I was at Gibb's Island, Strangford Lough, this morning, for a spot of blackberry picking. The first crop seems to be small this year. Still, I'm hopeful that it produces a good, rich flavour. I picked three pounds of them.
Gibb's is popular with dog-walkers.
Having concluded the aforementioned task, I made for the fair village of Killyleagh and had a bite of lunch in the Dufferin Arms.
I had a rather good prawn open sandwich with well-flavoured wheaten bread and abundant salad vegetables, including a strawberry or two.
I noticed an old bollard - if that's its name - outside the Inn, obviously an official boundary marker for the Victoria Ward (within the Earldom!) in Belfast.
Next week I make plans for a brief visit to Dublin.
Have finally found a source of home-made wheaten bread in Brisbane! Very good, too. It arrives twice a week - but the lady who makes it has gone home to Ireland for a hol. And the shop keeps Irish flour, which has improved my own efforts at making wheaten. I have suggested that they might look at importing some NI-made flour...
ReplyDeleteDaft one, this: Are there blackberries in Australia?
ReplyDeleteYes, there are likely many thousand times the quantity of brambles here than there are back home, but they don't seem to have the same traditional autumn harvest appeal amongst the natives.
ReplyDeleteSloes grow well here too, but nobody seems to know what they are and if they do, they wouldn't consider sousing them in a bottle of gin.
There was an abundance of sloes growing alongside the blackberries too!
ReplyDeleteTimothy if you aren't eating you are cooking or thinking of eating or sharing your mouth watering eating. I checked out the brambles and they are wind burned. I will have to buy strawberries from Tesco for jam making. What is the point of having all the kit unless one uses it. I am waiting for the neighbours to give me their apples. My trees are still infants. I have the strainer et al for making apple jelly. Yum Yum.
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