What more could you possibly do with the humble blackberry?

What more could you do with the humble blackberry ( other than actually eating it!)

http://www.forestry.gov.uk/pdf/AH_Marketing_leaflet_2010.pdf/$FILE/AH_Marketing_leaflet_2010.pdf

We packed the bags, threw the dogs in their crate and jumped in the car. Alice Holt is a Forestry Commission run Country Park, where a day’s parking ticket costs £6.50. At 9.30 in the morning there was plenty of parking, but later, on a really busy day in the summer holidays the car parks were all pretty full.

Feeling in dire need of a cup of tea  I decided to be very naughty,  and to let the kids have a lolly to start the day, tut tut. At least filling them with sugar kept them quiet for a few minutes, and gave them the sugar high to get walking with no moaning.

The play area was great, with a large pirate ship, and a nice variety of wooden play equipment. As usual Cat my youngest girl and ET ( my baby) loved the swings, while their older siblings ran amok on the climbing frames.

Our destination was the easy access trail, so Elliot could travel in his buggy, rather than the sling. It was a lovely clear path, which is a mile and a half long. You would expect to do this in a relatively quick time, but as usual my lot took ages and we only emerged from the trail over 2 hours later.

Blackberries rule! and the various uses for them seemed to be the theme of the day. Obviously its fun just to pick them and eat them, but the kids thought that idea was just too simple. The kids started picking them, and Elliot enjoyed having them shoved into his little mouth on a regular basis.  Its just not so adorable when the bigger kids eat one that is not so sweet, and decide that spitting it out is a good option, this usually involves a ton of blackberry juice dripping all over their clothes. Its no wonder they always look grubby!

After they got fed up of eating them they decided it would be fun to splat them, to see how big a mark them could make. Cat chose the stamp on them method, while her brother Aidan decided that throwing them was way more fun. The conclusion was that squishing them a little by hand before the big splat left a bigger and much better mark.

Aidan then decided that it would be fun for us to chuck them at his face, don’t ask! Cat went one step further and  washed her hands in them and then her face, until she used the baby wipes she looked a lovely shade of purple.

This year no blackberries have yet managed to make it home for me to attempt to use them for a crumble or cake.