Man, I’m late with this one. Hedgerows have been thick with blackberries for weeks, thanks to a meterological anomaly of a year that’s brought a heatwave and with it early sightings of autumnal fruits. Same as every year, I’ve been opening drawers to stare longingly at wooly tights, so this turn of events is all too welcome. In mid-August I rolled up my jeans, went off for a walk in search of these gems – with the Myths & Legends podcast in my ears– and was rewarded with a lot of nettle stings but, more importantly, a big bag of blackberries.

During my outings, I’ve also picked a berry with a fat spider on it and stood on a bird corpse. Swings and roundabouts.

To be pernickety, blackberries aren’t really berries at all – they’re made up of drupelets, the individual bobbles you get on raspberries and blackberries – and have also been known as brambleberries, brumblekites and lawers. No matter what you call them, they’re also great in terms of fibre and vitamin C. For me, blackberries = crumble time, but I guess it’s time to branch out…

• Blackberry & fig buttercream cake @ Rye London
• Blackberry and cinnamon Charlotte Russe @ Great British Chefs
• Mini vanilla blackberry-mascarpone cake @ Sweetapolita
• Georgian chicken tabaka with spicy blackberry sauce @ Vikalinka
• Vanilla layer cake with blackberry buttercream @ Supergolden Bakes (I mean…all of Lucy’s blog looks delicious. All of it. Go look.)
• Blackberry and lavender gin cocktail @ Oyster & Pearl
• Blackberry custard donuts @ Wilde Orchard
• Autumn Eton mess @ Great British Chefs
• Blackberry sloe gin tart @ The Bearded Bakery
• Blackberry & basil grilled cheese @ How Sweet It Is