Blackberries

One of my very early memories is of drinking blackberry juice, purchased at Ukrops Supermarket in Richmond. It was absolutely delicious and one of the few healthy things I remember loving as a child, which is perhaps why my mom made sure we had it as often as we could. It disappeared from their shelves, but my taste for blackberries has remained, leading to such adventures as picking blackberries at summer camp-- to the dismay of the camp director, who worried that we would get bitten by snakes!

This week, I got some beautiful early blackberries from The Old Farm Truck Market and got to have some for dessert tonight. I had grand aspirations of cobbler but didn't have the patience to wait for them to bake. There would be those who would argue that the very fresh berries should be enjoyed in a purer state so that's what I did.

I washed the berries in a colander, placed them in a bowl, poured some heavy cream over them (not too much-- it should be a good marriage of cream and berries), and sprinkled a packet of turbinado sugar over them. Too good to be true! Get good berries and good cream (I used Organic Valley Heavy Whipping Cream), and you can't go wrong. Macerate the berries in a bit of dark rum if you're feeling adventurous, but they're great on their own. Yum!