[Fergus]

Please share your ideas on where to find certain wild foods and what you do with them. For example, it's the blackberry season – does anyone know anything more exciting than bramble jam and blackberry and apple pie? I'm trying some blackberry and elderberry wine – it looks good so far but the last time I attempted hedgerow wines I ended up with something that was perfect for cleaning drains.

[Ben]

Bleurgh!

OK, here's three more uses for blackberries: ice cream, sorbets and blackberry vinegar dressing - it's a fun alternative to balsamic vinegar for salads. Much, much cheaper than the posh aged stuff ;-)

[Ben]

There is a blackberry vinegar recipe here:

http://tinyurl.com/5kshk7

Not sure if it as delicious as the way my mum makes it, but worth a try...

[beanz]

ORIGINAL: Ben

There is a blackberry vinegar recipe here:

[url=http://tinyurl.com/5kshk7]http://tinyurl.com/5kshk7[/url]

Fergus, just make sure your wine recipe isn't the same as Ben's Vinegar recipe! [:D]

[Fergus]

Beanz – oh ye of little faith. I bottled this year's wine last night (six bottles!). It's a beautiful rosé colour. Couldn't resist a little taste – to my utter surprise, it's good. Very good. Fruity but dry. My wife, who has far better taste than me, wondered if we could crack open a bottle immediately. Now that's a high recommendation.

The recipe came from Roger Phillips' Wild Food (one of the great books on the subject).

[rob snowhite]

freeze blackberries and drop in sparkling wine or make a sauce out of them, remove seeds, and pour into mojitos or sparkling wine

or take the sauce w/ out seeds and make a granita-pour in a tray and place in freezer. every 15 min or so scrape the whole thing with a fork to separate the ice and fluff it up. serve as you would sorbet