Black Gold

God has more than made up for our cherry fiasco (see last post) by blessing us with an abundance of blackberries. We scouted out "the spot" last year and noted how incredibly many blackberry bushes there were. Unfortunately, they were past their season at the time. But this year we kept a close eye on them and as soon as we saw them getting ripe, we arrived with baskets and buckets and boxes in hand!

The bushes run up and down the banks of a rushing creek, with heavily laden branches hanging down to the water. The berries are absolutely luscious - big, juicy, and sweet from their constant water source.  We have spent several amazing hot afternoons wading in the creek picking handfuls of pure black gold, as Barry likes to call it :)

So far we have frozen 5 gallons, canned blackberry syrup, baked blackberry scones, and just today, I made a vegan, raw, gluten-free blackberry cheesecake. I can't wait to see how it turns out! (Recipe here.)

I thought I'd give you the recipe for the blackberry scones, which were inspired by my brother, Joel.  He suggested the idea and it sounded too good to pass up.  I based it off of this recipe but made mine vegan and with 100% whole wheat - they were really yummy!

Blackberry Orange Scones

Ingredients

3 cups White Wheat Flour

1 Tbsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

8 Tbsp oil or margarine (I used both)

Zest and juice of 1 orange

3/4 cup soy milk

1-2 cups fresh blackberries

Directions

• Preheat oven to 400 F.
• Combine flour, baking powder, and salt in a mixing bowl.
• Add in oil or margarine and mix well.
• Add orange zest and juice, and soy milk.  Lightly mix to incorporate.  Add more milk as needed to create a dough that holds together.  
• Roll out dough into a 12x8 rectangle (I rolled mine on a sheet of wax paper)
• Place berries on the long side, leaving half of the area to fold over on top of the berries.
• Seal the edges and then cut into 8 triangles.  
• Place a few berries on top of the scones
• Place on a cookie sheet and bake for 20 minutes.
• Enjoy!