I’ve been trying to eat a little better and working out some more lately. When my son has soccer practice, I go jogging along the trails in that area. The trails wind and twist in the semi-wilderness in the back of our neighborhood where the soccer, basketball and baseball fields are. As per usual, even when I am working out, I cannot help but look for food. Foraging for wild ingredients seems to be on the uptick recently and it makes sense. Why leave the spoils of the garden and wilderness to go to waste. Some of these are very tasty and interesting. Two sources I use frequently for ideas when it comes to foraging are Hank’s great blog, honest-food.net, and for a more local source and to id edible plants, Merriwether’s guide.
So while jogging I noticed thorny bushes all along the trail and the soccer field with nice little flowers. I kept and eye on them through the weeks to see if they might be blackberries. Well, I was close. They are apparently Dewberries. They look very much like blackberries, but are a bit smaller. They taste more tart than sweet but the overall balance is very nice. So, along with my son, we picked a couple of pints the other day.
Ice cream came to mind first, but I wanted to eat them that evening and not wait till next day. So, I went with a very straightforward crisp. I tossed them in some sugar and topped them with a streusel made from almonds, brown sugar and butter. It was delicious with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. I was hoping to go pick some more and make the ice cream with them, but unfortunately due to the bad drought we have been suffering from (I’m guessing that’s why) I have not been able to find more than a few here and there. Oh well, the season is over by now, but I am keeping my eyes open for next year’s crop.
