OUTDOOR LIVING The thorny issue of brambles

SWEET SCOURGE?Without fast-spreading, thorny brambles, there’d be no blackberry jam.?Pic: Ciara Moynihan

The thorny issue of brambles


Organic growing
Hans Wieland

The bramble is the most common fruit-bearing bush in our Irish hedges. A blow-in since 1985, I remember my Irish neighbours literally plundering the road sides and hedges around our house and farm armed with buckets and cans. There were hardly any houses in the wider neighbourhood without blackberry jam or jelly during the winter months.
Then much later, and quite suddenly, there was no one competing with us anymore. We had all the blackberries to ourselves. The excuse most often cited for not being bothered to pick those delicious berries anymore was: “Oh, they are full of maggots, and isn’t that dangerous?” That relates to a folk tradition my neighbour Seamus tells me: “We were told as kids not to eat blackberries after ‘Ballyboggin Day’ – one of the big horse fairs held at the end of September. The old folk believed that the maggot came into them then.”
There’s some truth in that, but if you do harvest blackberries at their prime in August and early September, maggots are not a problem.

Love ’em, hate ’em
Intrigued with our love-hate relationship with brambles, I quizzed staff and students at The Organic Centre, asking: “What is the first word that comes to mind if you hear the word bramble?” Answers included:  ‘Thorny’, ‘vicious’ and ‘a pain in the neck’. Only one, a young volunteer said: ‘Jam!’
I found more love for brambles too: One of our students, Elizabeth, says she lures her friend from Berlin, London and New York to Strandhill on the promise of blackberry crumble from freshly picked brambles. My colleague Tony, who arrived in Leitrim from London in 2001, named the lane leading up to his cottage Blackberry Lane.

A weed or a blessing?
Our blackberry, or bramble, is a native plant and belongs to the family Rosaceae. It comes in many forms – hundreds of microspecies exist – and only an expert could have a hope of identifying many of them. The brambles that line our lane ways and form a large part of our hedgerows are referred to collectively as Rubus fructicosus. Their distinctive arching stems are covered with sharp thorns, and they frequently root along the ground when they touch it. The vicious thorns are well-known to anyone who ever tried to pick the wonderful fruit, which is red at first, turning that mouthwatering purple-black when ripe.
Brambles are a frequent problem, especially in neglected areas of the garden, or under hedges. They can present a real challenge, and I have heard of owners of holiday cottages in remote parts of Donegal literally finding themselves completely locked out on returning after a year – their houses now thorny fortresses.
Brambles appear to have all the advantages over us that a plant could want. Their roots and shoots have an extraordinary capacity to spread and regenerate, the flowers produce an abundance of seeds and the birds feasting on the berries will spread them far and wide.

Taming the berried beast
To keep them out of your garden, pulling the new seedlings, which is relatively easy to do. If they have invaded your garden or if you want to clear a space for a garden dig all the roots up. Contain them in hedgerows where you can harvest the delicious berries and feast on them.

Blackberry wine
Like other kinds of bush berries, blackberries are packed with numerous plant nutrients, such as vitamins, minerals, anti-oxidants and dietary fibres that are essential for optimum health. They are especially rich in vitamin C. One of my favourite recipes for blackberries is blackberry wine.

• 2.5kg of blackberries
• A gallon of water
• 1 teaspoon of wine yeast
• 1.25kg of sugar

Pour boiling water on the fruit, bruise and let ferment for three days, stirring and squeezing the fruit daily. Strain and add yeast and sugar, and let ferment with an airlock for about six months. Syphon and mature for about a year. You’ll end up with a nice dry wine. And a sweet taste of revenge for those cuts and scrapes.

Hans Wieland is training manager at The Organic Centre, Rossinver, Co Leitrim, which offers courses, training and information on organic growing and cooking, and runs an Eco Shop and an online gardening store. For more information, visit www.theorganiccentre.ie. Gardening questions or comments? Contact Hans at living@mayonews.ie.