Blackberry

Portuguese blackberries in August. Photo Filipe Gill

When the Summer sun hits the wild brambles, a small miracle happens: the unkind, invasive, and prickly bush decides to give something back: the sweet, grainy, and ever so dark blackberry. For a while the name of a tech device, this magnificent berry connects us with our ancestors that made a living from picking food from the wild.

Ironically, or not, bramble in Portuguese is ‘Silva’ probably the most common name in Portugal. The equivalent of the English ‘Smith’. So much for the importance of this ubiquitous bush that grows literally everywhere.

Blackberry in Portuguese is ‘amora’ ou ‘amora silvestre’, wild blackberry, and for some reason, nowadays, they sell them in supermarkets. Big, tasteless, and expensive.

So, when mid to late Summer is upon you, go out there, and with the exciting risk of multiple scratches in your arms and legs, get a bowl full of these magnificent berries and eat them raw, or how I like them, in a light compote that goes really well for breakfast on a hot Summer day.

If you don't want to eat all those seeds, you can strain the compote using a wet muslin.

Suggested music:

Cantiga da Burra - Sebastião Antunes & Quadrilha feat. Galandum Galundaina

Based on a traditional song – ‘Cantiga da Burra’ – this song has a great beat and interesting, quasi-celtic use of bagpipes (‘gaita Mirandesa’). The lyrics are about a stubborn female donkey.