A time full of berries..!

Over the last week we were lukcy enough to be given a delicous large bucket full of Oma's balckberries, which were enormous and almost sweet (for blackberries!). I set to work making an apple and blackberry crumble.

Luckily mum had brought over a large tin of custard last time and crumble and warm Englsih custard is so heart warming, especially at the end of summer when evenings start to get a bit chilly. I can't say if it would have been the same without the custard, and Dutch vla is not the same thing.

I was also lucky enough on Sunday to meet a friend and her daughter with my smallest daughters in Ramdonksveer, Brabant. She had found a moutain of bambles, full with small but sweet balckberries. It looked like we were the only people picking these berries! I have now a new enormous bucket of them and wondering what else to do with them.

My kids and I often go into the forest behind us at this time of year to pick the local berries, and also we seem to to be amongst the very few picking! Why do the Dutch seem not to pick wild berries?? It is free food, and that is always good. Especially as berries can help us make so many delcious cakes, puddings and jams!

So, I am in a dilemma: another crumble, or make a jam or freeeze them for later in the winter?

SPRANKENHOF: I also felt I had to show you this wonderful spot, although of course it is not free but they grow all srts of seasonal berries which as also organically grown. This includes in the summer, blueberries. There is a smal cafe and also a trampoline and swining tyre fr the kids. It is a very lovely place to spend a few hours pikcing berries and teaching the kids that food does not come in packets. It is also in a very beautiful setting, just a few minutes from the Loonse Duinen. An enormous natural sand forest, with cycle paths and also horse riding routes that seem to go on for miles...so you can spend the morning picking fruit, wander on down to the sand forest and have a picnic or go tot he neighbouring restaurant for a nice snack and a beer.

http://www.sprankenhof.com/2/homepage