Have picked 28 pounds of blackberries this year, and could have had many more, but needed the freezer space for other things. Huge and succulent, many have now become jam, but added with gooseberries and blackcurrents to boiling water, they make a lovely kompot. Blackberries have retailed at £2 for 150g in my local supermarket, but are now down to a quid. The countryside has been worth its weight in gold this year.

BTW, avoid picking blackberries near busy roads. Because of their geometry, they are very efficient at picking up polutants.

N.

The blackberries around here seemed to getting towards picking time and looking good but during late August, they all shrunk. Last year was a disaster and it all appeared to going fine this year but now they are small and bitter. The elderberries are all going the same way. They are now tiny.

That's a bit worrying about blackberries and car pollution as our favourite spot is in a service station on the M23 (Pease Pottage).

Something else that puzzles me, is why do greengages, which are basically green all the way through, go dark red when made into jam?