It’s blackberry season. That glorious few weeks when hedgerows across Britain drip with free pudding. And unless you want your kids to remember you as the man who only ever microwaved nuggets, this is your chance to level up.
Sure, you could make jam, cordial, or some Pinterest-friendly tart, but a pie is the ultimate dad move. Big, rustic, messy, and impossible to screw up so badly it’s inedible. Which is lucky, because this was the first pie I’ve ever made at 41 years old.
The real win though? Getting your kids out into the brambles with you, scratching for treasure like foragers from another age.
I took my two into the hedgerows this week. Within minutes they were purple-fingered berry bandits, moving through the brambles like fox cubs on a midnight raid. By the time we staggered home, scratched but triumphant, the tub was full and the kitchen was braced for chaos…
When to pick:
Blackberry season generally runs mid-August to mid-September in most of the UK. Timing depends on sunlight, soil, and whether the hedge is south-facing or hiding in a damp ditch. Blackberries are basically sun-chasing snobs with a taste for good drainage.
Blackberry hunting: 10% fruit, 90% arguing over who saw it first
Four Tips for Picking the Perfect Blackberry
(Stick this to the fridge, it’ll save arguments)
Colour – jet black only. Any red = sour disappointment.
Feel – soft, a little pillow-y, not bullet-hard.
Dullness – shine = underripe. Go matte.
The Release – ripe berries practically fall into your hand. If you’re yanking, it’s not ready.
Other tips: don’t pick from the ground (dog wee) or roadside (diesel seasoning). Higher up = cleaner, sweeter. Gloves help with thorny extraction missions.
Nature’s pick ‘n’ mix
The Recipe
Prep time: 20 mins
Cook time: 60 mins
Rest time: 30 mins
Total time: 110 mins
Feeds: 6 humans-ish
Ingredients
For the filling:
5-6 cups blackberries, rinsed, dried
½-¾ cup sugar (depends how sweet your berries are - generally sweeter towards the end of the season)
1 tsp lemon juice
1 tsp lemon zest
½ tsp cinnamon
4 tbsp plain flour
For the pie dough (buttery edition):
2 ½ cups plain flour (plus extra for rolling)
1 cup cold unsalted butter, cut into ½ inch cubes
1 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
6-8 tbsp ice water
Egg wash (for that Instagram shine):
1 egg yolk
1 tbsp milk/cream
Flour power
Method (a Dad-Proof Guide)
Make the dough
Mix flour, sugar, salt. Add butter. Pulse or rub with fingers till it looks like lumpy breadcrumbs. Drip in ice water until it just clumps, then divide into 2 discs, wrap, and chill for at least an hour. (Alternatively, skip this bit and buy ready-made pie crust: zero judgement here)
Mix the filling
Throw blackberries, sugar, lemon, zest, cinnamon, flour into a bowl. Gently stir (don’t squash them). Let sit 30 mins.
Roll the bottom crust
Flour your counter, roll out one dough disc to 12 inches. Drop it into a 9-inch pie dish.
Fill it up
Spoon in your glossy blackberry mix.
Top it off
Roll second disc, lay over the top (or cut into strips for a fancy lattice). Pinch edges together. Cut a few little vents for steam.
Egg wash
Brush yolk + milk mix over the top. Makes it golden and smug-looking.
Bake
Oven at 200°C. Bake 30 mins. Then cover with foil, drop to 180°C and bake another 30 mins till bubbling.
Cool
Leave it to rest at least an hour (good luck with that). Serve warm with cream, custard, or ice cream.
Final Thoughts
Your first pie won’t win Bake Off. Mine collapsed into a kind of jammy calzone. But kids didn’t care. They’d foraged, they’d baked, and they devoured every last purple-stained slice. Forget perfection. Burn it, botch it, devour it straight from the dish - that’s the blackberry rite of passage.
Perfect is for bakers. Dads do flavour.
READ / WATCH / LISTEN
Big World
Seven years after watching this at a film festival in Sydney, this 12 minute film still floors me. In it, dad and adventurer David Morton takes his seven-year-old son on a week-long paddle down Nepal’s wild rivers. It’s a raw reminder: raising kids isn’t about bubble-wrap safety, it’s about risk, wonder, and a little daring.
