It’s a great time of year for enjoying the outdoors, walking the dog, spending time with the kids, etc.
When my other half and I are out with the dogs, we love looking at what’s in bloom or fruiting. Right now on the unmown bits of our regular walk, there are a lot of thistles flowering.
Their seeds are loved by goldfinches and these birds can arrive at fields of thistles in groups of tens and twenties – so look and listen out for them feeding and chattering in a few weeks time!
There are still plenty of common hogweed flowers blooming as well as some which are ripening their seeds in big umbels.
Our favourite bush in August, however, is the blackberry or bramble – so common and abundant yet offering such wonderful, versatile, nutritious and free fruit! If you keep a little box or punnet in your bag or pocket as you go out, it’s hardly any effort to pick blackberries while you walk. We find being in the outdoors blackberry picking to be a happy, mindful and stress-busting experience!
Scatter blackberries on your cereal or salads. If you pick larger amounts you can gently stew them with a little cooking apple (apple thickens the final mixture) or preserve them in jars using a low oven so you can enjoy the taste of summer in the gloom of the winter.
Blackberries make lovely jam or can be added to bread and butter pudding Eastern European style which incorporates seasonal fruit; healthier and more eco than using dried fruit. There are a myriad ways of using them and plenty of recipes available in books or online for more unusual ways of enjoying them. One of our favourite books is River Cottage Fruit every day! by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall (Available from Lancashire Libraries)
We find that connecting with the plants in our local area brings an added layer of enjoyment to our walks. Learning to enjoy and respect nature and wildlife that is on our doorstep and that gives us pleasure, better physical and mental health and even food, is the first step to making us want to protect it. It’s worth remembering that protecting nature ultimately helps protect us, humans, and helps the fight against climate change and biodiversity loss, the two biggest threats our world faces today.