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| Blackberries Ripe and Early |
Yes,
Blackberries have arrived early, almost everywhere, go and gather yours or simply gobble them straight off the bush. We always get ours form the lovely
Southampton Common, and the South facing sides of bushes ripen first and taste the most sweet.
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| Ripe Plums |
Plums are also ripening on the trees, I spotted sweet yellow Plums falling into the road on my walk to work. The picture shows a reddish orange variety, equally tasty and also falling onto the road in Highfield. |
Hazel Tree
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The sizzling heatwaves we have been experiencing this year seem to have forced many trees fruit approximately on month early this year.
Hazel is almost ready to shed its nuts. Still not quite ripe but near as damn it.
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| Hazelnuts (Early but Still Unripe) |
Where hazelnut harvesting is concerned, you need to be quick of the mark or the grey squirrels will beat you to them. The signs are very easy to spot!
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| Competition with Squirrels |
Another interesting tree that fruits around this time of year, is the magnificent
Mulberry. This marvellous specimen is on the Salcombe estuary in Devon, where we were lucky enough to holiday this year.
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| Mulberry Tree |
We had one eye on the exciting dingy racing - and one eye firmly under the canopy of the tree, as we hunted down the delicious, ripened, juice filled berries.
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| Delicious Mulberries |
Here's a micro quiz for you all! Keen followers of the blog should find the answer quickly. What are these mysterious yellow tentacles on this garage roof? Finding them like this or on the ground should indicate a tasty snack later in Autumn. Answers in the text below.
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| What are These Mysterious Tentacles? |
The tentacles are the discarded flowers or catkins of the Sweet Chestnut tree. Identifying these trees early in Summer will lead you back to a hoard of Sweet Chestnuts, ideal for roasting on a BBQ later in Autumn.  |
| Sweet Chestnut Tree |
