Fruit Cobbler (Today it's Blackberry!!)

It's towards the end of blackberry season here in the Pacific Northwest. You can see them along every roadside and vacant lot hanging in shiny black, forgotten clusters.

Once in a while you'll see a car parked and people filling container after container with free fruit, but they're so ubiquitous that most people

don't bother.

Friends invited us over to pick blackberries in their backyard a few days ago, berries they had cultivated; much more accessible and easy to pick. (Virtually unheard of in the land of blackberries as hated and uncontrollable weeds)

These berries were HUGE, often bigger than my thumb, and in just a few minutes we had buckets overflowing and purple stained fingers.

My youngest Sprout helped me gently put berries in pint freezer containers, we now have a lovely little stash for later this winter.

We (she!) made Blackberry Cobbler with the rest.
Our recipe for Fruit Cobbler works with most any juicy fruit, you just adjust the sugar for the sweetness of your fruit and your taste.

Blackberry (or any fruit) Cobbler

¾ - 1 cup sugar (depending on sweetness of fruit)

4 tsp. cornstarch

1 cup water

1/2 tsp. lemon juice

a few DROPS vanilla* extract

(*or almond extract if using apricots or pitted pie cherries)

tiniest pinch of salt

Mix cornstarch with water.

Bring above ingredients to a boil and boil 1 minute, stirring constantly.

Add 4 - 5 cups berries or other fruit.

Add fruit to the sauce, and with any accumulated juices. Stir gently.(Peaches, plums, apricots,

berries; You'll need to peel peaches or the skins float off in an unappetizing way. Chop or slice into desired size pieces.)Pour fruit into 1½ - 2 quart baking dish. (an 9 X 12 glass pan or similar, you don't want it too full or it will bubble over). Dot fruit with a bit of margarine (And I usually add a bit of cinnamon if I'm using peaches)

1 cup flour* of your choice

(I like part white and part spelt)

1 Tbsp. brown sugar

1 ½ tsp. baking powder

½ tsp. salt

3 Tbsp. coconut oil

½ cup milk

Heat oven to 400°. Mix flour, sugar, baking powder and salt in a bowl. Use a pastry blender or two forks to cut in coconut oil until mixture looks like crumbly 'meal'. Stir in milk. Drop dough by teaspoon fulls over hot fruit. Cover as much of the top of the pan as possible, it will

spread during baking though...

Bake for 25 - 30 minutes until cobbler top has puffed and browned. Serve warm.

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Two of my Sprouts and I went to Pike Place Farmers Market for Labor Day (along with half the state) and enjoyed looking at the beautiful flowers and end-of-summer produce there.

Glad we got our berries for free!!

My children also wanted to visit the infamous "Gum Wall" on Post Alley which I personally thought was wildly disgusting.

They seemed to LOVE it, I may be traumatised for life. I'd much rather look at fruit and flowers.

Hope you all had a great weekend!!