A Herbalist's Field Guide to Brambles

with folklore & some quaffable recipes to boot.

Many of the folks who attend my herb walks have a deep desire to reconnect with nature. I’m sure it’s one of the reasons you read this newsletter. They’re seeking ways to rekindle lost knowledge, and rediscover what our ancestors knew about plants and how to use them. I personally think it’s a crying shame that children aren’t taught all this at school. However, as the average UK adult can only recognise a handful of common plants, I imagine it would be practically impossible to find enough people to teach them.

Thankfully there is one thorny shrub that virtually every human being on the planet can identify without the aid of a botany book.

At some point in our lives, we’ve all experienced the simple pleasure of picking and eating blackberries straight off the bush. Perhaps this instinct derives from the fact that humans have eaten blackberries since Neolithic times. Even the thorny, whipping creepers designed to entangle hair, clothing and small children, don’t deter us from reaching in that little bit further for the juiciest berries. It’s almost as if blackberry picking is embedded into our very DNA.