the problem Heaney wrote about – and that way, you’ll be able to eat blackberries well into the winter months. A great way to prepare for this is to pick small container-fulls at a time, and freeze the berries that day. Before you know it, you’ll have enough for a batch of jam or compôte.
You can make either compôte or jam with your haul of blackberries. But what is the difference?
Compote is chunkier, less sweet, and is cooked for less time, so the fruit holds more of its shape and flavour.
Jam is cooked longer with a lot more sugar, often close to equal weight to fruit, until it sets and is firm enough to spread on toast. It keeps for months.
Blackberry and apple compôte
You will need an adult to help with the hot pan, the oven, and pouring the finished compôte into jars.
Ingredients
• 900g blackberries
• 450g cooking apples (Bramley apples work well)
• 450g granulated sugar
Method
Put a small plate in the fridge to chill. Sterilise your jam jars in the oven at 100ºC/gas mark 1/4.
Peel, core and slice the apples.
Stew the apples in a saucepan with two tablespoons of water until soft.
In a separate saucepan, cook the blackberries with 50ml of water until soft. Skip the water if using frozen berries.
Crush the blackberries with a potato masher if you’d like a smoother compôte. Add the sugar and cooked apple, and stir until the sugar has fully dissolved.
Bring the compôte to the boil and let it bubble for about 15 minutes.
Now it’s time to test it: spoon a little compôte onto your chilled plate and pop it back in the fridge for a minute. Push the compôte gently with your finger. If the surface wrinkles, your compôte is ready.
Stir in a small knob of butter to help clear any scum from the fruit.
Carefully ladle your compôte into the sterilised jars and seal with lids that have been boiled and dried.
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