The Humble Blackcurrant

My childhood summer holidays, growing up on a country farm, was all about saving something.

If it wasn't saving the Hay it was saving the Turf.

Essential for the winter months ahead.

Then there was saving the fruit, from the birds.

My mother had ten Blackcurrant bushes (and four Gooseberry bushes) growing in the garden.

And once those juicy wee black berries started to ripen it was 'all hands on deck' to pick them.

Thankfully there were plenty of hands (I am the eldest of seven) so the job was a little easier considering the amount of bushes.

Then we lived on jam sandwiches for our school lunches!

We all love Blackcurrant jam our house and in our first year here we planted three Ben Lomond Blackcurrant bushes behind the polytunnel. And they love it there.

In June I put up a 'fruit cage' of sorts, some wood and a large sheet of netting, to keep the birds out.

And thankfully I had a bit of help picking the ripened fruit.

This was our third harvest and a wonderful harvest it was too, nearly 4kg for jam making in the future.