Walking through the forest

With the woods literally on our doorstep we often go for a stroll. Zoe our daughter would love to walk all the way but isn't old enough yet and still gets tired.  She also doesn't necessarily walk in the direction we want her too!  At 15 months old she is starting to know her mind and indicates she would much rather take the push along trike than the pushchair. 

The other weekend when we were out I noticed all the blackberries in the hedgerows and on the forest floor where looking delicious and screaming out to be picked rather than go mouldy or be eaten by birds, mice or squirrels!  I picked a handful and the train of thought was that my pockets weren't big enough to take any home!  This is when I noticed the bucket on the back of the trike! So Zoe and I picked blackberries for a while and filled the bucket!

Every walk in the forest since has resulted in a haul of blackberries.  So now I have a whole freezer shelf dedicated to blackberries! Now what am I to do with these foraged fruits!?

My first thought took me back to my childhood memories of making bramble jelly with Mom and Grandma. Im hoping to have a go at this next week and will post the results!  There is also a lot of apples and pears in the freezer so a nice crumble would be ideal.  A quick easy pudding we had tonight was Eton Mess style, whipped cream with Raspberry Orange Caramelised Balsamic, blackberries, meringue and raspberry chocolate truffle powder.  It was scrummy yummy! 

So until I get my jam thermometer out here are some pictures of Zoe eating and picking blackberries aswell as the eton mess creation!
 

 

 

Ok now for some reason I can't get the pictures to turn round! So if you know what Im doing wrong let me know!