so many things say summer, but few do it as well as freshly picked blackberries. in the south, blackberries aren't hard to find. they grow wild in urban areas as well as rural. luckily for me, i work in a demonstration garden that has several large bushes. on one warm sunday morning, i picked 6 pounds of them.
and just as you would expect, there is no shortage of recipes to use blackberries in. my first task was to cook up a batch of jam. it was easy to do and it only required two ingredients; blackberries and sugar. i kept a few back to use in cakes and the like and i am glad i did. on a recent morning, i had the opportunity to show off the demonstration garden to the first lady of tennessee.
mrs. haslam is busy with the installation of an heirloom vegetable, herb and cutting garden at the executive residence in nashville. she came out to the demo garden to learn about alternative methods of planting and to see the many plants suitable for our area. in this photo, i am explaining the keyhole garden, our latest experiment in the garden.
we toured the herb garden which was constructed completely out of found objects and the beds were filled using a lasagna gardening technique.
our herb garden has many culinary, medicinal and pot pourri herbs as well as a few edible flowers and some herbal tea plants.
the garden is a labor of love (or insanity-you choose) for me. it is where i go every sunday morning. the chance to share it with others is an honor.
my two favorite gardeners were with me, shirley (not in the photo) and ty ann. without either of them and their hard work, the garden would not be nearly as beautiful as it is. and where ty ann goes, so goes bella, the garden mascot!
and any morning spent in the garden means cake. in honor of the first lady's visit, i baked up a blackberry cornbread buckle with some of the berries i had picked. to see the full recipe, visit
food52.com
I will have to remember this cake, and to get some blackberries at the farmers' market. It looks amazing!
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