Nope but it sounds good Hank

Hank, peaches are just coming into season. Go get you a load of fresh summer peaches and make blackberry & peach crumble - its amazing! I haven't tried rhubarb so I can't comment on that. Strawberry rhubarb is popular around here.

But Hank would have to buy the peaches... Blackberry and rhubarb will be fine :) I would also add that a lot of the peaches we get in the UK are rubbish.

Sounds tasty Hank - I've made rhubarb and raspberry crumble, rhubarb, blackberry, raspberry, blueberry and a couple of soggy strawberries crumble, whatever fruit I've got knocking about there's not much left of as a way to use it up. I've also made rhubarb and plum crumble when there wasn't enough rhubarb - all very tasty, but never blackberry and rhubarb on their own.

If you can't get fresh summer peaches don't bother - not the green ones that were sitting around in the fridge for a few months and artificially ripened with ethylene gas. The ones that have fully ripened on the tree and sent directly to market.

Or, freeze the blackberries until the apples are ready - simples!

Ha, ha Bathgate... peaches don't grow in the UK, at least, not as a commercial crop! Don't know if they are picked green or not but they certainly don't 'cut the mustard'. Yet, when I was younger I remember superb peaches where the juice ran down your chin as you at them!

At last I've been accepted - I've been trying to get back to you guys for about 2 hours but they wouldn't have my password, but exactly the same one is now ok ! !
I had a helping of you know what earlier this evening and it was superb, although I must own up to the fact that my taste buds are not all that should be.
I will have loads of blackberries to freeze but it's never to early to have a crumble.
Thanks for your replies.

Moon Grower - I like nectarines rather than peaches, and I have had some very good ones from Tesco of all places - at their best during July and early August, going off a bit towards the end of August, they don't ripen properly as the season wears on. The white flesh one is particularly good

Sad to say even the nectarines aren't what they used to be in my view :( We do get some wonderful Scottish berries but the season is so short. I am also very picky these days it would seem, I'll buy a punnet of apricots and really enjoy them, the next punnet sits and goes bad, unless Bulba tucks in.

Well, yea, I'll admit I watch the nectarines like a hawk, otherwise they'll start rotting, and yea, not the same as those large, juicy peaches given as a rare treat in childhood...

Oh indeed a very rare treat - seem to remember getting one when we were on holiday :) Then, all fruit was seasonal, even apples, and you just accepted what there was. Collecting brambles for pies , crumbles and jam (no freezers). No 5, or is it 7 now, fruit and veg a day then!

I like those little flat peaches best.
Re crumble, rhubarb and practically anything - in winter(using frozen rhubarb) I add sultanas, dried mango, even dates. In summer strawberries and raspberries, but never thought of blackberries as by the time they ripen the rhubarb is going past its best and apples are coming in.

Amazing! and I have a bowl of them sitting on my kitchen countertop.

Rhubarb with a bit of fresh ginger is wonderful too.

Now my daughter lightly cooks the rhubarb then makes it up with raspberry jelly and uses it as a base of a trifle. custard and cream, yum yum

Hank I'm sure you are enjoying all this :)

We are waiting t hear the results please Hank!

I also remember the lovely peaches and nectarines we used to get. And, you're right, Moongrower, the juice ran down your chin. Not any more. Even those the supermarkets say are ready to eat most definitely are not. They don't have the flavour either.

I bought two punnets of apricots last week knowing they wouldn't be ready to eat but they made a delicious pie.

We bought apricots today and they are just perfect... Do miss peaches with the juice running down your chin though.

Mg -those are the Summer peaches I mentioned above and the only ones i eat. They'd pair up nicely with blackberries or cherries in a crumble or cobbler with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

Unfortunately they don't seem to sell the in the UK anymore Bathgate... at least it is years and years since I've seen one. I think part of the problem is supermarkets - they can't cope with a properly ripened peach, the skin is too thin and it wouldn't survive the way they transport them.

They do ripen off in a warm kitchen though - my chin can bear witness to the juice...

really the ones we can buy are so woody it is a joke!

They are like that in winter - never ripen off at all. But the ones we get ripen well over a few days in a warm kitchen , sometimes a week if the weathers cold, and they are definitely juicy then.