Wild Blackberry Crisp on the Campfire

On my travels, unless I'm staying with friends, visiting a library, or having a rare stay in a motel, I’m camping, so I’m outside the majority of the day and I spend a lot of my time hiking and walking my dog Beau. While I’m out in nature I’m constantly surveying the area around me looking for wild edibles or a new plant I’d like to identify. Wild blackberries are the most common wild edible I come across on my almost daily hikes. They are so abundant along the Northern California coastal area from June to September and they are constantly flowering and producing new fruit. With experience you can easily know how to spot the ripest and those with the perfect balance of sweetness and acidity. I’ve even noticed the quality varies from place to place because of soil moisture, sun exposure and soil composition. I like snacking on them while I walk and I might pick a few to add to my smoothie, oatmeal, muesli, or millet or amaranth porridge that I eat for breakfast. They are high in vitamin C and K and contain significant dietary fiber, even have a little protein and several essential nutrients like zinc, iron, potassium, and magnesium and contain phytochemical components and antioxidants, so add these to your diet to improve your health as well.

Last night I made my first blackberry crisp on my campfire and it turned out wonderfully. I used the recipe from this website. http://www.food.com/recipe/blackberry-crisp-218480 I didn’t have cornstarch and don’t use it very often, so instead of buying a whole box, I substituted instant mashed potato flakes I was so happy to use. Ever had instant mashed potatoes, they are pretty bad, so I was able to get rid of some this way. I hate to throw away food, so now I won’t need to buy cornstarch for a while. Since I didn’t have an oven, I used a combination Dutch oven and skillet, both made of cast iron. The skillet, containing the blackberry crisp ingredients, fits on top inside the Dutch oven with the lid on top. I placed the combo on top of the fire ring grill with coals underneath and placed coals around the sides and on the lid to distribute the heat evenly and make the air around the crisp resemble an oven. Also ahead of time I preheated the Dutch oven while I prepared the crisp in the skillet. I couldn’t peek inside though to see the progress, because of the coals covering the lid, but luckily 35 minutes later, my crisp was only a bit overdone on one side and it all tasted superb. Vanilla ice cream would have been the perfect combination, but I was too full to eat a whole pint and wasn’t sure if smaller amounts were available at the closest convenience store. I’ll definitely be checking next time though.