What a perfect morning for blackberry picking! The kids and I had our minds on breakfast smoothies today so we headed out to the blackberry trellises first thing. On this bright, low-humidity morning, we had no problem finding plump, ripe blackberries. We snacked a little as we picked, of course! As you can see, the “wall” of thornless blackberries is a dream to pick. The vines provide a little shade and the berries are easy to spot against the dark-green foliage.
After we each had a few cups of berries in hand, we headed back to the house to whip up some quick smoothies. Ella and I have been experimenting with lots of different blackberry smoothie recipes and this one is our favorite. The banana is key to adding sweetness and smoothing out some of the seedy texture from the blackberries. Because we do not add any ice cream or sugar, this recipe can be considered breakfast instead of dessert. There’s really nothing to the prep, this recipe is all about fresh-picked blackberries. Whirl one up and let us know what you think!
A little bit about our blackberry growing system for the plant geeks (like me):
Our rotating-arm trellis allows us to separate the two kinds of blackberry canes as they grow. Throughout the spring, we weave the new shoots through the trellis and clip them to the wires. We clip fruiting vines (floricanes) to one side of the trellis and foliage-only vines (primocanes) to the other side. This growing technique allows us to rotate the trellis of fruiting canes to face the sun before flowering, resulting in more fruitful buds. We are very excited about this relatively-new growing technique here at Eckert’s because it has dramatically increased our blackberry production and made it easier for guests to pick their own.
We expect to have a bountiful crop of blackberries through July. Please check eckerts.com for pick-your-own hours and dates.
Eat well this summer,
Angie
Ingredients
- ½ cup blackberries
- ½ cup vanilla yogurt
- ½ ice cubes
- 1 medium banana, broken into 4 pieces
Instructions
- Blend until smooth.
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