Do you ever want some cobbler or pie, but don't have any fruit? Come with me and I show how easy a wild cobbler can be. The wild apples and blackberries of August and September are great for turning a walk into something delicious! This video shows both foraging and cooking -- from the field to the table!
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I've been scouting out some new places to go foraging. This is a piece of public land - Bureau of Land Management land - owned by all of us. Anybody can pick reasonable amounts of plants and mushrooms on BLM land. It's OK. Here's the controlling statute: www.law.cornel... and the BLM rules: www.blm.gov/pr...
I don't know what I'm going to find, but it's early fall. So I have a few paper bags from mushrooms, and plastic bags and containers for fruits or nuts or seeds. I'll have to watch out for Poison Oak (Toxicodendron diversilobum), but it's turning bright red now, so it's a lot easier to see and avoid.
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One of the first things I notice are blackberries. This patch is all dried up from being in the hot summer sun. This other patch is dried up, too, but look what's behind it -- an apple tree!
Now I've got a plan -- and that plan is blackberry apple cobbler! Looking around, there are apple trees all over the place. So I can be choosy and focus on ones that are in good shape and easy to pick. I need to find a blackberry patch that get afternoon shade. Those berries will be in better shape.
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Right on the edge of this field, I found what I need. This is a good blackberry patch! There are lots of berries! The ripe ones are the sweetest. They are big and black. They've lost that glossy shine, but are still solid.
The containers I brought are not the best, because they have slits in them. But it will work out OK. I'm not trying to pick all the berries, just enough for cobbler.
Because I'm picking for cobbler, and not jam or jelly, I want only the ripest, sweetest berries I can find. No half-ripe red ones in this batch! It doesn't work to grab and pull the berries - they just squish. The trick is to tenderly roll the berries to the side, so they don't get crushed.
It doesn't take long at all to get plenty of blackberries. And I only got a little wounded by their thorns. Not bad! Now it's time to get some good apples.
I saw a good apple tree on the way in. It sure has lots of apples! The ones on the tree aren't quite ripe. But the ones on the ground are just right -- good flavor with a nice tart bite!
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Now it's time for cobbler! Making cobbler is easy as pie - easier, really. The filling is just 2 things: the blackberries and the apples. The blackberries are sweet and the apples give it a little tart snap.
I wash and core the apples, and cut out any bad spots, but that's about it. Sure, there's bugs and bruises. If you were buying the apples, you'd be upset about that because you usually pay for apples by the pound - and who wants to pay for bugs and bruises! But when they're wild apples, it doesn't matter at all. There are plenty and they were free and easy to get.
Wild apples are great for beginning foragers because you already know what an apple looks like. It can be a big step to use fruit that isn't perfect. But when the payoff is cobbler, the adjustment has got to be easier!
I don't peel these apples for making cobbler. They'll cook down just fine. I put the blackberries and apples in a pot on the stove, on a low heat. I crush the blackberries and add a little water, but no sugar. Those really ripe blackberries are super sweet already. I can turn the heat up, as the fruit cooks down.
I put the apple cores and trimmings in my compost pile. And now it's time to focus o making the cobbler crust. You don't have to make a fancy crust. The magic of a cobbler is that even an average crust will taste delicious with all that wild fruit!
After the fruit has cooked down, it's a good time to check out how it tastes. If those berries were ripe, it will be plenty sweet enoug. But really ripe blackberries need something tart, like the apples, to make their flavor jump out. And the apples have the pectin to thicken up the cobbler without adding anything else like flour or cornstarch.
Once the crust is on, I top it with a little sugar and cinnamon. And put the cobbler in a 400 F oven until the crust looks done. I let the cobbler cool off and enjoy eating it! If you want something even better, just add some homemade Peach Buttermilk Sherbet!
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Music: Campfire Song by Chris Haugen from KZitem music archive. Birds in Flight, Lazy Afternoon Sun, and Glen Canyon by Dan Lebowitz from KZitem music archive. Tennessee Hayride by Audionautix is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license (creativecommon...)
Artist: audionautix.com/
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