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I can’t help it.
I can’t waste food, I can’t throw away seedlings that I can make grow into plants for someone to use and I can’t watch fruit in the hedgerows go to waste.
Even if the best blackberries are 3 metres above the ground and you need a ladder to get them.
I’ve got 2 favourite blackberry picking possies (and, no, I’m NOT saying where) and this morning I picked a good 1.5 kilos of perfect fruit.
I get into trouble because by the end of the season, the freezer’s full of blackberries.
(And mirabels. And Morello cherries.)
It’s the same every year.
Just can’t help it though…..
Recipe?
Duck with blackberry and red wine sauce on soft polenta.
Do the duck breast so:
Score the skin in a cross hatch pattern
Heat a frying pan over medium to high heat for 1 minute.
Cook the breasts skin side down for 3-5 minutes.
Turn over and put the pan in a 220ºC oven for 12-15 minutes.
Remove from oven, cover with foil and rest for 5 minutes.
Slice thinly
Make soft polenta as per the packet.
Sauce
Fry a handful of sage leaves in the pan and remove
Pour a tumbler of red wine in the pan juices followed by a splash of sherry vinegar and a punnet of good blackberries.
Give the blackberries a good roll around as the wine reduces to a saucy consistency, then stir in 1.5 tbsp of redcurrant jelly.
Slop some polenta on the plate, duck breast slices on top, sage on top of that, drizzle sauce over everything, blackberries around the plate.
Mainz Daily Photo 
>So where is Mainz DP Friday addition? And BTW, mary and I have been waiting for 3 days for you to arrive. We held a fine dinner party in your…well my honor tonight. You missed a good time. C'est la vie, JB.V
>JB, please do not fall off the ladder, which is what I thought this post was leading up to by its title!Merci for the recipe!
>Wish I knew this hot spots for berry picking! But the recipe sounds delicious I think I´ll give it a try.A portuguese in Mainz.
>@ GuckiSaw your 2 postsRe "doddery greybeard" – I'm getting to the stage where I don't really give a stuff what people think (if I'm not one already)Those extendable ladders at Aldi look like an option…The peasants in Klaa-Winnerum do the same sort of stuff. Can't be blamed – they get sod all and threepence from the Coop
>Stumbled upon the same problem days ago and thought about some sort of pick-up-instrument to pull nearer the branches. Which would in turn make even an active man in his best ages look like some doddery greybeard unable to reach out for the ground. What's even more intriguing: deliberate neglect or waste of fruit by the local peaseants – as seen near Finthen.
>I can just see you in your apron puttering around the kitchen. Whip up a blackberry clafouti!V
>You really are a "foodie," aren't you? This recipe sounds delicious, and your berry addiction sounds pretty harmless, unless, of course, you fall off that ladder.