Donal Hickey: The blackberries are only mighty this year — don't delay picking them

September 29 is Michaelmas Day and there’s an ancient belief that Michaelmas eve is the last day on which fruit can be picked

Blackberry season is in full swing — traditionally all fruit had to be picked by Michaelmas Day on September 29

It’s a long time since I’ve seen such a bountiful crop of wild blackberries.

Given the weather we had this summer and early autumn, lines from a Seamus Heaney poem are apposite:

Late August, given heavy rain and sun For a full week, the blackberries would ripen.

At first, just one, a glossy purple clot Among others, red, green, hard as a knot.

You ate that first one and its flesh was sweet

Like thickened wine: summer's blood was in it

Leaving stains upon the tongue and lust for

Picking.

Some farmer friends who claim weather expertise tell us the elements this year came just right for growing and ripening blackberries: a warm, sunny June; rain in July and much of August; sunshine and heat early in September.

Observing a tradition dating to childhood, it was wonderful to go back to the fields with a bucket, in heatwave conditions last week, and to find the briars (brambles) laden with a veritable feast of lovely 'blackas', all waiting to be harvested.

In keeping with custom, you immediately eat the first few picked. They tasted exactly right.

Home-made jam and pies will, hopefully, be the reward for honest labour. Remember, blackberry-picking comes with a certain amount of pain, like scratches from thorns and plenty nettle burns, for example.

Bord Bia, highlighting the nutrition value of the blackberry, says it’s best picked directly in the wild while adding that some new, cultivated berries can match the natural flavour. A matter of opinion, perhaps!

Blackberries are a great source of fibre, vitamins C and E, and folic acid

Blackberry is low in energy, fat and sugar and a good source of fibre, vitamins C and E and folic acid, the food board says.

Also abundant this year are other red berries, haws, which are also so much part of the Irish hedgerow. Haws, now competing with blackberries for space on the ditches, will soon take over as their darker rivals fade away.

Haws can be used in medical concoctions, or as food supplements, and are reported to be rich in Vitamin C.

Another red berry that’s been prominent for some weeks now is that of the rowan (mountain ash) tree. So bright, that you can see it from a distance because it shines out. Like all other native trees, the rowan was hugely respected by our Celtic ancestors and is immersed in folklore.

There was an old belief that if you put a rowan branch on the roof of your house it would protect you from storms for the next year, and maybe from evil and witchcraft. Its bright red hue was said to guard against magic.

Mind you, time is running out for picking blackberries, which may be over-ripe at this stage, infested with little worms and could be toxic. There’s another reason to get moving: September 29 is Michaelmas Day and there’s an ancient belief that Michaelmas eve is the last day in which fruit can be picked.